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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