The Center for Confident American English Communication

One of my very observant students from India wrote to ask why the word “it” sounds different in a sentence than it does when you say it alone. Here is my response: When we say the word “it” in a sentence the sound of the T changes. The location of the T within a word

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People often ask me, “Why does the ‘t’ sound different in the middle of American English words?” Here is the answer… In American English a ‘t’ in the middle of a word often sounds more like a quick /d/. This quick /d/ sound is called a tapped t and it occurs frequently in spoken American

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When you are listening to American English speakers you may have noticed that when the letter “t” is in the middle of a word it often has a /d/ sound. Pronunciation teachers call this sound the flap or the tapped T because when we make this sound we slightly flap or tap our tongues behind

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