In natural English, whether American, Canadian and Australian English (mainly), there are various ways to pronounce “t”. And I truly believe it is vital for English learners to be aware of how to pronounce “t” depending on what comes before or after it.
7 ways to pronounce “t” in natural English
1-Aspirated:
Released with a puff of air, normally when it is the first letter of a word such as [time] [tear] [tool] etc. In some cases, when the /t/ is the initial (first) sound of a stressed syllable, such as [dis’tasteful], aspirating /t/ is optional. The IPA is /tʰ/.
2-Clearly heard/unaspirated:
Released without a puff of air, for example, after [s] such as in [stop] [stamp] [stiff] etc but again there are exceptions. Also, some native speakers pronounce the final [t] in the same way. The IPA is /t/.
3-Tapped:
The [t] becomes like a soft quick [d] sound here, usually when it is surrounded by two vowels such as [better] [hotter] [matter] etc, or between /r/ and a vowel such as [myrtle] [fertile] [part of] etc. The IPA is /t̬/.
4-Nasalized:
The [t] becomes nasalized before [n] and often before schwa+n as in [cotton] [carton] [eaten] etc. To keep it simple for you, the learner, the [t] blends in with the [n].
5-Lateralized:
the [t] becomes lateralized before [l] as in [fortunately] [quietly] [might learn] etc. Again, to keep it simple, the [t] blends in with the [l].
6-Glottalized:
The [t] is replaced with a glottal stop often before other consonants. When the airflow is blocked by the throat (vocal tract), it’s a glottal stop. Many native speakers also use the glottal stop instead of the nasalized /t/ before /n/ as in [cotton] [mountain] [button] etc. The IPA is /ʔ/.
7-Omitted:
The [t] is completely deleted in some cases, for example, [last night] is often pronounced as [las night] and [next summer] as [nex summer] in natural English.
For detailed information on the [t] pronunciation, click HERE
Here is a tongue twister that I wrote for you guys to practice. Test yourself. Try to say it all without taking a breath.
Two turtles ate a little bit of bitter chocolate and sweet biscuit from the basket but left out all the well-cooked steak and vegetables.
Can you guess how we pronounce all the [t]s here? Leave a comment and try to point out the manner in which the words in the text above are pronounced (whether the [t] is aspirated, unaspirated, tapped, nasalized etc).
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