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

My name is Mandy, and this is our 63rd episode.

Two weeks ago, I talked about when North Americans say a quick D sound in place of a T sound, as in the

word little.

I want to emphasize again that dictionaries usually don't show this alternative pronunciation,

and I want to make sure you know it is an alternative, and not necessary to learn to do. Because it isn't absolutely necessary,

few textbooks teach about it, but it will help you sound more casual. Let's repeat the rules for the

T as a quick D sound. Americans substitute a D sound for a T sound

when the T follows a vowel or an R sound

and comes before a vowel, R sound,

schwa plus R or L sound.

Think about it like this.

Vowels, R's, and L's will mess up a T sound.

Common examples are little, water, and meeting.

Today I'm going to tell you about when the T sound gets completely omitted,

like when the word printer is said as printer. There are a few things that make this harder to notice and hear. First, when a T

sound is the final sound of a word, it gets linked into the sound that follows it, which makes it hard

to hear. Go to episode 52, linking from the ED ending, if you'd like a review of that

concept. Secondly, when the T is the final sound of a word and not getting linked to another

sound, it is not

fully aspirated, meaning we don't have as big of a puff of air when we release the stop,

so it is harder to hear.

...