手把手教你学口语t的发音
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
pronunciation of the letter “t”.
Of course the letter “t” is usually pounced “t”. But you may have noticed
that in fluent speech, native speakers sometimes pronounced the “t” as “d”. That
happens when the “t” comes between two voiced sounds.
Do you know what sounds in English are voiced? Well, there’re 15 voiced
consonant sounds in English. b, d, g, m, n, ɡ, z,δ, l, r, dз,з,j,w. Also, all
vowel and diphthong sounds in English are voiced. So let’s look at some examples
of words in which the “t” may be pronounced “d”.
No.1 “matter”. “matter” is often pronounced “mader” as in “What’s the matter?”
No.2 “atom”. “atom” is often pronounced “adom” as in “The first atom bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima.”
No.3 “twenty”. “twenty” is often pronounced “twendi” as in “That will be twenty
dollars, please.”
No.4 “little”. “little” is often pronounced “liddle” as in “He got a little
angry.”
No.5 “city”. “city” is often pronounced “cidi” as in “Did you grow up in the
city or the country?”
No.6 “butter”. “butter” is often pronounced “buder” as in “Pass the butter,
please.”
When people speak slowly or emphatically, however, they usually pronounce
the “t” like “t”, not like “d”. Also, a “t” does not sound like “d” when it
comes before a stressed vowel as in “return”.
This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for
another tip
