The American T (part 1) | American English pronunciation tips

4 Sept 2012 · 2 min

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1:49

A short pronunciation lesson by Hadar Shemesh about the American "t" sound, specifically the strong aspirated T as in "time." The speaker explains that 't' is aspirated (a burst of air) when it occurs at the start of a word or at the start of a stressed syllable, gives multiple word examples (time, taste, task, tool, internal, atomic, potential), and directs learners to practice further on the website.

Chapters

The American t is one of the most various sounds in English. Although it is spelled with the same letter, it's pronounced differently depending on its position in the word. Since the t has many different sounds, we'll divide it into a few lessons and today we'll talk about the strong aspirated T, as in the word time. T Time. A t at the beginning of a word or at the beginning of a stressed syllable is strong and full of air. Take taste. It sounds as if there is a tiny h after the t. T T. The linguistic term is aspiration. An aspirated sound is a stop sound that is released with a strong burst of air. T Time Task took Toe Tool Totally terrible. Internal now here notice that although the t is not at the beginning of the word, it is still aspirated. That's because it's at the beginning of a stressed syllable. Internal Ter Ter Internal Fantastic Platonic atomic potential. Keep practicing in this video and also on the tea lesson on my website. Good luck.