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13-Jun-2009, 04:01
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Jun 2009 Country: Brazil
Posts: 572
Current Location: Brazil First Language: portuguese Member Type: English Teacher | |  pronunciation of two, too and to
How do we pronounce the words "two", "too" and "to". Are there differences? |
13-Jun-2009, 06:12
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Country: US
Posts: 99
Current Location: US First Language: English Member Type: English Teacher | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
We say them all the same way. |
15-Jun-2009, 20:02
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Jun 2009 Country: Brazil
Posts: 572
Current Location: Brazil First Language: portuguese Member Type: English Teacher | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
Are you sure they pronounce all the same? I need to give a class on that subject. I thought "too" sounded a little longer than "two" for instance.
How is the phonetic transcription for these words? |
15-Jun-2009, 21:58
|  | Key Member | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Country: Canada
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Current Location: Toronto First Language: English Member Type: Academic | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
All the same: [tu]. | | The Following User Says Thank You to konungursvia For This Useful Post: | |
16-Jun-2009, 10:53
|  | Moderator | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Country: England (South East)
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Current Location: England (South East) First Language: English Member Type: English Teacher | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
 , with one proviso: all the same when unstressed*:
'The journey to the conference was fine, but coming back the traffic was terrible.'
(Stressed: /tu:/.)
'I've been to London many times.'
(Usually unstressed: /tə/.)
'Too' is of its nature stressed, and I can't imagine an unstressed form of 'two'. These two are pronounced the same. But in 'There were too many to count' there are two pronunciations - except in the case of contrastive stress (for example, correcting a misplaced preposition; Language learner: "There too many for count"/Corrector: "You mean 'There were too many to count.'"
b
PS Academic students of linguistics may find my use of "/" confusing; it's not right, I know, but it's what most language learners use (in my experience  )
PPS  * My first 'unstressed' should have been preceded by 'not' or 'unless'. Still, my point was clear.
Last edited by BobK; 16-Jun-2009 at 13:49.
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16-Jun-2009, 12:26
| | Key Member | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Country: Canada
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Current Location: Toronto First Language: English Member Type: Academic | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
Ooh, good point Bobk. |
19-Jun-2009, 14:00
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Jun 2009 Country: Brazil
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Current Location: Brazil First Language: portuguese Member Type: English Teacher | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
Ok guys, thank you very much for your help. All your tips were very useful, the class I gave focusing on the subject was fine.
However, as I researched more on the subject, another doubt occurred to me:
The sound /t/ in English. For example, we know there is a difference on the
beginning /t/ sound of the words 'to' and 'tooth'. However on the phonetic
transcriptions for these words which I found, the /t/ sound was the same.
Is there a differente phonetic symbol for these two /t/ sounds?
Another examples:
tea X teeth - tomato X two - top X today - took X tomorrow |
19-Jun-2009, 16:35
|  | VIP Member | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Country: Australia
Posts: 6,393
Current Location: Brisbane First Language: English Member Type: Academic | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
Quote:
Originally Posted by ymnisky  the sound /t/ in english. For example, we know there is a difference on the
beginning /t/ sound of the words 'to' and 'tooth'.
we do? Who told you that?
however on the phonetic
transcriptions for these words which i found, the /t/ sound was the same.
Is there a differente phonetic symbol for these two /t/ sounds?
there is only one sound, represented in IPA as [t]. It's an unvoiced alveolar plosive.
another examples:
Tea x teeth - tomato x two - top x today - took x tomorrow
all [t].
| r. |
19-Jun-2009, 16:41
| | Moderator | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Country: England (South East)
Posts: 7,648
Current Location: England (South East) First Language: English Member Type: English Teacher | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
No* - an initial "t" makes the sound [t] With some consonants the place of articulation of the consonant varies with the following vowel: the difference is slight, and it's not worth bothering language students with it, but - for example - the /k/ phoneme produces slightly different sorts of [k] in the words 'keep' 'call' 'car' 'cool' 'Kyle' 'kill' and so on (because /k/ is a palatal consonant, and the palate is in a different position because of the following vowel in each case).
But this isn't so with the /t/ phoneme; it's a dental, and the teeth (usually!) stay where they are.
b
*This was addressed to the post before Raymott's | | The Following User Says Thank You to BobK For This Useful Post: | |
19-Jun-2009, 21:17
| | VIP Member | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Country: Australia
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Current Location: Brisbane First Language: English Member Type: Academic | | Re: pronunciation of two, too and to
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK
But this isn't so with the /t/ phoneme; it's a dental, and the teeth (usually!) stay where they are.
| I'm pretty sure the English [t] is an alveolar plosive, not a dental. That's the way I say it.
Dental [t] occurs in some languages, such as Hindi, which has त and थ as dental [ta] and [tha] to contrast with their retroflex [t]s.
But a good English [t] goes nowhere near the teeth, nor retroflexively. | | The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Raymott For This Useful Post: | | | |
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