Learn How to Pronounce T in American English

“The tiger was sitting down, but it looked at me as if ready to attack. Even though I’d just drank water, my mouth went dry.”

This is only a couple of sentences, but the letter T appears more than ten times – and it’s pronounced here in five different ways. The T in tiger doesn’t sound the same as the T in water.

In English, this happens a lot. Although English only has 26 letters, some letters can have more than one possible sound, depending on how they’re placed in a word. 

T is one of those letters – and it’s common too, appearing in practically every sentence. 

In this blog post, we’ll unpack how to pronounce T, complete with specific steps and example words and sentences. 

Let’s dive in!  

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The Letter T in English 

Figuring out how to pronounce each letter is probably one of the first things that most English learners try to do. 

When you read the English alphabet out loud, there’s one sound associated with each letter. However, it becomes a different story when those letters combine to form words. Some letters can become silent or even sound like other letters. 

With the letter T, there are three main ways to pronounce it in a word:

• True T
• Flap T
• Stop T

These also apply when you see a double T spelling (TT) such as in words like “watt” and “butter” because it’s essentially the same sound. What’s not included are special cases such as when T is part of the letter combinations TH or TION. 

All of the three ways to say T are recorded in the International Phonetic Alphabet as the /t/ sound, but when you listen closely to native English speakers, you can hear the difference.

Different Sounds, Different Accents 

Native speakers might not even notice that they’re pronouncing their T’s in more than one way because it’s very intuitive for them. However, they can easily notice it in how other people speak. If you don’t vary how you say your T’s, your English can still be understandable, but it won’t sound exactly like a native accent to them.

At the same time, there are a lot of native English accents out there, and even within the same country – such as the US – people may speak English differently. The three variations of T listed here just happen to be the most prominent. In fact, they can make your English accent sound much more North American.

How to Pronounce T

Let’s go over each of the three main T sounds in English:

The Standard T

This is the normal way to pronounce T. It’s the first T sound that English learners pick up, and it’s most often used when the letter T is at the start of the word.

How to Pronounce the Standard T

The standard T is described as an unaspirated sound. What this means is that there’s a puff of air “escaping” from between the teeth. It also has an audible snap to it.

To pronounce it, put the tip of your tongue just behind your top teeth, in the same position as if you’re hissing ssss like a snake. Now try pushing a puff of air out – you should hear a snapping sound. You know you’re close to the right pronunciation if you can feel the puff of air hit the inside of your lips.

Since the standard T is also voiceless, you can put your fingertips lightly on your throat while saying it. There should be no vibrations since you’re not using your vocal cords. 

When to Use the Standard T

1. At the start of a word. 

This is the easiest use case of standard T to remember. Try saying the underlined words first on their own using the standard T, then read the rest of the sentence out loud:

Examples:

• Let’s talk about it tomorrow.
• It’s typical for tourists to go to that area. 
• If you’re in town, I can take a taxi going there. 

2. At the start of a stressed syllable. 

A stressed syllable is the part of a word that’s emphasized the most. This is important because a T at the start of an unstressed syllable might have a different pronunciation! 

Examples:

• The tattoo shop won’t open until nine.
• I asked them to change the mattress in the hotel room.
• To act well, you have to pretend that you’re the character. 

3. As part of -ct, -ft, -lt, -st, or -pt. 

When T is part of these consonant clusters, it’s pronounced as the true T, regardless of where it is in the word.

Examples:

• He’s a doctor, while she’s a dentist.
• My sister practices playing the violin every day. 
• I’m wondering if they can make this part of the program go faster. 

The Flap T

The flap T sound sounds like a quick, hard D for English speakers. For example, the T in the word “butter” is a flap T, so the pronunciation will sound like “buder” instead. You’ll usually find the flap T in between two vowels. 

How to Pronounce

Out of the three ways of pronouncing T, this is probably the trickiest. It might be easier to try pronouncing an entire word first rather than only the flap T sound – you can practice on “butter” or any of the example words below. Try saying it as “buder.” 

When you’ the flap T sound, your tongue will stay behind your teeth while tapping the roof of your mouth, with the tip rolled back slightly. You know you’ve said it right if it sounds like a very hard D sound. 

Note: If your first language is Spanish or Arabic, you might hear this as an “R” because of the similar tongue position! 

When to Use the Flap T

1. Between two vowel sounds

The vowels in English are A, E, I, O, and U. However, pay attention to the sound of the word rather than the spelling. 

In words such as “eight,” the T comes after a consonant (H) if you’re only looking at the spelling. But “eight” is pronounced as /eyt/, with the GH silent. Because of this, the T in “eight” actually comes after a vowel sound, which is /ey/. 

Examples:

• We’ll be inviting our designers and writers to the meeting.
• It’s only a matter of time.
• This tastes better because of the extra water that you added.

This also works between words. The T might be at the end of the word, but it still becomes a flap T because the next word starts with a vowel. 

Examples:

• What is this?
• They wanted to put it here.
• We need to get in soon.  

2. Sandwiched between R and a vowel sound

Aside from the five main vowels, the letter Y is also usually a vowel sound if it’s not at the start of the word. For example, the word “martyr” is pronounced as /mahr-ter/. The “Y” is pronounced as /e/, so we would still use a flap T for this. 

Examples:

• The party started too early.
• We had a hearty dinner with other artists in the area. 
• He was seen as a martyr during the war.

The Stop T

The Stop T often happens when the T is at the end of a word. It sounds more like a slight grunt, with a skipped beat in the word instead of saying T fully. 

How to Pronounce

For stop T, your tongue will be in the same position as when you’re forming the true T. The difference is that the air stops in the throat. There’s no airflow coming through, so the T sound isn’t audible. Still, you have to close or stop the back of your throat for a split second so the beat will be present in the word. 

Don’t mistake it for removing the T completely, though! The T in “mountain” is a stop T, but you don’t say mounain–instead, it’s closer to moun_ain.  

When to Use the Stop T

1. In a weak syllable followed by a vowel sound and a letter N

A weak syllable isn’t emphasized in the word. If we look at the word “curtain,” the emphasis is on “cur,” while “tain” would be considered a weak syllable. We would then use a stop T for “curtain.” 

Examples:

• His partner’s going to Manhattan next week.
• It’s written down there, I think in the first sentence.
• You can draw the curtain for a full view of the mountains.

2. End of a word

The most frequent usage of a stop T is when the T sound is at the end of the word (as long as the next word doesn’t start with a vowel). 

Examples:

• I left my hat somewhere in the boat last night.
• Don’t you hate it when they keep hiking up their rate?
• They want to take a flight to London. 

3. End of a syllable on a word made of two others

A stop T can also occur at the end of a syllable. 

Examples:

• We had an unexpected setback, so we won’t be able to send you the output on time.
• It’s of utmost importance that you get this shipped out soon.
• Is your favorite sport football? 

Once you get the hang of these three main forms of T, your communication in English will be much clearer. 

Distinguishing Between T and Other English Sounds

T vs. D

T and D can be a challenging pair if you don’t use both of them in your native language. These two sounds are regularly learned together because they’re both stop sounds. When you pronounce either T or D, you let out a puff of air through your mouth that’s partly blocked by your lips or tongue. This causes the audible snapping sound. 

The difference, though, is that D is voiced, while T isn’t. With D, you can feel your vocal cords vibrating. There’s also less air blown out. If you put your palm in front of your mouth, there should be very little air hitting your palm when you pronounce D. 

T vs. Th 

When you see the TH letter combination, that’s a different sound from T! In fact, TH has its own symbols in the phonetic alphabet:  /θ/ or /ð/, depending on whether it’s voiceless or voiced.  

With TH, you can either put your tongue behind your front teeth or between your teeth. You’re still puffing air out, but you’re also letting out a hissing sound, unlike with /t/. A voiceless TH sounds like a combination of T and S, while a voiced TH sounds more like D and Z.

T vs. Tion

TION is another letter combination that’s helpful to be aware of. It’s often found at the end of words–for example, “imagination,” “foundation,” and “satisfaction.” Sometimes it also appears in the middle of the word, such as in “relationships.” 

The T here isn’t pronounced regularly. instead, think of TION as “shuhn” instead. The T more or less turns into SH. The word “imagination” becomes “ih-maj-uh-ney-shuhn” when said out loud, while “foundation” becomes “foun-dey-shuhn.”

Conclusion 

Mastering the three main forms of T can seem like a subtle way to improve your English pronunciation, but you’d be surprised at how much of a difference it makes. While you can stick with only the standard T, your accent will be much more in tune with standard American English if you include all three forms of T – not only the standard T, but also the flap T and the stop T.