In this English lesson, you’re going to learn something that will help you better UNDERSTAND American English speakers, AND it will help you SOUND more American.
You’re going to learn how to pronounce words like center, disappointed, & internet
In fast speech, American English speakers often don’t pronounce the T after an N in a word. [Click here to tweet this!]
Listen carefully to these 5 words & repeat after me:
entertain
counter
printer
twenty
accountable
When you make the /n/ sound, the tongue goes up and the front of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth. This is the same as the starting position for the ‘t’ sound. So instead of trying to make two separate sounds, just don’t say the T!
This is a very common feature of fast speech.
Here are some more examples:
international
percentage
seventy
wanted
painter
It’s not wrong to fully pronounce the ‘t’ and say ‘international.’ In fact, you’ll hear Americans say both ‘international’ and ‘innernational.’ You should listen for both and know that they are the same word.
This also happens with the n + d combination, since the ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds are the exact same mouth position.
handsome
landscape
grandparents
understand
underneath
Let’s try some practice sentences:
I don’t understand!
I was really disappointed with my interview.
I flew from Toronto to Atlanta.
I went over to my friend’s house.
That’s it! Don’t worry if this difficult for you at first! It takes 21 days to form a new habit, so keep practicing!
I hope this video helped you better understand the American accent.
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