t<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nApplying the T Pronunciation Rules\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
That might sound like a lot of rules, but it\u2019s actually fast to apply them to different English phrases and sentences! Let\u2019s test it out:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m\u00a0<\/b>pretty<\/b>\u00a0nervous because I have an\u00a0<\/b>interview<\/b>\u00a0tomorrow<\/b>.\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n\n- Pretty<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Flap T. Double T (TT) is considered a T sound, and it\u2019s at the start of an unstressed syllable here (\u201cpre<\/i>-tty\u201d). Y here is a vowel sound because it\u2019s pronounced as \/ee\/. Since the TT is in between two vowel sounds, it\u2019s a flap T (\u201cpri-dee\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Interview<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Silent T. It\u2019s part of NT in an unstressed syllable (\u201cinerview\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Tomorrow<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Standard T. This is because T is at the start of the word.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That is a stunning photo of a fountain. I heard that the photographer only started learning last year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Th<\/b>at i<\/b>s<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Flap T. Since T is at the end of the word here (\u201cthat\u201d), we have to look at the next word \u2013 in this case, \u201cis\u201d starts with a vowel. The T is then in between two vowels, even if they\u2019re not in the same word.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Stunning<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Standard T. Remember the T rule about consonant clusters? The T here is part of the consonant cluster \u201cST,\u201d meaning we pronounce it as a standard T.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Photo<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Flap T. \u201cPhoto\u201d can be broken down into the syllables \u201cpho<\/i>-to.\u201d T is in between vowels and at the start of an unstressed syllable, so we get a flap T, almost as if we were saying \u201cphodo.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Fountain<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Stop T. The T here is at the start of an unstressed syllable too (\u201cfoun<\/i>-tain\u201d). However, it\u2019s followed by a vowel sound and the letter N.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Photographer<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Standard T. Even though the T in \u201cphoto\u201d is a flap T, it\u2019s not the same thing here. Notice that the T in \u201cphotographer\u201d is in a stressed syllable (\u201cpho-to<\/i>-gra-pher\u201d). This means we use a standard T instead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Started<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Flap T (\u201cstarded\u201d). T is in between R and a vowel in an unstressed syllable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Last year<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Stop T. The T is at the end of the word (\u201clast\u201d), and the next word (\u201cyear\u201d) starts with a consonant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
They might have gotten\u00a0<\/b>lost.<\/b>\u00a0It\u2019s a huge\u00a0<\/b>city<\/b>!\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n\n- Lost<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Stop T because the T is at the end of the sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- City<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Flap T (\u201ccid-ee\u201d). Y is a vowel sound here (\/ee\/), meaning that T is in between two vowel sounds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n
Many English learners spend a lot of time trying to pronounce T correctly, along with other sounds such as L, V, and R. After all, it\u2019s not obvious at first that you can pronounce T in several ways.<\/p>\n
While the rules of English will never be as exact as math, knowing these T pronunciation rules can make it clear why native speakers can sometimes say things differently \u2013 for example, changing T to D in some words (now you know that\u2019s the flap T)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
English can be a weird language. Are you supposed to put an\u00a0Oxford comma\u00a0or not? \u201cDough\u201d and \u201crough\u201d also have almost all of the same letters, but they don\u2019t even rhyme.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":739,"featured_media":249347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"description":"There are several ways to pronounce T in English. In this guide, we'll go over the five main T pronunciation rules so you can sound like a native speaker.","title":"5 T Pronunciation Rules for Clear American English - FluentU"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[685,704],"tags":[],"coauthors":[208],"class_list":["post-179929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-parrot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/739"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249348,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179929\/revisions\/249348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179929"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=179929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}