pronunciation

[Minha]

Hi everyone
How should I pronounce t in this situation ?( I don't know )or ( look at labels)
Tell me what's the rule ?

 

[Odessa Dawn]

***NOT A TEACHER***

Hello, Minha—and welcome to the forum.

A polite request would attract more response than a bossy command.

(Rover)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Hi, everyone!
How should I pronounce t in these situations: (I don't know) or (Look at labels)​?
Tell me, what's the rule?

Pay attention to spacing before and after punctuation marks. See the changes above.

When a word ends with a t sound, you can say it very quickly and blend it into the next letter. You don't have to pause to make the t clear. It will be understood.

 

[Odessa Dawn]

Hi, CB.

When a word ends with a t sound, you can say it very quickly and blend it into the next letter.

Would you agree if I said the next sound instead, please?

 

[Odessa Dawn]

Hi, Minha.:-D

Your question has already been answered. If you are still confused and need more, check this, please.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

When a word ends with a t sound, you can say it very quickly and blend it into the next letter.

Hi, CB.



Would you agree if I said the next sound instead, please?

That's a tongue-twister!

But yes. Sound is a word, so a t before it in a sentence can be said quickly with no gap after it.

Try not to say "the nex' sound." People might think you're drunk.

 

[SoothingDave]

That's a tongue-twister!

But yes. Sound is a word, so a t before it in a sentence can be said quickly with no gap after it.

Try not to say "the nex' sound." People might think you're drunk.

I don't know about that. My dialect routinely drops those kinds of "t" sounds. Even sober.

 

[Tdol]

Some people pronounce it as a 't' and others as a 'ch'.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I don't know about that. My dialect routinely drops those kinds of "t" sounds. Even sober.

Work on it!

=O]

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I don't know about that. My dialect routinely drops those kinds of "t" sounds. Even sober.

PS -

Really, it's totally fine for you to do that. Here's how I look at it:

The posters here usually want to learn standard, customary, comfortable English and American. We can advise them to use our own regionalisms (e.g: Where I live, "probably Saturday" is "prully Saddy, "I saw" is "I seen," andbroken things are "all stove up"), but I doubt that telling students that any of that is acceptable would help them much out in the wider English-speaking world.

 

[Tdol]

The even sober part suggests to me that it is a local and slightly unusual form, and learners may benefit from a broader picture. Many learners are surprised, nay shocked, when they go to London and hear what the natives in parts of that city use, as it goes against the grammar they have studied. I don't see that alerting people to the fact that there are many non-standard forms used by native speakers is a bad thing. Dropping the /t/ in things like next is not uncommon in regions in BrE- a visitor to the UK is very likely/almost certain to hear it. They can learn standard English here, but also the differences found in regions and variants, which I see as a strength of things like forums. When I started teaching in the 1980s, the differences between American and British English largely consisted of a page or two or vocab like faucet/tap, but for the last decade I have been in daily contact with speakers of various forms of English and have learnt a whole lot more about the many small differences.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The even sober part suggests to me that it is a local and slightly unusual form, and learners may benefit from a broader picture. Many learners are surprised, nay shocked, when they go to London and hear what the natives in parts of that city use, as it goes against the grammar they have studied. I don't see that alerting people to the fact that there are many non-standard forms used by native speakers is a bad thing. Dropping the /t/ in things like next is not uncommon in regions in BrE- a visitor to the UK is very likely/almost certain to hear it. They can learn standard English here, but also the differences found in regions and variants, which I see as a strength of things like forums. When I started teaching in the 1980s, the differences between American and British English largely consisted of a page or two or vocab like faucet/tap, but for the last decade I have been in daily contact with speakers of various forms of English and have learnt a whole lot more about the many small differences.

Thanks. That helps.

I try to walk the line between the overly formal or wonky and the too sloppy. It helps a student to know how people of a particular community talk IF the student is told what that community is. It would not help anyone to be told that a pronunciation is generally okay if it's only okay in Jamaica. But there's nothing wrong with saying: "Here in Tunbridge Wells, we always drop those dreary t's."

So I do worry about telling people that dropping them is widely acceptable, when my experience living in many parts of the U.S. has taught me that, at least in the U.S., it's not. And the U.S. is not famous for fastidious diction!

And how much do they drink in Tunbridge Wells, anyway? That question alone should be worth a research grant.

 

[Tdol]

And how much do they drink in Tunbridge Wells, anyway?

A modest pint or two of pink gin before luncheon.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'd be pink if I drank gin before luncheon. Here in Maine, it's Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen's_Coffee_Brandy

Gin's better.