The Most DIFFICULT Sound in English is….T! (Seriously) | Speaking English

This letter is one of the most tricky, most vexing  letters in American English. It looks rather  

innocent, doesn't it? Seems so straightforward.  Ask anyone and they know that’s the letter T  

and it’s pronounced T. The thing is, when you  actually study spoken English you’ll find that tt,

is the pronunciation of maybe  about one third of the time.

To know the symbols of the sounds we  will talk about today and all the sounds  

of American English, click here or in the  video description to get a free cheat sheet,  

the sounds of American English. It’s a great  reference tool and even I use it quite a bit.

I thought it would be fun today to look  at Ted Talk and to see all the ways the  

T sound changes. If you’re a student  studying English as a second language,  

you’ll want to start to get a feel  for the different pronunciations of  

T because it will help your speech sound  more natural and less effortful. Let’s  

just dive right in and as we find out different  pronunciations, we’ll stop and talk about them.

So what do you think of  when you think of the ocean?

We had our first example there of a stop T. What  do you? tt. That’s not what we heard. There was no  

tt but tt is the sound of a T so what gives? When  the sound after t is a consonant, we usually skip  

the tt, part of the T. You see, the T sound has  2 parts. A stop with a little bit of air and tt,  

a release. This is different from say M, which  has no stop and you can hold out forever,  

mmmmmm. You can’t do that with a T. tt, tt, tt,  tt, tt. Stop, release, over and over. For a stop  

T, we do stop the air. What? And sometimes we  might move the tongue into position for the T at  

the top of the mouth here but we skip the tt part,  the release. So ‘what do’ becomes what do, what  

do, a stop. Sometimes it’s very  clear and a longer break. What  

do you think you’re doing? And sometimes,  it’s much more subtle. What do you think?  

We’re going to label our stop Ts this  color and remember the general rule that  

this is the pronunciation when the next  sound is a consonant. Let’s keep going.

So what do you think of  when you think of the ocean?

Maybe you think of a visit to the beach.

Visit to. Now, it’s common in American  English to link words. When one word  

ends in a sound and the next word begins with  that sound, they will link with a single sound.

Mom makes the best cookies. Mommakes, mommakes.  That happens here. One stop, one release,  

one true T. Visit to, visit to, ttttt. Do you  hear that crisp release? Tt. That’s the true T,  

the real T, the full T. We’ll  mark those with this color.

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Maybe you think of a visit to the beach,  or whales or sharks or coral reefs?

I think of this. This is San Juan Islands in  Washington state. They just out of an expanse.

Ah, okay. We got our first flap T.  If you look up jut in the dictionary,  

you’ll see this symbol. This is the symbol of  a true T but here it’s a flap. The general rule  

for a flap T is that the T is between two vowel  or diphthong sounds as it is here or after an r  

before a vowel or diphthong like in the word  party. Then it’s a flap T. There’s no tt in  

party is [flap] a single, quick flap of the  tongue. No stop of air here in the flap T. It  

sounds like the American D between vowels but  it might sound sort of an R to you depending  

on your native language. Jut out, jut out, jut  out of. Jut out of [flap]. Two flap Ts there.

And we’re about the get another one in ‘water’.

They jut out of an expanse of deep dark water,  

and they’re filled with life  and mystery and opportunity.

The word opportunity gives us an opportunity  to look at these rules a little bit deeper. The  

first T there comes after an R before a vowel. We  learned earlier that is a flap T. In opportunity,  

it’s ttttt, a true T. Why? There is a rule that  overwrites the flap T rule. If that T sound begins  

a stressed syllable, it’s a true T. Here, it  begins the third syllable which is stressed,  

so it’s a true T. Opportun, ttttt. But the  last T doesn’t start a stressed syllable  

does come between two vowels or diphthong  sounds is a flap T, [flap]. Opportunity,  

opportunity. Flap Ts will be marked  with this color. Let’s keep going.

They jut out of an expanse of deep dark water,  

and they’re filled with life  and mystery and opportunity.

But whatever you think of, the ocean  is much more. It is a complex physical,  

chemical and biological system.

Okay now, that was strange. System. I definitely  don’t hear tt, that T really sounded more like a  

d, sort of like a flap T. System. But it doesn’t  come between two vowel or diphthong sounds. Yeah,  

the rules aren’t perfect, They don’t  capture everything. This T is officially tt,  

a true T in the dictionary and a lot  of native speakers would make it a  

true T. She’s not. There’s always going  to be some variation. Let’s keep going.

It is a complex physical,  

chemical and biological system that  takes up seventy percent of our planet.

You’ve heard true Ts, stop Ts, Flap Ts. There’s a  fourth pronunciation, ‘percent of’ becomes percent  

of. Not stop T, not a true T, not a flap T but no  T at all. Dropped. Percent of. Twenty. Internet.

This is common when T comes after an N before  a vowel or diphthong, and I have a video  

with a bunch of examples with that. But also,  between two other consonants like just thought,  

‘justought’. Or first class, ‘firstclass’. When  the T’s dropped, we’ll put an X over it like this.

Hold on! In that phrase, we had another word,  

seventy, nt vowel or diphthong  but it wasn’t dropped. Exception:  

Seventy is pronounced with a flap T even though  it doesn’t follow the rules for flap T. Seventy.

Now, this is a Ted Talk. It’s a speech. So it’s  not quite conversational English. Things tend to  

be a little more clearly pronounced, there  are more pauses in giving a speech than in  

conversation. So she’ll do some stop Ts where  native speakers in conversation might do a flap  

T because it comes between two vowels. Still,  it’s shocking how tt, is likely not the sound  

you’ll hear for this letter even in a speech.  Now, keep in mind the letter T sometimes makes a  

sound other that T as it’s official sound like in  the word ‘the’. It goes with the h to make the th  

sound. Or in the word ‘motion’. It's part of the  tion ending to make tion or tion. So there’s no T  

sound there at all. Those will all be ignored, no  special color in our transcript. Let’s keep going.

It is a complex physical, chemical and  biological system that takes up seventy  

percent of our planet. And yet we’re still  really just beginning to understand it.

So we’ve heard about thirty seconds of a speech.  There were 27 Ts that are supposed to make the  

T sound but only ten of them did. We  had six stop Ts, ten true Ts, 9 flap  

Ts and two dropped Ts. So if you’re studying  English and you’re trying to tt, tt, tt, tt,  

pronounce all those as true Ts not only is that  a lot of effort but it’s not going to sound all  

that natural. Now let’s go with the rest of the  Ted Talk. Each T pronunciation will be marked  

with the appropriate color. If it’s a T that  isn’t a T sound like in the sound temperature,  

that second T, remember, that’s officially a  ch, we’re not going to color those Ts. We’ll  

still find another way that tt, is pronounced and  I’ll stop when we get there so we can explore it.

What we do know is that the ocean is a  vital part of our life support system  

on the planet. It produces at least fifty  percent of the oxygen that we breathe. So,  

more than one in every two breaths.  

It also regulates temperature for the planet. So  without the ocean, the poles would be unbearable  

cold and the equator would be unbearably hot,  and it would be a lot harder to live here.  

Now we think about saving the ocean from plastic  or from oil and oil spills or from overfishing.  

But really, we should be thinking about how  the ocean is saving us. And what is it saving  

us from? It’s saving us from the climate change  that we are creating. Essentially, ourselves.

And so what does that mean? Basically, what we  need to do is think about not how to save the  

ocean, but instead how the ocean can actually  help us in this fight against climate change.

Already, the ocean is absorbing  25 to 30 percent of the CO2 that  

we release into the atmosphere. It  is the world’s largest carbon sink.  

The ocean has also absorbed 90 percent of the  excess heat trapped by greenhouse gasses.

Now, we just heard another kind of T. So far,  we’ve studied stop T, true T, flap T, dropped  

T and now we’re hearing T as CH. This happens in  two different cases. First, in the tr cluster.  

It’s more common for native speakers to pronounce  that as chr like ‘train’ and we just heard a tr  

cluster in the word ‘trapped’. The T sounds like  a CH. Trapped, trapped. The ed ending of the word  

‘trapped’ is also a T sound, a true T. We’re not  even going to get into ed endings in this video  

but I do have an amazing series on the ED ending  that you’ll want to be sure to check out because  

we have three pronunciations of that ending. I’ll  link to that playlist in the video description.

So this was an example of a T becoming a CH sound  in the TR cluster like in the word ‘trapped’.

Of the excess heat trapped..

When the T is pronounced as a  CH, we’ll make it this color.

I said that there are 2 situations that change a T  to a CH. TR cluster and the second case is Y. When  

a word ends in T and the next word begins with  a Y, most commonly you or your. For example the  

sentence, ‘I thought that you did that.’ That you,  thachu. I thought that you did that. That you, ch  

sound. You won’t hear this all the time. I would  estimate native speakers do it conversationally,  

maybe about half the time. T plus you, ch. Chu.  Remember, T as CH will be this color. Let’skeep  

going. I’m not going to stop and interrupt that  talk again. You’ll see the color code for each T.  

But I do want to say that I sometimes had a hard  time deciding what T pronunciation to assign. It  

wasn’t always super clear or straightforward.  For example in the word ‘still’. I found it  

sometimes sounded like a true T, but sometimes  it sounded more like a d or flap T. Still.  

A lot of times, I marked a true T because it  was the best label but it was kind of weak  

or not very clear or crisp. Okay,  here it is. The rest of the talk.

The ocean has also absorbed 90 percent of the  excess heat trapped by greenhouse gasses. So,  

it is basically helping to keep the planet  habitable, at least for now. And yet, when we  

think about climate action and climate strategies  and climate plans, we often overlook the ocean and  

leave it out, because somehow we think that saving  the ocean is something else we have to do, not a  

core part of our climate strategy. And that’s  what has to change because the ocean is a core  

part of our climate system, and so it has to be a  core part of our climate solutions. So what does  

that actually mean? Well, for starters, we know  that the ocean is already doing a lot for us. So  

the first thing we do need to do to save the ocean  to save ourselves is to actually reduce emissions.  

I don’t think anyone here would disagree  with that. But that still sounds like the  

ocean is a victim in the story, and really the  ocean can and should be a hero in this story.

The ocean can provide us with solutions to help  us reduce those emissions, and it can also help us  

to adapt to this new climate reality that  we’ve created. So how does that happen?

We, essentially the first thing we need  to do is to make sure that we keep all  

of these systems working and protect  the systems that are protecting us.  

Because all of that CO2 and heat that the ocean  is absorbing is actually coming at a cost.  

The ocean is warming and rising and acidifying,  and we even have evidence now that we’re changing  

the basic circulation of the ocean, which  changes the way it regulates temperature.  

So the first thing we need to do is really just  protect those systems that are protecting us.  

But how do we more actively engage the  ocean in our climate strategies? What  

can we do to really use the ocean  to help us reduce emissions and to  

adapt to the impacts of climate change?  What does that practically look like?

Well, we know that coastal ocean  ecosystems like mangroves or  

seagrasses or salt marshes are some of the  most effective caron sinkns on the planet.  

Acre for acre, they can absorb ten times more  carbon than a forest on land. And that carbon is  

very deep in the soils so that it can stay there  for thousands of years if we leave it undisturbed.  

The problem is that we’re not leaving it  undisturbed; we are destroying these places.

We’ve lost 20 to 50 percent of  them already, and we lose more  

every year. And all of that is creating  emissions. But if we protect those places,  

then those emissions stop. Just like if  you shut off a coal-fired power plant.  

And if we restore those places, then we can  actually absorb even more carbon. But the  

power of the ocean isn’t limited just to reducing  emissions. The ocean can also help us to adapt to  

the impacts of climate change we already feel and  that we know will be here with us for decades.

Those same mangroves can actually  protect coastal communities by buffering  

them against more intense coastal  storms and slowing wind and waves.

Another example, oysters. In New York City,  they’re using oysters to help reduce the risk  

of major floods and flood damage like they saw  during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The idea is that  

these reefs form dense places that force water  from nooks and crannies that slow it down. So  

by the time it hits the shore, it actually has  less power and therefore can do less damage.

And at the same time, they’re creating aquatic  parks and places where people can gather and be  

with nature. Because the truth is that in this  new climate reality that we’ve created, we will  

have to learn how to live with water and with the  ocean in new ways. And so what better ways to do  

that than with the creatures that actually have  evolved to live in these land and sea interfaces?  

And these are real solutions that are being  implemented in real places based on what we  

know about the ocean now. And yet the National  Oceanic and Atmospheric Association of the  

United States estimates that 80 percent of the  ocean is unmapped, unexplored and unobserved.  

So there is so much more out there that we could  be doing and thinking about as climate solutions,  

and so much that we’re just still  getting our imaginations around.

For example, what if we could actually harness  the power of the ocean’s wind and waves and tides  

to produce power?

The International Energy Agency estimates  that offshore wind alone could produce  

enough energy for the Earth and  17 other planets, carbon-free.  

And at the same time, we could actually be  providing power to coastal communities and  

islands that don’t benefit from  our current grids and systems.

And if we’re really smart about it, we can  plan and design these systems so that we’re  

creating artificial reefs that could  support wildlife and aquaculture and  

help up grow food and sequester carbon and  actually help the ocean instead of harm it.

Or what if we could harness more  of the ocean’s biological power  

to help us in this fight against climate change?

For example, kelp. Kelp is one of the  fastest-growing organisms on the planet. It can  

grow two feet per day. What if we could actually  restore the world’s kelp forests and actually  

grow kelp at a scale that we could use all of  that growing power to help us sequester carbon?

Now, that’s likely to be a lot cheaper than  trying to deploy human-made technologies  

out into the middle of the ocean to sequester  carbon. And it’s likely to be a lot less risky  

than changing the ocean’s chemistry or engineering  the ocean, because we’d actually be working with  

the natural systems instead of against them.  And we’d probably have a lot of kelp left over  

that we could use to feed ourselves  and feed animals and create plastic  

alternatives that would also help us to lower  our footprint on the planet. And this is just  

a sampler of the types of solutions that the  ocean has to offer for the climate crisis.

The key is that we have to think about the ocean  

as a source of solutions that we can  be using and enlist it in this fight.  

And these aren’t easy solutions. The time for that  has passed. We don’t have any easy solutions left.

And these aren’t excuses for not doing  other things, these are not silver bullets.  

So we still have to do the hard work of  reducing and getting rid of fossil fuels,  

and we still have to do the hard work of  making sure that the most vulnerable among us  

will be able to adapt and thrive  in the new climate reality.

But the ocean is a powerful source of solutions  that we’ve overlooked for far too long.  

And so we need to think about how we really  integrate it into our strategies now. And that  

comes down to a fundamental change in mindset,  which is instead of thinking about how we save  

the ocean, we should be thinking about how  we can help the ocean save us. Thank you!

So, you see the letter T, you look it up,  

you see the symbol for tt, the true T,  but the sound is often not a true T.

And yet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric  Association of the United States.

She definitely said united. With a flap T even  though the dictionary says united with a true T.

I hope this video has shed  sine light now how often  

that T sound is changed in natural spoken English.

If you’re curious about American English  pronunciation and want to learn more,  

check out this video next and be sure to subscribe  to my channel on YouTube with notifications on  

so you never miss a lesson. That’s it and  thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.