Speak English Fluently — all 6 “D” Sounds | Rachel’s English / English Speaking Lesson

Have you learned how to pronounce D?

Ddd--

Tongue in position, vibrate the vocal cords...

Well, there are actually six different ways that Americans might pronounce that sound.

And today, we're inviting superstar Rachel's English teacher, Tom Kelly,

to teach you these six different ways.

When you understand them, you'll figure out how you can speak more natural and easy English.

Tom teaches students in Rachel's English Academy, all day, every day,

and this is part of what he teaches them, so I'm so glad that he's here to do this for us today.

We're gonna hand it over to Tom in just a second but before we do,

make sure you subscribe with notifications if you haven't already.

We make new videos on the English language every Tuesday, and we'd love to see you back here again.

Okay, Tom, take it away!

Hi! I'm Tom Kelly, a Rachel's English teacher with Rachel's English Academy.

Today we're going to talk in depth about a sound in American English

that has a lot of different pronunciations. The D consonant.

Here are words and two word phrases that all use a different pronunciation of the D sound.

Dog

Mad

Ladder

Dad runs.

Did you?

Send me.

Whoa. One letter...six different pronunciations.

Yikes.

Luckily, there are some guidelines for when to use each one.

So let's get started.

Now, you may have heard about the Stop T and the Flap T and the True T.

Well, the only difference between the T and D consonant is that the D consonant is voiced

and the T is unvoiced.

So that means the D consonant has multiple pronunciations as well!

Let's start with the Classic - the True D.

As Rachel teaches in her video on the D consonant,

it is a Stop Consonant.

This means that there are two parts to creating a True D.

First, a stop of the airflow and second, a release.

The airflow is stopped by the tongue position.

The tongue will come up and the front part will touch the roof of the mouth just behind the top teeth.

It will then pull down to release the air.

Da.

Da.

Da.

The teeth can be together for the D consonant sound,

but they do not need to be.

For example here is the D sound with the teeth together:

Dog.

Day.

Diner.

You may actually find that you get an easier, more relaxed sound when your teeth are not together.

Dog.

Day.

Diner.

This allows you to keep a looser, more relaxed jaw,

which is great for finding that American English flow, and natural quality.

Now, this is a voiced consonant, so you will use your vocal cords for the D.

And that will be very important later on.

Now when do we use the True D?

Whenever a D consonant begins a word

or when it begins a stressed syllable in the middle of a multiple syllable word.

So, let's practice this. Here it is at the beginning: dog, diaper,

As the parent of an infant, I use this one a lot,

and the name Debra, like in the song by Beck.

Debra.

Debra.

Notice that my teeth are not together when I pronounce the D.

Dd-- dd-- Debra.

In fact, my jaw is loose and relaxed.

Now this relaxation helps create a more effortless sound

and it might help you find a more natural native speaker quality to your D consonant.

Now here is the True D in the middle of a word.

Produce.

Produce.

Serendipity.

Houdini.

Again, notice my teeth are not closing to help me create this sound, my jaw stays loose.

Houdini.

Houdini. Da, da.

Okay, so that's the classic True D consonant sound.

The sound we think of when we think of the letter D.

However, that is only the first of our six pronunciations.

So let's talk about number two. The Flap D.

Now that sounds similar to a flap T, right?

And that is because it is the exact same sound.

When a D is between two vowel sounds in an unstressed position,

meaning the following syllable is unstressed,

it will be pronounced very quickly, lightly, a very fast, weak version of the True D.

Now this should sound just like the Flap T

or if you come from a native language that uses a Flap R,

where the tip of the tongue bounces quickly off the roof of the mouth,

that is also the same sound.

So, M-A-D-D-E-R, madder, madder.

This word has a Flap D whereas,

M-A-T-T-E-R as in 'What's the matter?'

Matter, those words are pronounced exactly the same.

Madder with a D, madder, and matter with a T, matter.

As in: No one is madder than me that English spelling is so unhelpful.

Now, this sound is used within words like: madder, ladder, riddle, cradle, buddy, academy.

It's also used when linking a word that ends with a D into a word that starts with a vowel or a diphthong,

like: had a-- I had a great time!

Had a-- had a--

Good idea.

That's a good idea!

Good idea.

Notice the D in 'idea' is a True D, a little stronger and clearer

because it's at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

Idea.

That's a good idea.

That's a good idea.

Sad about--

I'm sad about English not being a phonetic language.

Sad about--

Okay, that brings us to the Stop D, or more accurately the unreleased D.

The unreleased D is similar to a Stop T.

Remember, that there are two parts to a stop consonant,

there's the stop of airflow, and there's the release.

For an unreleased D, or a Stop T, all you have is the stop of the airflow, you do not release the air.

So how can you tell whether you are using a Stop T or a Stop D?

And how will a listener be able to tell?

Earlier, I told you to remember that you use your vocal cords for the D consonant sound.

Here is where that becomes very important.

It's very common for non-native speakers to have issues with the unreleased D.

It very often sounds exactly like a Stop T for them, but it shouldn't.

For the Stop T you use a very brief stop of airflow and sound.

SAT, for instance, sat, sat, sat there--

This means that you can actually make the stop T without lifting the tongue up

behind the upper teeth. Sat, sat, sat there-- sat there--

You cannot do that for the unreleased D.

For the unreleased D, you want that same brief stop of airflow

but because it's a voiced consonant, your vocal cords will still be producing sound.

Sad, sad.

sad there--

sad there--

Do you hear that voiced quality for the unreleased D?

Sad. Dddd--

Here's the stop T and the unreleased D back-to-back:

Sat.

Sad.

Sat.

Sad.

Sat.

Sad.

Because you're continuing to use your vocal chords for the unreleased D,

the vowel sound will seem longer in the word SAD,

sad, than it does in SAT, sat.

Sad.

Sat.

I sat there waiting.

I sat there waiting.

I'm sad there won't be snow on Christmas.

I'm sad there won't be snow on Christmas.

Sat there--

sad there--

Sat there--

sad there--

So the thing to remember about the difference between the stop T and the unreleased D,

is that the stop T is a complete stop of airflow and sound.

But the unreleased D is only a stop of airflow.

Your vocal cords continue vibrating and making sound.

When do we use the unreleased D?

You can use this D when the D comes at the end of a phrase:

I'm really mad.

I'm really glad.

Mad.

Glad.

You can also use it when the D is followed by a consonant sound,

and you want to link the words together.

Good night.

Good, good night.

Made money.

Made money.

Fried food.

There's two in a row. Fried food.

Fried food.

Now, you may be wondering what about when the D consonant comes at the end of a word,

but it's in a cluster, like friend or send, or held?

When it comes after the dark L, as in held, or called,

you can use this unreleased D there as well.

Held the baby.

Held.

Held the baby.

Hold my bag.

Hold.

Hold my bag.

Called the restaurant.

Called.

Called the-- called the restaurant.

However, when you have this D after the N consonant,

it's more common to use another form of D.

The dropped D, our fourth pronunciation.

We just don't say it. We drop it.

So if I say: This is my friend, Mike.

You noticed that I dropped the D sound.

Frien. Mike-- Friend. Friend.

This is my friend, Mike.

This is very common when words that end in an ND cluster link into a following consonant sound.

Even when a word that ends in ND is plural, you can usually drop the D.

Hands, minds, ponds, winds, sounds.

All of those, dropped D.

Now you'll also hear this with words that end in ED

when the consonant sound before the ED ending is voiced.

Let's take a look at some examples.

Named, named me--

In casual speech, you will hear native speakers drop the D here and say.

Name me-- name me--

The context helps the listener know that it is named.

Here's a clip of someone doing this.

And I said it means 'splendid'. You named me splendid? Why did you change that?

Named me--

splendid?

And I said it means 'splendid'. You named me splendid? Why did you change that?

Another example: lived, lived there--

Again, native speakers will drop the D here.

Live there, live there.

Even in formal situations like this:

So when you lived in Carpinteria, you've lived there all this time--

lived there--

all this time--

So when you lived in Carpinteria, you've lived there all this time--

Dropping the D won't happen all the time in these situations.

You will hear native speakers release the D sound very quickly, and lightly in these situations as well.

Named me-- named me-- me, me.

Lived there-- there, there. Lived there--

But the Drop D is so common, we do have to talk about it.

Now, number five, that quick light release of the D consonant, that I just mentioned, named me-- me, me,

is another pronunciation. I call this the mini release.

This happens when the D consonant is linking into a consonant sound,

and is not unreleased, but is released incredibly quickly and lightly.

Often because it would actually be more difficult to pronounce as an unreleased D.

This is most common when the D sound links into words that start with the R, Y, or W sounds.

Some examples: dad runs-- dad runs-- dad runs-- runs--

Very quick release.

It would actually be more difficult to hold the D sound here.

Dad runs-- dad runs--

That's difficult. It's much easier to very quickly and lightly release it.

Dad runs-- runs-- dad runs--

But hear how quick and quiet that D sound is.

It is even lighter than a Flap D.

Dad runs-- dad runs--

madder-- madder--

dad runs--

Here are some other examples:

Bad weather--

Bad weather--

Good year--

Good year--

Tried yoga--

Tried yoga--

Ted walks--

walks--

Ted walks--

Code Red--

Code Red--

Paid you--

paid you--

Oh, wait. Paid you-- That one sounds different.

We've arrived at our sixth and final D pronunciation.

When it can become a JJ as in jump consonant.

This happens when an ending D consonant links into the Y consonant of the words you or your.

We tried your cookies.

We tried your cookies.

Would you like some?

Would you like some? Would you?

Tried your--

Could you say that again?

Could you? Could you?

Now, this only happens with the words you and your, and you do not need to do this.

Some native speakers will do this, and some will not.

You can use the JJ: We tried your cookies.

Or you can use the Y consonant: We tried your cookies.

Tried your-- tried your--

Both will sound natural and great.

Hey! We did it. We made it through the six pronunciations of D.

The True D, the Flap D, the unreleased D, the dropped D,

the mini release D, and the D that becomes JJ as in jump.

Tom, thank you so much for this lesson, and thank you for joining me here.

Be sure to subscribe if you haven't already.

We make new videos on the English language every Tuesday,

and we'd love to see you back here.

That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.