The American "T"

• Print this lesson

• Ask Ebaby!

Date: Dec 05 2008
Asunto: Pronunciación

Autor: nad1a

Lección

The American T

The American T is influenced very strongly by intonation and its position in a word or phrase. It can be a little tricky if you try to base your pronunciation on spelling alone.

There are, however, 4 basic rules: [T is T], [T is D] ,  [T is Silent], [T is Held].

1 The beginning of the  word  [T is T]
If the T is at the beginning of a word it is a strong, clear T sound.

1. In the beginning of a word: table, take, tomorrow, teach, ten, turn Thomas tried two times.
2. With a stressed T and ST, TS, TR, CT, LT and sometimes NT combinations: They control the contents.
3. In the past tense, D sounds like T, after an unvoiced consonant sound — f, k, p, s, ch, sh, th (but not T).
   picked [pikt], hoped [houpt], raced [rast], watched [wächt], washed [wäsht]
   It took Tim ten times to try the telephone.

2 Middle of the word  [T is D]
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]-->

If the T is in the middle of the word, intonation changes the sound to a soft D.
Letter sounds like [ledder].

Water, daughter, bought a, caught a, lot of, got a, later, meeting, better

Practice these sentences:

3 [T is Silent]
T and N are so close in the mouth that the [t] can disappear.

• interview [innerview]
• international [innernational]
• advantage [ædvæn'j]
• percentage [percen'j]

If the T is at the end of a word, you almost don't hear it at all.

• put, what, lot, set, hot, sit, shot, brought.
• That's quite right, isn't it?

4 End of the word  [T is Held]

With -tain, -tten and some TN combinations, the T is held. The "held T" is, strictly speaking, not really a T at all. Remember, [t] and [n] are very close in the mouth. If you have [n] immediately after [t], you don't pop the [t]—the tongue is in the [t] position, but your release the air for the [n] not the [t]. An important point to remember is that you need a sharp upward sliding intonation up to the "held T," then a quick drop for the N.

Written, certain, forgotten, sentence:

• He's forgotten the carton of satin mittens.
• She's certain that he has written it.
• Martin has gotten a kitten.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related Lessons:

LEARNING LANGUAGES: MYTHS AND TRUTH

Glue It Up - Connecting Words

How Intonation Changes Meaning

Likes (38):

See all >

Más lecciones de inglés

• How to learn English

•   Hung - exception to the rule

• Speak Business English Like an American

• Phrases or Words We most likely hear!

• Trash Talking

English Talk Forum

• I am luck
• Do you know about the man w...
• Help
• Do you believe in the end o...
• English study abroad
• New word u learnt
• Let`s talk in our own group!!
• Spaek english in skype
• Hello
• How to ask question ?