If you want more information on the photos in this video, which have parts of the mouth drawn in, see this video on the parts of the mouth.

How to make this sound:

Video Text:

The T and D consonant sounds. These sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position. The T is unvoiced, tt, which means you only let air escape through your mouth. And the D is voiced, dd, dd, which means you make a sound with your vocal cords. These consonant sounds involve a stop of the air. The airflow is stopped when the very front part of the tongue raises and touches the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth. Tt, dd. The teeth are together, but the lips are parted. Tt. The air is released when the tongue pulls down, and then also the jaw drops a little bit so the teeth part.

Stop consonants sometimes are pronounced only with the stop part and not the release, without that final part. For example, take the sentence 'I bet you did.' I bed - the tongue is in position - you did. But then simply the voice goes into the 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong [] without, tt, that release. I bet, I bet, I bet you did. Even though these two sounds are paired together, I want to point out that the teeth must close the make the proper tt sound, but they don't have to close to make a D sound: dad. so as long as the tongue raises into position and releases, dad, you can make a D sound without the teeth being closed. But the T sound needs to release air through the closed teeth in order to be completely made.

There is a case for the T where the sound is not made with that release of air, but where the tongue comes up to touch the roof of the mouth and then comes down without the teeth being closed. Some people will call this a flipped or tapped T. On my website you will see it written with the D IPA symbol because it is the same sound. As I've just said, the D can be made with the tongue coming up and touching but the teeth not being closed. It functions the exact same way. Let's take for example the phrases What's the matter? and I'm madder than I've ever been. One of these is spelled with the T and the other the D, but they are both pronounced with this D sound. What's the matter? The tongue comes up, touches the roof of the mouth quickly, and comes back down. I'm madder than I've ever been. The exact same case: the tongue comes up, quickly touches the roof of the mouth, and comes back down. In both of these words, the teeth are closer together, but not closed. What's the matter? I'm madder than I've ever been.

The lip positions for these sounds are influenced by the sounds that come after it. Take for example the word dime. It's followed by the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong []. Dime. You can see the lips begin to take that position. Do, followed by the 'oo' as in 'boo' vowel []. You can see the lips already starting to round, do, on that sound. Also the R [] will change the lip position. Drain, drain. You can see the lips come into position for the R, drain, even before the D sound is made.

Here we see the T/D mouth position on the right compared with the mouth at rest on the left. Here, parts of the mouth are drawn in. The soft palate is raised for these consonant sounds. The tongue position stretches up in the front and presses against the roof of the mouth to make the stop before releasing the air. The position is just behind the top front teeth. Sample words: time/dime, tad/dad, tote/dote. Sample sentence: Tom tasted Dad's dark chocolate treats. Now you will see this sentence up close and in slow motion, straight on and from an angle, so you can study how the mouth moves making these sounds.

Tom, with the T, you see the teeth close with the tongue raising behind them. And there's the release. Tom. The lips will close for the M, and when they open you will see the teeth are still closed for the T in tasted. Now the second T is pronounced as a D, and there is a quick schwa [], there, as the teeth drop just a bit before the other D, tasted. Dad's. Tongue up to make the D in dark, and you can see the lips already starting to take the form of the R even before the teeth release. Chocolate, tongue through the teeth for the L, and then up to make the T which is a stop here. Treats, and again you see the lips forming the R even before the teeth release the T. And the TS sound at the end.

Tom, you see the tongue tip up behind the closed teeth, releasing into the 'ah' as in 'father'. Lips close for the M. Tasted, tongue up to make the D sound, then the schwa, then another D sound, tasted. Dad's. Tongue up again to make the final D. Dad's. Dark, lips taking the form of the R. Chocolate, tongue up for the L and then to the roof of the mouth to make the stop of the T. And treats, where the lips for m the R shape around the closed teeth. And tongue tip up to make the final T, and S sound. Treats.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbols: [], []

These two vowel sounds use the same mouth position. For more information on the [] sound and to see its occurrences in other languages, see Wikipedia's page. For the information on [], click here.

Miss the old sound video? See it here.