Unit 4.5 d / t - PurlandTraining.com

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Did you know that the consonant sounds d and t are the most difficult sounds for native speakers of English to pronounce in fast speech? That is why we always delete t in CC connections and often delete d too.
Which sounds do you find difficult to pronounce in English? Which sounds are the most difficult for native speakers in your L1?

Practice saying the phrases on slide 7 out loud.
Practice the phrases on slide 9 out loud. Note that ‘and’ becomes simply a schwa sound followed by n. Write and practice saying out loud five more phrases where ‘and’ is similarly reduced.
Find a short real text and count how many times the t sound is present at the end of words. Count the words in the text and work out the percentage of words with t at the end. (For example, in the previous sentence that number is 4 times out of 17 words, giving us a percentage of 24% – almost a quarter. 3 out of 4 will be deleted due to CC connections, while the phrasal verb ‘work out’ is, typically, a CV connection.)
Write short phrases with function and content words ending with t – for example, the words on slide 10 (or the handout below). Practice saying them out loud. See how long the phrases can get with CC connections and t at the end of each syllable. Add glottal stops when necessary. For example, ‘that quiet fat cat just sat…’ Practice saying them out loud – deleting t at the end of each syllable.
Practice the phrases on slide 11. Differentiate between CV connections – d remains – and CC connections – d changes to t.

Slide 7: ‘phoned my’ becomes ‘phone tmy’. In Lesson 6 – Deleting Sounds we discover that t is usually deleted in a blend (‘-nd’), rendering this phrase as: ‘phone my’. It is possible to say both ‘phone tmy’ and ‘phone my’, but the latter may be more common in fast speech.