British English Pronunciation: Glottal T vs Hard T | Learn English with Cambridge

Hello, everyone.

My name’s George,

and today we’re going to learn a bit

about British pronunciation.

First of all,

have a look at these words and think about

how you pronounce them.

At school, you probably learnt bitter,

butter, water, bottle.

This /t/ sound is called the hard T,

but in the UK,

we have two different ways of pronouncing the T.

Have a listen to how this man pronounces the same words.

Today, I’m going to pronounce four different words.

Bitter, butter, water, bottle.

That was excellent.

This T sound is called the glottal T,

or the glottal T,

and it’s used across the UK.

So how can we make it?

It’s produced in your throat, or throat.

So let’s compare that word, throat, with throw.

Throw has a nice O sound.

Throw.

But when we say throat,

we stop that O sound with our throat.

Throat.

Oat.

Oat.

Throat.

Throw, throat, throat.

Nowadays, British people tend to use both glottal Ts

and hard Ts when they speak,

but there are still

some rules for when you can’t use glottal Ts.

For example, listen to how this person incorrectly

pronounces the word taste.

And what are you going to do for us today?

I’m going to pronounce one word.

Ace.

I’m sorry, Geoff,

but it seems that you’ve pronounced taste incorrectly.

Rule number one :

don’t start a word with a glottal T.

So for example, you can’t say aste.

It doesn’t work.

You need to use a hard T. You need to say taste.

Rule number two:

don’t use a glottal T after an unvoiced constant.

So in the case of taste, /s/ is unvoiced

because you can’t feel the vibration in your throat

when you make a /s/ sound.

Whereas, if you make a /z/ sound, /z/,

you can feel the vibration, here.

So it’s taste.

It’s not essential to use the glottal T,

but it is useful to be aware of it,

particularly when you come to the UK and you talk

to native speakers.

Anyway, that’s all we have time for today.

If you enjoyed the lesson,

please like the video and subscribe to the channel.