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