Here are the next two consonant sounds
we're going to master: /d/ as in 'do' and /t/ as
in 'to'. So this pair, like many other
consonant sounds we've covered, features
one voiced and one unvoiced sound. Which one do you think is the voiced sound? Have a
listen: /d/ /t/
That's right it is the first sound. Put
your hand over your throat and produce
the sound /d/ /d/ as in do. The second
sound is unvoiced /t/ /t/ Now what part of
the mouth do we use? How do we use the
tongue to actually produce these sounds?
What we do is the tongue is pushed up
against the top of the mouth just behind
the teeth and we block the air.
Suddenly, then we pull the tongue down to
release the air and this is what
produces the sound. So you have a try
feel your tongue. Feel where it is
in your mouth and notice what you do to
produce the sound. /d/ /t/ /d/ as in do /t/ as in to. Can you notice the tongue? So it's the
same for both sounds. Remember with these pairs, the voiced and unvoiced is the
only difference. The shape of the mouth
and the position of the tongue is
exactly the same. /d/ and /t/ That's one
big difference between the sounds. The
other one is, like I mentioned before, the
force of the sounds. So the voiced one, if
you can put your hand over your mouth again and feel your
breath of air. /d/ /d/ /d/ You can just
feel a little bit of air on your hand.
But if you try the second sound /t/ /t/ there's much more air. So the second sound,
the unvoiced, is more forceful. That's
another difference. Now let's move on to
the first target sound practice word
list for the voiced /d/ sound. This one's
quite simple because the symbol on the
left is the letter 'd' and the spelling is
always 'd'. Sometimes double 'd' but usually a single 'd' letter. So listen and repeat
after me. Day. Door. Drive. Puddle. Did.
Rained. Amazed. Thailand. Dolphin. Like we covered in a previous lecture,
the sounds in English, when they come at
the beginning of a word, are sometimes
slightly different to when they're at
the end of a word. So the /d/ sound when it
comes at the beginning it's very
forceful: day D-A-Y day. When it's at the end
of a word, slightly less forceful. For
example, rained R-A-I-N-E-D rained. So we
don't push out as much force as when
it's at the beginning of a word, you see.
So the end is slightly less forceful.
Let's move on to the second target sound
practice list. This is for the unvoiced
sound /t/. So again, the symbol is simply the
't' and the spelling is always 't'. Again,
sometimes double 't' but usually just 't'. So
listen and repeat.
Tie. Toe. Toast. Taste. Letter. Water. Heart.
Minute. Tomato. Something I want to
highlight about the /t/ sound is that in
British English the /t/ sound is usually
pronounced quite strongly in every
single position. However in American
English the /t/ sound, especially when it
comes in the middle of a word when there
are some vowels either side of it, they
change the /t/ sound to a /d/ sound. Let me give you an example. So in British English we
say 'water' W-A-T-E-R for example a glass of water. The 't' sound is very clear and
distinct. In American English, however,
very often the 't' sound in water becomes
a /d/ sound, like a 'd'. It becomes 'water' 'water'
a glass of water. Can you see the difference? So this is a
feature of British English. The 't' sound
is always very very clearly pronounced.
Water or for example letter L-E-T-T-E-R. In
American English this would be 'letter'
'letter'. In British English the 't' is
clearly pronounced letter letter. This
is one big difference between British
and American
English. Now let's move on to the minimal
pairs list. Very very important. On the
left we have the /d/ voiced sound and the
right the /t/ unvoiced sound. Listen and
repeat after me. Dough, toe. Bad, bat. Send, sent. Dry, try. Ride, write. Deers, tears.
Right, I hope the difference between the
two sounds is very clear now. I hope you
can really start to produce them nicely.
Remember the /t/ the unvoiced sound in
British English is always very distinct,
it's very clearly pronounced. So just
keep this in mind when you're uttering
the /t/ sound. Now let's move on to the
target sounds in use. The first sentence
is targeting the /d/
sound. Let's have a look. Repeat after me. David had a bad dream
about a dragon.
And sentence two is targeting the /t/ sound.
Tony turned on the TV to watch tennis.
And sentence number three is a mix of
the two. Don't drive too fast because
it's dangerous. You might have an
accident. So there we have it. The /d/
and the /t/ sounds. Download all the extra resources that I provided for you
so that you can master these two sounds. See you in the next lecture.