Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 112th episode.

Here is a little talked about topic, omitting the D sound.

Yes, I said the D sound, not the T sound.

Not this time.

Way back in episode 63, I talked about the T sound being omitted when it occurs after an N sound, and before a vowel sound, L sound, R sound, or

schwa plus R. Examples include pronouncing the words printer, percentage, and disappointed,

as printer, percentage, and disappointed.

If you're not familiar with the concept that the letter T can be pronounced in many

different ways depending on the sounds that surround it, go back and listen to episodes

63, 65, and 66 before listening to this one.

A few weeks ago, I was teaching an advanced pronunciation class to a group of about 20 engineers.

I love teaching engineers because, to give a broad stereotype, engineers like rules.

Engineers want to know why something is the way that it is, and so do I.

So we get along very well in the classroom.

In this group, the word grandmother came up.

I was asked if I say the D sound in the middle of the word grandmother came up. I was asked if I say the D sound in the middle of the word

grandmother. No, I don't, and I was impressed that this student had caught the pronunciation.

The word grandmother perfectly illustrates that, like the T sound, the D sound can be omitted in certain words.

Before I tell you when it can be omitted, let me also tell you that this is considered informal.

I would say, however, that most native speakers do omit this sound much of the time without ever thinking about it, no matter how formally they're trying to speak.

The rule is pretty straightforward.

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