Examples: how to pronounce T: American English Pronunciation

[oneloveyalls]

how do u pronounce quarter i play football and i always have to say QB instead of quarter back people in my team now know that and are making fun of me help!!

[rachelsenglish]

@oneloveyalls Make the T a flap T!

[oneloveyalls]

@rachelsenglish thankyou!

[inblank]

Dear T, I hate you. You're more complicated than I thought! u_u

[TriggerExDude]

It took you a 10 minute video to explain how to pronounce T?

[cecygerardway]

hi rachel,I have a question. How do you pronounce the T sound in words like wanted, twenty. I mean how do you pronounce the T when it comes after the N sound, because I heard some people pronounce it like a D sound.

[rachelsenglish]

@cecygerardway I've not heard it pronounced as a D in these situations, but it is pretty common to leave the T out in words like twenty, center, interview. I have a video on the numbers 11-20 that goes over that pronunciation.

[cecygerardway]

@rachelsenglish thank you so much, rachel, I´m from Argentine and your videos helped me a lot, at the university where I go we study british english and I don´t like it, but fortunately I found your videos some day and they were really useful to me, now I have to chanche my english pronunciation a lot but with your help it will be easier :) greetings from Argentine.

[kikaMAGRI]

great lesson thank you so much, but the pronunciation still difficult for me :(

[om551]

@kikaMAGRI  me too

[paulohlcoelho]

Your videos are great! But why the second T in "attiTude" isn't flapped? It's between two vowels and in an unstressed syllable, isn't it?

[rachelsenglish]

@paulohlcoelho There is a secondary stress on the TUDE syllable, so it would be attiTude. :) Good question.

[xThorProductionsx]

Best tutorial ever, I wasn't expecting to found something like this. Subscribed :)

[foffo4ever]

You're fantastic girl!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

[foffo4ever]

You're fantastic girl!!! Thank you from the bottom (pronounce: D LOL) of my heart!!! :D

[Elviss001]

Thankyou so so much

[1987host]

i learned more here than i did in school

[zethiopia]

thank you so much

[agostinho1234]

pretty good and easy to understand. keep with the good work!

[17darkbeat]

Thanks, really helped me alot! One question: Do you have a southern american accent video?

[rachelsenglish]

@17darkbeat Hi There, I don't have any videos on the Southern accent.

[x3iDREAM]

I'm learning American English rven though I'm living in a country(Singapore) where Brtish English is commonly is. It's gonna be hard to communicate

[naterkane]

i (of course) flap my T's with words like water, and confusingly, my name, Nater. As a result, I'm constantly having to spell it (or explain it's spelling) to someone after they ask my name.

me: "Hi I'm Nater"

them: "Is that N A D E R?"

me: "No, it's as if i am 'more Nate' than other people named Nate. It's like an adjective that's actually just my first name".

I have a very difficult time not flapping the T in my name. What do you think I might be able to do to pronounce it more clearly?

[rachelsenglish]

@naterkane Hi Nater -- yes, if you pronounce a true T, people won't wonder about the spelling. But it would be the tendency of Americans to pronounce that T as a D. The problem is it's a name that isn't normal to Americans. My mom is named Rita, for example, where a T falls between 2 vowels, and she pronounces it as a D. However, because it is a known name to Americans, there is no confusion.

In short, there is no way to 'pronounce it better'. Either say it with D and spell it, or say it

[rachelsenglish]

@rachelsenglish with a true T. It's really up to you.

[naterkane]

@rachelsenglish i'm originally from maryland (but thankfully don't sound like it), and have been in new york for a little over a decade. for the most part, i've always taken a little pride in sounding as non-regional as possible. i'm just a guy with an uncommon name.

i've just always struggled with my flapping my T's with words like water, starter and my own name.

[TheAntonioPinto]

THUMBS UP IF YOU GOT THEM ALL RIGHT!!

[rachelsenglish]

@TheAntonioPinto :)

[3reeeg]

this is the best explanation that i found till now ,,

but i still have a problem with this word ,,, water !!

[rachelsenglish]

@3reeeg That's a tough word!!!

[ahmedalyaf3i]

thats useful

[YOUMACNTOSH]

Hi Rachel forgive my bad english, I'm from Brazil and I'm student of english and my english is basic.

Your videos are very good, congratulations, but in case of T sound for us brazilians in words like BETTER we hear R and not D sound, it's difficult to try pronounce this word speaking with D sound, why we hear R sound.

[malola49]

Dear Rachel...from Venezuela....Thanks for you explanation...I'm learning english pronunciation is very difficult...I'm learning very well with you...You are very didactic.....Congratulations.

[karenlsu]

Wowwww.... I got it finally. This is awesome!!

[jerryhsi005]

Hi Rachel. I'm wondering if there is another acceptional case that /t/ or /d/ will not be pronounced. Cos I hear ''Id is no(t) about...''.Maybe it's just my misunderstanding... What about ''I don't know whad id is'' .It seems to me to be strange.

[rachelsenglish]

@jerryhsi005 Hi Jerry - in both examples you gave, you will most likely hear the D sound as the T comes between two vowels. If you ever don't hear the T or D, like in my most recent video 'spread the word', you might not hear the D of spread in the sentence, it is not left out all together. The tongue still moves into position before coming through the teeth for the TH -- it is not 'spreh the word'.

[cruel2003]

how do we pronounce substitution- substitute, these are pretty hard

[E4gle25]

Hi rachel Your videos helped me alot. Thank you very much.

I was wondering how to pronounce the British word and i'll apreciate you help me thanks again.

:)

[Clepsidra16]

Hi Rachel. In 9:36 the phrase I was sent home is written in IPA aɪ wəs sɛnt hoʊm, linking wəs and sɛnt, but in all dictionaries "was" is written in IPA as wəz when is unstressed, with a z as the last sound and i don't hear a z sound when you speak. Is there a treaky linking rule in here?

[rachelsenglish]

@Clepsidra16 Hi - good question.  Yes, as a stand alone word, 'was' would be [wʌz] or [wəz]. Because it is linking to a word that begins with an S however, the unvoiced version of the z sound, the Z just gets turned into and S sound in everyday speech, which is quite fast. You won't hear the s as a separate sound, you will just hear it as the S in sent.

[amitsahni58]

tell easy method for t sound

[amitsahni58]

respected angel will you tell me the easy method for t sound .when i used to speak t sound its not like up to the mark as american itself .i am not getting where my minus point iam highly grateful to you .in your busy life you are giving your precious time for our email

[arh138]

Dear Rachel

Thanks so much. You are the angel. You are the best teacher in the world.

Sincerely yours

[rachelsenglish]

@arh138 You're welcome!

[snaveedimran]

Rachel, you are the best teacher I ever had. Thanks

[willbali64]

Hi Rachel,

Thanks so much for your videos! I am wondering where we can find transcripts of these videos or podcasts?

Thanks again.

[rachelsenglish]

@willbali64 You're welcome! The transcript for each video is the first link in the description of the video, which will appear underneath the video as you watch. Look for TRANSCRIPT:

:)

[joselogabo]

Your videos are helping me a lot to get rid of my accent!!!! Thanks....

[rachelsenglish]

@joselogabo Excellent! I'm glad to hear it.

[maximinx]

I have a question for you: how do you pronounce the first "t" in the sentence "I sent it"?

[aɪ sɛnt| ɪt] (T pronounced as a stop) or [aɪ sɛnt ɪt] (normal T linked to the next word) or [aɪ sɛn ɪt] (silent T)?

[rachelsenglish]

@maximinx If I was speaking at regular speed, for example "I sent it yesterday", I would definitely not release the T, so it would be a stop, and the most stressed word of the sentence would be yesterday. If I was saying just "I sent it", especially if I was really stressing the word 'sent', then I probably would release the T.

[maximinx]

@rachelsenglish Thanks a lot for your answer!

[MsSheila541]

Great Video, perfect pronunciation. I hope I will manage it one day to speak as fluently as you do. Thank you for your help.

[maximinx]

Excellent Video. Thanks so much.

BTW, why didn't you upload your "T pronunciations" video here on Youtube?

[rachelsenglish]

@maximinx I tried, but it rejected it b/c it was too long ... I'll have to be extra careful to keep them under 10 minutes!

[maximinx]

@rachelsenglish I see. I thought the maximum length was 15 minutes. (It says so on the upload page.) But on another page, it says a video must be less than 10 minutes.

[funfurfreak]

@4:50 Thank you so much for answering my query!! You're the best!

[rachelsenglish]

@funfurfreak You're welcome!!

[jys365]

Concise explanations, Thanks!

[07Gamboa]

very good