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  • Today I'm doing a big video, a lot of content. I hope it doesn't get too confusing. But this

  • whole big video is going to be on one little letter: T. How do you pronounce this letter?

  • Luckily, there are some rules that I'm going to lay out that will help you figure out how

  • to pronounce this letter. At the beginning, let's go ahead and throw out TH and TION.

  • Th can be either the voiced or unvoiced TH sound: thanks, unvoiced, or this, voiced.

  • And the TION can either be sh as in motion, or ch as in mention. Ok, we're done with that.

  • Now let's move on to the T sound. The T can be silent, but we'll talk about that later.

  • In all other cases, there is one symbol used in IPA, and that is tt. However in practice,

  • in real life conversation, you will hear native speakers use three different sounds. First,

  • tt, the official T sound, as in the word 'tap'. Second, what is called a tap T or flap T sound,

  • it is identical to the D sound, as in the word auto. Now in my videos, and on my website

  • in IPA, I actually do use the D symbol here, because that's how it's pronounced in conversation.

  • Auto. Both of these sounds are described in detail, how to make them, in my Understanding

  • the T and D Sounds video. If you haven't watched that already, I do recommend it. And the third

  • sound is the T as a stop. This is also explained in detail in another video, Stop Consonants,

  • if you're wondering how to make this sound. An example for this is the word wait. Wait,

  • where the tongue moves up into position for the T, but then does not release. This is

  • a stop. Wait. In my videos and on my website, when I want to symbolize this sound in IPA,

  • I put a line after the T to signify a stop. So when do you make which of these three sounds?

  • There are rules, and of course exceptions to rules, to help you figure that out. First,

  • rule one. When to make the tt real, actual, official T sound. Two parts, part one. You

  • will make this sound when it begins the word or a stressed syllable within a word. For

  • example, telephone or attend. TEND is the stressed syllable in the word. Attend. Therefore,

  • tt, you do make that real T sound. Second part, if it is part of a consonant cluster.

  • Consonant clusters that happen at the beginning of words or syllables are st-, str-, or tr-.

  • For example stop, strain, tram. Tt, tt, tt, in all of those cases you do make the actual

  • T sound. Consonant clusters can also occur at the end of a word or syllable. There are

  • five that will cause the tt T to be pronounced as a real T. They are CT, connect. FT, soft.

  • LT, lilt. ST, first. And PT, slept. There is one ending consonant cluster I left off

  • that list, that's because it's an exception. And it is NT. When this consonant cluster

  • comes at the end of a word or syllable, the T is pronounced not, tt, as a real T, but

  • actually as a stop. For example, environment, environment. Tt. You don't generally release

  • that in general conversation. There is one other possible exception I thought of. And

  • that is when someone is speaking really fast and reduces something. For example, the word

  • to. It can be reduced to the word tt, with the schwa sound, as many reduced words and

  • syllables take on the schwa sound. But, I think it can in fact be reduced to the flap

  • T or D sound with the schwa, even though it begins the word. For example, if I'm speaking

  • really fast I might say Quarter to three, quarter to three. The word 'to' is actually

  • getting a voiced sound under it. So it would then be the D sound. That is in very quick

  • speech and it's the only exception to the T at the beginning of the word being the tt

  • real T sound that I can think of. But I wanted to mention it. Rule 2: when to use the flap

  • or tap T, in other words, D sound. This happens when the T, either written with 1 or 2 Ts,

  • comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds. For example, mutter. Mutter: the flap/tap

  • T, or D, sound. This doesn't have to just be the T sound within a word. It can be a

  • T at the end of a word when the next word is linked and begins with a vowel. For example,

  • What about me? What about me? The T in that sentence comes between two vowel sounds, so

  • it is also pronounced this way. One exception: the schwa is a vowel sound. But when the T

  • is followed by the schwa and the N sound, the T is not pronounced as a flap even if

  • there was a vowel before. Rather, it is pronounced as a stop. For example, the word tighten.

  • Here the T is between the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong and the schwa-N combination. It's

  • between two vowel sounds, but it is not pronounced as a flap. It is the stop. Tighten. If you

  • can see, the tongue does not change position between the T and the N sound. Tighten. Tight

  • - stop - N. That's why you don't bother with flapping the T there. Tighten, tighten. Before

  • we keep going, let's compare the words 'auto' and 'atone'. In both cases, the T is surrounded

  • by vowel sounds. But do you hear a difference? Auto, atone. In the first word it is pronounced

  • as a D, and in the second word as a T. Why is that? Auto, atone. The reason is: think

  • back to rule 1. Because the T in 'atone' is beginning the stressed syllable. So rule 1

  • is more powerful than rule 2. Even though in atone it comes between two vowel sounds,

  • the first rule overrides it. Because it is beginning the stressed syllable, it is pronounced

  • tt, as a real T. Auto, atone. Rule 3: when to pronounce it as a stop. We've already gone

  • over two cases in our exceptions to previous rules. The exception to rule 1 was the ending

  • consonant cluster NT, where it is pronounced as a stop as in environment, sent. The exception

  • to rule 2, when it is followed by the schwa and the N sound, as in tighten. There is it

  • also pronounced as a stop. It also happens any time a word or a syllable ends in a T

  • except for those rule 1 ending consonant clusters, and except for the rule 2, when the next word

  • it is being linked to begins with a vowel. Examples: about, fitness. There are some words

  • that are just written with a silent T. For example, Christmas, whistle, mortgage. These,

  • unfortunately, just need to be learned. There is one case, I've noticed, where sometimes

  • native speakers will altogether leave out a T sound that does actually exist in IPA.

  • This would be when a T begins an unstressed syllable and the syllable before ended with

  • an N, I've noticed this. For example, interview. Interview. There's no stop, there's no T,

  • there's no D. Also, wanted. I wanted to know. Wanted. Again, no stop, no T, and no D. These

  • could possibly be considered lazy pronunciations, but I guarantee you will hear them. Ok, that

  • was a lot of information that I just gave you. The best way to figure out if you've

  • gotten it all is to simply go over words and figure out how the T would be pronounced and

  • why. So we're going to go through another video that does just that, look for it. That's

  • it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English!

Today I'm doing a big video, a lot of content. I hope it doesn't get too confusing. But this

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B1 中級

アメリカ英語 Tの発音 (American English: T Pronunciations)

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    Sam に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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