Speaker 1: I know that you often listen to this podcast. Maybe
it's because you like to hear authentic American English and
you find that this helps you speak English a little better. Well,
today it's all about dropping the tea. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight twenty six.
Please drop the tea. Hello and welcome. Thanks for joining
me for another episode of the Happy English Podcast. I'm
your English teacher, Michael, and I'm so glad you could
join me here. Today we're diving into one of those
little pronunciation secrets that can really help you sound more
natural when you speak English. You might have noticed that
in a lot of words, the T sound just disappears,
or sometimes it sounds more like a D. What's going
on there, our native speakers being lazy? Not exactly, There
are some actually interesting reasons behind this. Before we practice
this kind of pronunciation, let's talk about why English speakers
often change or drop the T sound. There are a
few reasons and the most basic is that, well, it's
easier to say. When we speak quickly, we naturally look
for shortcuts. The tea sound can be a little sharp
and choppy, so our mouths try to smooth things out,
especially in casual, everyday speech, and English has a rhythm.
It's a stress timed language, which means we stress certain
syllables and weaken others. So in words like butter or little,
we stress the first syllable and the second part kind
of fades out that tea in the middle it softens
or disappears. And lastly, it kind of depends on where
you are. In some places in the States, in American English,
it's super common to hear what we call a flap tea.
That's when the tea sounds like a soft d, especially
in words like water, better and city. And in some
parts of the US people drop the tea completely in
words like twenty or authentic. All right, so let's break
this down. Here are the four main cases where English
speakers tend to drop the T sound. I'll give you
some examples too. First of all, we have words ending
in ten like t, e, n, st, n ftn and
so on. Words with these endings often lose the T
sound completely like eatin sounds like eating, Listen, hmm sounds
like listen, often sounds like often soften sounds like soften.
Frighten sounds like frighten. Listen to those words again, eaten, listen, often, soften, frighten.
And now listen to this, I've already eaten lunch. I've
already eaten lunch. You'll probably hear yourself skip that tea
in eating. Next up, we have words ending in T
T A N, T t E N or t T
O en. This one's a big group, and it includes
a lot of everyday words like bitten sounds like bitten,
button sounds like button, cotton sounds like cotton, kitten sounds
like kitten, and written sounds like written. Right, listen to
those words again, bitten, button, cotton, kitten. And so instead
of I bought a cotton shirt, you might hear I
bought a cotton shirt. The third group is words ending
in stl E. In these words, the T is always silent,
so we say castle and not castle, hustle and not hustle,
whistle and not whistle, wrestle and not wrestle, So it's castle, hustle,
whistle and wrestle. And now listen to this sentence the
kids were playing near the old castle. No tea sound
there at all. Next, and this one's a bit more regional.
But in some areas of the US, when a word
is spelled with NT, the T sound is usually dropped
like authentic is pronounced like authentic, Gigantic is pronounced like gigantic,
twenty is pronounced like twenty. Listen to those words again, authentic, gigantic, twenty.
And so, for example, there were twenty people there becomes
there were twenty people there, twenty. I'm sure you've heard
that a lot before, right, And one more thing. Sometimes
the T sound turns into a soft D. This is
called the flap tea, and it happens in the middle
of a word when the first syllable is stressed like
butter is pronounced like butter, little is pronounced like little,
better is pronounced like better, and bottle is pronounced like bottle.
Listen to those words again, butter, little, better, bottle. I
need a bottle of water, I need a bottle of water.
I need a bottle of water, but it's usually pronounced
as I need a bottle of water and here's a tip.
When the stress is on the second syllable, the tea
usually keeps its normal sound. This happens in words like attend, attempt, attorney,
and attract. As you can hear there, the tea is
clear and not dropped. So if you've ever wondered why
English sometimes feels different when you hear it compared to
how it's spelled, this is one big reason. The t
sound is flexible and native speakers often change it without thinking. Now,
I'm not saying you have to speak this way. I'm
not saying you have to drop the tea sound, but
if you want to sound more natural, especially in casual conversation,
it's good to notice when it happens and try it
out for yourself. That's it for today's pronunciation tip. I
hope this helps you understand native English a little better
and sound a little more native too. Do you want
to speak English better? You can get more practice using
your English when you join my podcast Learner's Study Group.
There you can make new friends, join us live group
lessons every week where we practice these podcasts lessons together.
Plus you get access to the pdf transcript and audio
download for every Happy English podcast in the past and
in the future. And on top of that, each episode
has exercises where you can practice this English point with
speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more, just
visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson eight
twenty six. Remember, learning another language is not easy, but
it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you on
your journey.
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