This Rule in American English Transformed My Accent | How to Improve Your Accent in English

- Hello guys and welcome to my YouTube channel.

You're always asking to share my experience with you

how I manage to improve my accent

and why I actually chose the American accent.

For me, I just love how the American accent sounds,

and that's why I picked this accent.

And to improve my accent

and to make it more American,

I used the book Mastering the American Accent.

Guys, I truly loved using this book,

and it taught me so many great things

about the American accent.

So, if you're like me

and you like using books to improve your English,

this is gonna be a great choice for you.

But in this video,

I actually wanted to share with you

a couple of rules in American English

that completely changed my accent.

They helped me improve my accent dramatically,

because discovering those rules

enabled me to better understand Americans,

how they talk and what rules they have in their accent.

That's why this video is gonna be

about one of the most distinctly American consonants,

the letter T.

So, in American English,

the letter T can be pronounced in a lot of different ways

depending on its position,

depending on the sentence,

and on the words and even letters that surround it.

Sometimes, I'm sure you've noticed,

Americans pronounce the letter T as D

like in water and better.

And sometimes, Americans don't pronounce it at all,

like in the words internet and interview.

Other times, it's barely pronounced at all,

like in the words but and cat.

Also, it can change to a completely different sound

when it's followed by a letter R,

like in the words try and tree.

So this is what we're gonna learn today with you guys.

I hope you're intrigued,

because I hope you want to learn

all these rules of American English

and improve your accent too.

So, the three ways Americans pronounce their letter T,

and there's also one situation

where they just don't pronounce the letter T at all.

So first, let's look at the first rule,

the rule with a held T.

Native speakers of English,

especially in British English,

tend to release this T sound,

when they say for example the word but.

They tend to release the T sound, pronouncing it fully.

But in American English,

people don't release the T sound,

they just say but.

For example, but we want to go with you.

Instead of saying, but we want to go with you,

in America, people will say,

but we want to go with you.

But we want to go with you.

To replicate what I'm doing here,

you just need to hold your tongue

and try to make sure that no air comes out

when you say but,

instead of saying but,

see the air comes out,

we just say, but.

You hold your tongue.

So now, let's try to practice on these two expressions.

Apartment,

instead of saying apartment,

I'm saying apartment.

I'm holding these two T sounds.

And the other expression is that man.

Instead of saying that man,

I'm saying that man.

The silent T may actually be one of the reasons

why you can distinguish between he words can and can't.

Because when Americans speak really fast,

they make sure to say can instead of can't.

They try not to release this T sound.

If you want me to make a video about can and can't,

let me know in the comments.

But here, I'm just gonna say that even when I say can,

I'm making this vow sound a little bit longer.

So, in a sentence, I can't swim.

I can't.

I'm making this vowel really long.

And obviously, because it's a negative sentence,

the word can is stressed.

Because if I were to say I can swim,

I would just say I can swim,

the letters swim would be stressed instead.

In American English,

we also have this thing

that if the letter T is followed by an N sound,

we also make sure to hold the T sound.

For example, I'm certain this book was written in Britain.

So guys, let's look at these words here.

Certain,

I'm holding my T here.

Written,

Britain,

instead of saying Britain, written, certain,

I'm saying certain,

I'm certain this book was written in Britain.

And one thing that helped me

notice these rules in American English,

is taking classes with native speakers on Lingoda.

I've been working with Lingoda for such a long time already

because I believe that this language learner school

will help you and me

achieve our language learning goals faster.

Lingoda is currently offering classes to learn English,

business English,

Spanish, French, and German.

It's also really easy to take classes on their platform

because you can choose anytime

that's most convenient to you.

All lessons on Lingoda

are created by a team of linguistics experts

and consist of speaking practice, vocabulary,

grammar exercises and reading.

So, this month,

Lingoda is encouraging you to invest in yourself

and start learning a new language,

because it opens up so many doors,

like discovering a new TV show

and connecting with new people.

And if you know my love for TV shows and movies,

you know that I will for sure start learning a new language

just because I want to watch my favorite TV show

in its original version.

So guys, you can give Lingoda a try

by signing up for their free seven day trial

and start taking your language classes today.

And if you use my link,

you can get up to 40% off Lingoda marathon courses.

I hope you enjoy taking your Lingoda classes

as much as I do.

Now, let's move on to our next T sound,

the silent T sound after the letter N.

So, the letter T in American English

is often silent after the letter N.

So, instead of saying internet,

Americans will say internet.

Instead of saying interview,

Americans will say interview.

Guys, I want you to remember that it's not sloppy

or casual speech,

it's a normal American way of pronouncing the words

internet and interview.

Instead of saying this letter T,

they just drop it,

and say internet, interview.

Let's look at this example right now.

They're many advantages

to working in an international company.

So here, instead of saying, advantages,

and international,

I'm just saying advantages and international.

Advantages,

international.

It makes my speech sound more connected

and one of the main rules of American English

is connected speech.

So you shouldn't forget about it

if you want to have an American accident.

Our next T sound is called a flap T.

Generally, a flap T is something like a D sound.

In some languages,

for you it might be easier to imagine this sound

as a rolling R sound as like a fast R sound

or something like a D sound.

For example, in the word water.

So, to make this sound,

you just need to tap quickly on your gum ridge

with the tip of your tongue.

Water.

Water.

It's something between the D sound and the R sound.

So, as you can see in the word water,

this flap T sound happens between two vowels

like in the words water and better.

Before an L, like in the word little

and after and R in a vowel,

like in the words party and forty.

But guys, make sure that you're only changing

this D sound into a D sound into a flapped T sound,

if the syllable is not stressed.

Because if the syllable is stressed,

like in the word attack,

we can't say addack, right,

it's not gonna be correct

because the syllable is stressed.

So, the only way to pronounce this word

will be attack.

So, we're pronouncing the T sound

just like in British English, attack.

And now guys, again,

because of the connected speech,

let's look at this sentence.

I bought a lot of bottles of water.

Usually, if you just take your word bot by itself,

obviously we're not gonna say bod with this flap T sound,

but because we have A after bot,

we make it into a flap T sound

because we just connect all the words together

into one long word.

Let's repeat again.

I bought a lot of bottles of water.

I bought a lot of bottles of water.

And now, let's talk about our last sound.

So here, the sound Ta,

is gonna be changed in this tra sound.

So, it happens when a T is followed by a letter R.

So, to create this sound,

say the word cheese for example, right,

it's gonna be almost the same tra sound

but a little bit more tense.

So, let me just give you some examples,

and you can try it after me.

So for example,

in the word travel,

instead of saying ta ravel, right,

even actually it's really hard to just say ta ravel.

It's so much better to just say travel,

to use his tra, this tense tra sound, travel.

So let's look at some other examples.

Tradition,

introduce,

translate,

traffic,

extremely.

So, in all of these words,

I didn't just say ta ra,

right, I say tra, traffic,

extremely,

tradition.

So guys, make sure to repeat after me

and to really memorize all of these rules

if you want to have an American accent.

And guys, remember that practice makes perfect,

so the more you practice all of these sounds,

the better you'll get.

So yeah guys, I think that's gonna be it for this video.

I just taught you a lot of great rules

about this T sound in American English.

As you can see,

it's a lot different from the T sound in British English.

But I hope now that you understand the American accent more

and maybe one day you'll want to work

towards having an American accent yourself.

So guys, if you like this video,

make sure to give it a thumbs up

and subscribe to my channel.

You can also follow me on Instagram,

because there, I share my everyday life with you.

If you want to get a script of this video,

make sure to join me here on YouTube

by clicking this join button.

Or, you can also go on my Patreon page

and pick a membership there,

because there I upload a lot of great worksheets

and I share a lot of useful resources with you.

So, thank you guys for watching this video.

See you next time, bye.

(gentle music)