Hey, it's Hadar, today I'm gonna talk about a tricky transition in American English - the flap T and the R as in the word 'butter', 'greater' and 'daughter'. I'm gonna talk about the two sounds - the Flap T and the R - and how to put them together in an effortless and accurate way.
So let's get started. Let's first talk about what is the Flap T.
The Flap T is a unique pronunciation of the T when it appears between two vowels in unstressed syllables. So for example, if we take the word 'notice'.
If I pronounced it with the true T - how people usually perceive the T to be. It's going to sound like 'noʊTice', where I bring the tip of the tongue up and then I pronounce the T 'noTice'.
But in this situation, when the T is between two vowels and the syllable is not stressed, it's not the primary stress of the word, then the T changes to D - 'noʊDice'. You may say that it sounds like a D, but notice that it's not a real D cuz I don't say 'noʊDis'.
It's...let's say, a very very light D. What the tongue does is it comes up to touch the upper palate and instead of blocking the air and releasing, it kind of gives the upper palate a high-five.
You keep the voice going - that's why it sounds to you like a D - but it's not really a D. It's a 'da'.
And for those of you who have sharp ears will notice that it actually sounds more like a Spanish soft R. as in the word 'pero'. And if you've seen my previous videos about the Flap T, you know that I've used this example, and I think it's so easy to understand it like that.
Listen: 'pero', 'noʊdɪs'. Right? So it's the same sound actually.
If you don't have the sound in your language, then don't worry about it. Just try to make it a very light D. Okay?
