T

American
Pronunciation
Instructor Claudia Jiménez De la Hoz
Workshop Nodo Multilingüismo 2020
Tomatoes
Any favorite
 English
word
spelling t ?
Voiced sounds: Voiceless Vocal cords vibrate. Examples:
b, d, g, l, m, r, vowels

sounds: Vocal cords don’t vibrate.

Examples: f, k, p, s, t
Stressed MECHANICAL

SYLLABLES Unstressed Stressed syllables will be higher in pitch, longer in duration,

and generally a little louder than unstressed syllables.

OPINION voiced (flap /t/)

RETURN T
voiceless The British pronounce:
Americans pronounce:
Water
Water Better
Better Butter
Butter

Costeño
example of R American
pronunciation tiene que enroscá la lengua
…y tal con las guerls, adentro'e la boca como una
guerls, guerls… ejtera:
Juliao
guerls, guerls… El Pachanga. David Sánchez
 But…when 3. matter master
does /t/ sound like /r/ ?
1. forty fourteen ▪ /r/ comes at the beginning of an
unstressed syllable ▪ Position between
two voiced sounds
2. atom atomic

1. In regular past-tense verbs ending in /t/

and past participles -ate: educated, related -ite: excited,
invited -ute: contributed -ete: completed

-ote: voted -eat: repeated

2. Comparative and ending in /t/ Neater

Superlative -er -est
forms of Greater Smarter Shortest Brightest
adjectives Sweetest

Voiced /t/ occurs not only within words

but also across word Not at all
boundaries
What + are: What are you

doing? What + (h)ave: What Two

have you studied? Get + in:
When did you get in? A lot of
volunteers
Betty: Peter, what are you doing
tonight? Peter: Nothing exciting, Betty.
What about you?
Betty: Well, Sally and I are meeting Find the voiced /t/ (flap)
some students from our class at a Example: He waited for me on the corner.
restaurant downtown. Can you come?
What are we going to do today? Well, we’re
Peter: What time? starting with a quiz. You won’t have to do any
Betty: Oh, about eight o’clock. actual writing, but you will have to recognize
the flaps in this piece of writing. This is an
Peter: Sounds great! A lot better than activity to help you analyze a part of
eating at home! Thanks for inviting me. pronunciation in English. But if you have
trouble finding flaps, then what is the best
strategy for completing the quiz? First, it
would be a great idea if you located the
Another one? occurrences of t and then decided if the two
conditions apply. Of course, you may find a letter t’s. It’s not really so complicated. I
lot of t’s that are not at all pronounced like believe in your capability. Good luck!
/r/. I hope you won’t get upset about all the

Thanks
for your
participation!