Pronunciation: How fluent speakers pronounce plosives

Hi. I'm Tim and this is my pronunciation workshop. Here I'm gonna show you how English is

really spoken. Come on, let's go inside.

Wow. Isn't the world an amazing place? Look how

many countries there are! Well - at least ten! Do you like travelling? How many countries

have you visited? Now, is there any particular place, or country, that you'd like to visit?

This is what the people of London told us when we asked them that same question.

I'd like to visit Iceland. I'd like to visit South America.

I'd like to visit Spain and Greece. I'd love to go to Egypt.

The contraction 'I'd' ends in the sound /d/, doesn't it? Or does it? Listen again - can

you fully hear the /d/?

I'd like to visit Iceland. I'd like to visit South America.

I'd like to visit Spain and Greece. I'd love to go to Egypt.

We make the sounds of English in different ways, using different parts of our mouths.

There's a group of consonants called plosives, and if this sounds a bit like the word 'explosion',

well, that's not a bad way of remembering it. Plosive sounds are made by suddenly releasing

air that has been blocked by various parts of the mouth. The sound /d/ is one of these

plosives. The others are /b/, /t/, /p/, /k/ and /g/. But in fluent, everyday speech, when

one word ends in a plosive sound and the next begins in another consonant sound, we don't

always hear the release of the plosive sound. 'I'd like to', becomes 'Idliketuh'. This is

called 'an unreleased stop', or, if you want to get really technical, 'a stop with no audible

release'. Here are some more examples.

How about a quick chat? You should thank her.

It was a sad time in his life. Why don't you sit down?

Right, so you've heard the examples, and now it's your turn. You know the drill by now:

listen and repeat.

How about a quick chat?

You should thank her.

It was a sad time in his life.

Why don't you sit down?

Well done. And remember, if you want to learn more about this, then please visit our website,

bbclearningenglish.com. And that is about it from the pronunciation workshop for this

week. I'll see you soon. Bye bye! Now, if you were to ask me where I'd like to visit

next... well - anywhere! I just love travelling. Now let's see if we can find my next destination.

Oww! I hurt my finger... again!