How to pronounce the "d" sound of Cold, Gold.....

Dear all,

I am not clear how to pronounce the "d" sound of the words with "d" at the end. For example "Cold", "Gold", "Avoid", "Pod"....so on and so on, I understand how to pronounce the "d" sound in the word correctly, but when I hear native speakers and talking dictionaries to speak these words, sometimes the sound would be changed to "t" sound, not the "d" sound, could any people explain this to me? Thanks.

EngFan

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Originally Posted by EngFan

Dear all,

I am not clear how to pronounce the "d" sound of the words with "d" at the end. For example "Cold", "Gold", "Avoid", "Pod"....so on and so on, I understand how to pronounce the "d" sound in the word correctly, but when I hear native speakers and talking dictionaries to speak these words, sometimes the sound would be changed to "t" sound, not the "d" sound, could any people explain this to me? Thanks.

EngFan

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Well, to make the d sound, put your tongue on the alveolar ridge ( it's the hard bump just behind your upper front teeth). When you say cold, it's like /kOUld/.
First, make the k sound by raising your back of the tongue to touch the soft palate. next, make the OU diphthong sound.( there are 2 type of OU sound, i.e
British and American type. I'll teach you the first one as there's many british speaker here. The British one is the combination of /ə/ as in "ago" and /ʊ/ sound as in ''Book''. Next, to make the /l/ sound, do the same as you make the t and d sound. (That's what I've been told).

but when I hear native speakers and talking dictionaries to speak these words, sometimes the sound would be changed to "t" sound, not the "d" sound, could any people explain this to me?

As for this question, I can hardly tell you because I'm not a native speaker. I'm just a learner like you. Can you give me some example about that situation? Probably I can answer you WHY.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EngFan

Dear all,

I am not clear how to pronounce the "d" sound of the words with "d" at the end. For example "Cold", "Gold", "Avoid", "Pod"....so on and so on, I understand how to pronounce the "d" sound in the word correctly, but when I hear native speakers and talking dictionaries to speak these words, sometimes the sound would be changed to "t" sound, not the "d" sound, could any people explain this to me? Thanks.

EngFan

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Regardless of how it sounds to you, the sound is a /d/, not a /t/.
Pronounce it /d/.
(The /d/ after a dark /l/ in 'gold' etc. can sound a bit t-ish, but if you say /t/ as in 'colt' people will not understand you.)
"I have a colt" means you have a young horse, not a viral infection.

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Originally Posted by Raymott

Regardless of how it sounds to you, the sound is not a /d/, not a /t/.
Pronounce it /d/.
(The /d/ after a dark /l/ in 'gold' etc. can sound a bit t-ish, but if you say /t/ as in 'colt' people will not understand you.)
"I have a colt" means you have a young horse, not a viral infection.

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Thank you very much for answering my question, that means /d/ after a dark /l/ will have different pronounciation to the normal one, I also learnt the term of dark /l/, I heard this before but I didn't know what it is...thanks again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EngFan

Thank you very much for answering my question, that means /d/ after a dark /l/ will have different pronounciation to the normal one, I also learnt the term of dark /l/, I heard this before but I didn't know what it is...thanks again.

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Sorry, I meant to write: It is a /d/, not a /t/.
Yes, it might sound different, but that doesn't mean you have to try to pronounce it differently. You can say the same sound the same way many times, and it will always sound a little different depending on the surrounding phonological context.

Maybe you're hearing unreleased Ds?

The T and D Consonants | Rachel's English