Pronounce 'ct' sound at the end of the word?

[Williamyh]

Hi Everybody,

Many English words with 'ct' at the end, in the phonetics symbol it writes as kt, I was wondering if we REALLY need to pronounce the k sound in daily life, cos when I watch native speakers speak the following words, they seem just to pronounce as contact ˈkɒn tæt,perfect pə ˈfet,object ˈɒb dʒet without k sound but in dictionaries which indicate us to pronounce contact ˈkɒn tækt, perfect pə ˈfekt,object ˈɒb dʒekt with k sound, please advise. Thanks


W

[meobeo]

Hi Everybody,

Many English words with 'ct' at the end, in the phonetics symbol it writes as kt, I was wondering if we REALLY need to pronounce the k sound in daily life, cos when I watch native speakers speak the following words, they seem just to pronounce as contact ˈkɒn tæt,perfect pə ˈfet,object ˈɒb dʒet without k sound but in dictionaries which indicate us to pronounce contact ˈkɒn tækt, perfect pə ˈfekt,object ˈɒb dʒekt with k sound, please advise. Thanks


W

I'm fairly sure that British people do say "kt" and so do the majority of people in the U.S. The reason you felt that they only said "contact" without the k sound was probably because you heard it on TV. Try listening to those words again with headphones or to a real person speaking, I think you'll see the difference.

[Raymott]

Hi Everybody,

Many English words with 'ct' at the end, in the phonetics symbol it writes as kt, I was wondering if we REALLY need to pronounce the k sound in daily life, cos when I watch native speakers speak the following words, they seem just to pronounce as contact ˈkɒn tæt,perfect pə ˈfet,object ˈɒb dʒet without k sound but in dictionaries which indicate us to pronounce contact ˈkɒn tækt, perfect pə ˈfekt,object ˈɒb dʒekt with k sound, please advise. Thanks


W

Again, the unvoiced velar plosive /k/ is usually made, but not necessarily released. The back of the tongue rises to the back of the palate for /k/, but it often isn't released until the tip of the tongue releases /t/ at the alveolar ridge.

This also happens with the /pt/ of "concept, contempt", etc. where the bilabial plosive /p/ is not released until the /t/ is.

[konungursvia]

So you should not consider it something you can skip over.

[BobK]

There are dialects where the end of the consonant cluster is dropped. This is non-standard. The spelling 'perfick' is a common 'eye-dialect' rendition of this tendency.

b

[konungursvia]

But if you've ever taught Asian students you might have noticed they have trouble believing we pronounce final consonants so faithfully, and often assume they can be skipped or at least devoiced. "Do you eat crap?" asked one colleague at a seafood restaurant.