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Learning the American Accent - Lesson 4

Date: Dec 22 2012

Topic: Pronunciation

Author: andylu2

Lesson

I was talking to a non native speaker yesterday.  He was having a lot of difficulty pronouncing 2 "T" sounds in a row.  What do I mean?  

I'm talking about when one word ends in a T sound and the next word starts with a T sound.  

Look at these 3 example sentences:

"Where is the boat today?"

"What do you hate Tim?"

"What time is it?"

The words that were giving this guy trouble were "Boat today", "Hate Tim", and "What time"  

All 3 of these examples have the same solution. 

You need to pronounce the "T" sounds only once, but a little bit longer than usual, NOT TWO SEPARATE TIMES.  

It should sound soft.  Like this:

"BoaTToday"

"HaaTTIM"

"WhaTTime"

Simply make the first word sound like there is no "T" sound at the end of it, but then make the second word sound like it starts with a loud "T" sound.  I'll make a video on this soon.  In the meantime, listen to how Americans say these words and learn from that.  Let this lesson be a starting point to making you aware that this is a problem for many non native speakers.  Awareness works a lot, the video coming soon will help too.  

Keep up to date on all tips on: Learning the American Accent 

Also, remember to check out my other lessons on English baby.  Thanks for your comments.  I'll keep going here if it's helping.

Here is my last lesson here:  Last Lesson

Comments

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behnaz2468

behnaz2468

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

hi andy.. yes ,,it does make sense..sure..i will do what u said..i hope i can improve it..i will focus on american accents..ur lessons and listening parts are the best way to learn ..so please keep going..i am dying to learn other lessons…thnx for ur reply..

05:22 PM Dec 23 2012 |

Mirwais1983

United States

Just saw your lessons on the Englishbaby. It’s great to have people like you who voluntarily helps others learn something. I have been learning the American accent and I am sure there is a lot more that I will learn from you. One thing I would like to recommend to members is to consider good writing skills as well.

06:52 AM Dec 23 2012 |

1 person likes this

andylu2

andylu2

Canada

Hi Behnaz.  Thanks for your kind words.  For British and American English, it’s hard to say the differences because there are so many.  The biggest differences are the vowel sounds.  Listen to how Americans say “Can’t” and how British people say “Can’t”  That’s just one example of so many.  Then there are so many subtle differences.  


I’d say that the way to learn the American accent is simply to study it directly, and just forget about the British accent.  Don’t pay any attention to it.  (There is nothing wrong with a British accent of course and if you want to learn that, then forget the American accent.)  The point is to stick to one and don’t pay attention to anything else.  I don’t know how to speak with a British accent or an Australian accent, but that doesn’t stop me from knowing how to speak with an American accent.  If you want to learn American English, ONLY listen to Americans speak and pay attention to how they sound.  I hope that makes sense and helps you in your studies.  Cheers.

03:30 AM Dec 23 2012 |

behnaz2468

behnaz2468

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

ur the greatest teacher ever..i have told u ..i have some problems in different pronciation in british and america …i dident pay attention to it from  the begginig and i am very sad now,,because i think there are mixed while i am speaking.. also i have heard some speaking part in the other site,,i mean ur site..they were great..

08:01 PM Dec 22 2012 |

stev12345

stev12345

Jordan

thank you soooooooooooooooo


 

05:42 PM Dec 22 2012 |

1 person likes this

andylu2

andylu2

Canada

Thanks for the support as usual behnaz!  Great to hear this is helping.  Any particular questions you have for pronciation?  I’ll be more than happy to make a lesson about it for you.:)

04:54 PM Dec 22 2012 |

1 person likes this

behnaz2468

behnaz2468

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

thnx u sooooooooooo much…..great as always…....

03:53 PM Dec 22 2012 |

1 person likes this

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