The Pronunciation of the Letter T

Teacher: Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today's tip is on the pronunciation of the letter T.

Teacher: Of course the letter T is usually pronounced "t", but you may have noticed that in fluent speech, native speakers sometimes pronounce the T as "d". That happens when the T comes between two voiced sounds.

Teacher: Do you know what sounds in English are voiced? Well, there are fifteen voiced consonant sounds in English: b, d, g, m, n, ng, v, dh, r, l, z, zh, j, y, w. Also, all vowel and diphthong sounds in English are voiced.

Teacher: So, let's look at some examples of words in which the T maybe pronounced "d".

1. M-A-T-T-E-R matter. Matter is often pronounced madder, as in "what's the madder"

2. A-T-O-M atom, atom is often pronounced adom as in "the first adom bomb was dropped on Heroshima."

3. TWENTY twenty, twenty is often pronounced twendy as in "that'll be twendy dollars, please."

4. LITTLE little, little is often pronounced liddle, as in "he got a liddle angry."

5. CITY city, city is often pronounced cidy as in "did you grow up in the cidy or the country?"

6. BUTTER butter, butter is often pronounced budder as in "pass the budder, please."

Teacher: When people speak slowly or emphatically; however, they usually pronounce the T like "t" not like "d". Also the T does not sounds like "d" when it comes before a stressed vowel as in return.

Teacher: This has been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.