ConceptCONCEPTMind Your Future
Part Three · Natural speech · Level B2

Unit 33
The four American T sounds

/t/ /ɾ/ /ʔ/
Worksheet W33
From your coach. One letter, four different sounds depending on where it sits. Once you hear them, you can't unhear them.
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These are the symbols you will see in a dictionary. Click any one to hear it. You do not need to memorize them.

Why this mattersOnly one of them is the t you were taught

The letter t is pronounced four different ways in American English, and only one of them is the crisp t you were probably taught.

If you produce a clear t everywhere, you will be perfectly understandable and you will sound distinctly not American. This is one of the highest-value units in the book for anyone whose target is a natural American sound, because t is everywhere.

The letter t has four sounds, and only one is the crisp t you were taught.

What your language doesOne t, used consistently

Most languages have one t and use it consistently. So you will produce a clean, released t in every position, which is correct in your language and wrong here.

If you learned British English, you learned the crisp t as the standard, and this unit will feel like being taught to speak carelessly. It is not. It is a different target.

Note the connection to unit 24. If you produce a crisp t in thirty, you lose one of the cues that separates it from thirteen.

Common trap

A clean, released t everywhere is correct in your language and wrong here. A crisp t in thirty even costs you the thirteen and thirty difference.

How to make itThe t is a chameleon

Learn the four positions as a system. Each one has a rule you can apply.

One. Crisp t, at the start of a stressed syllable. Top, take, time, today, return. This is the t you know, and it comes with the puff from unit 6.

Two. Flapped t, between two vowels when the second syllable is weak. Water, better, little, city, letter. The tongue taps the ridge very quickly and the result sounds almost like a d. Water is wadder.

Three. Glottal t, before a syllabic n. Button, mountain, written, certain. The t disappears and is replaced by a small catch in your throat, then the n carries the syllable on its own. Button is buh-'n. There is no vowel between the catch and the n.

Four. Dropped t, after an n. Twenty, interview, internet, center, winter. The t simply vanishes. Twenty is twenny. Interview is innerview.

The picture: the t is a chameleon. Its behavior depends entirely on its neighbors.

The way in. Start with the flap, which is the most common and the easiest. Say ladder. Now say latter. In American English they are the same. If you can produce ladder, you already have the flap.

Try this now

Start with the flap, the most common and easiest. Say ladder, then latter. In American English they are the same.

Train your ear

I play one word. Tap the one you heard. No speaking yet, just listening.

Tap play to start.
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Minimal pairsThe two words, side by side

Play each pair deliberately and feel the one difference. This is where the sound stops being abstract.

Say itWord banks

Crisp

Flapped

Glottal

Dropped

In a sentencePut it under pressure

Record and compareSee the shape of your voice

Pick anything above, then record yourself saying it. Your recording appears in red over the model in gray. You are comparing shapes, not chasing a score.

Choose a word or sentence above
ModelYou
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Check yourself

Water, today, button, twenty. Four t's, four different rules. What decides which rule applies?

What is next to the t. Today starts a stressed syllable, so it is crisp. Water is between vowels, so it flaps. Button comes before a syllabic n, so it becomes a catch in the throat. Twenty follows an n, so it disappears.