American English Pronunciation

The r sound in American English doesn’t use a “trill” like some other languages such as Spanish. Here’s an example: -Rural When making the American English r sound, open your lips slightly and place your tongue right in the middle of your mouth, with the sides of your tongue touching your back teeth. Then, curl the tip of your tongue up toward the top of your mouth.

1. Learn to Pronounce the Letter R To understand the American R, try listening to these words: -Cardboard -Car -Enforce -Better -Paper

2. Learn to Pronounce Your Ts and Ds Right *The Letter T The first thing you have to remember about the letter t is that, in the American accent, it sounds like something between a d and an r when it’s between vowel sounds. Examples: -water -computer -matter -cut it out

Finally, when you get a t sound before an n sound, you stop or cut the sound as before and change it into a hard n: Examples: -Soda Fountain -Button -Cotton

Another rule you need to remember about the American t is that if the t is the last letter of a word and it’s not followed by a vowel as we just saw, then the sound gets “cut” or “stopped.” Examples: -hot dog -Cat -Abstract

The Letter D The letter d can also be flapped, like t. The rules are the same, but we call this d-flapping instead. -medal -ladder -pudding -wedding

American Informal Contractions Here are some common examples: gonna — going to I’m gonna go now. — I’m going to go now. wanna — want to We don’t wanna go. — We don’t want to go. gotta — got to/have to I gotta go. — I have to go. kinda — kind of That’s kinda funny. — That’s kind of (a little) funny. sorta — sort of I sorta like it here. — I sort of like it here. (I like it here but not too much)