How to pronounce the T sound /t/
/t/ is a voiceless consonant made at ridge behind the teeth (alveolar). Put the tip of your tongue on the ridge just behind your top teeth — not on the teeth themselves. Seal the sides of the tongue against the upper gums so no air escapes.
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How to make it
- 1Put the tip of your tongue on the ridge just behind your top teeth — not on the teeth themselves.
- 2Seal the sides of the tongue against the upper gums so no air escapes.
- 3Release the tip sharply and let the air out in a puff.
- 4Keep the voice off; the hum starts only with the following vowel.
- Lips
- Neutral and slightly apart.
- Tongue
- Tip up against the bumpy ridge behind the top teeth, sides sealed.
- Jaw
- Slightly open and still.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. You should feel nothing at all until the vowel begins — any buzz means you have switched the voice on too early and made the voiced partner instead.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
Take the ticket to the table by the tall window.
It took ten minutes to get to the last train.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu place t either on the teeth or curled back on the palate; the English T sits between the two, on the ridge, and sounds wrong from either side.
- Marathi
Marathi has the same dental and retroflex pair, so the English alveolar T tends to land too far forward or too far back.
- Malayalam
Malayalam's retroflex t curls the tongue back, which gives English T a hollow, thickened quality; move the tip forward to the ridge.
- Mandarin
Mandarin has no final consonants except n and ng, so a final T is often dropped or given a small vowel after it.
- Japanese
Japanese t does not occur before u or i (those become tsu and chi), so 'tissue' and 'tune' need the plain T rebuilt.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese leaves a final t unreleased, so 'wait' can sound cut off; English expects a small release you can hear.
- Thai
Thai final stops are unreleased too, and Thai t is unaspirated, so both ends of the word need attention.
- Spanish
Spanish t is dental and unaspirated, so 'time' can sound like 'dime' to an English ear; move the tip back to the ridge and add the puff.
- French
French t is dental and unaspirated; the fix is the same, ridge plus a puff of air at the start of a word.
- Italian
Italian t is dental and Italian syllables prefer to end in a vowel, so final T often gains a faint extra vowel.
Straight answers
Is /t/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiceless. Put a hand on your throat: you should feel nothing until the vowel after it starts. That is the only difference between it and its partner sound, which is made in exactly the same place.
What words start with the T sound?
Common ones include time, table, ten. In the middle of a word you get after, return, hotel, and at the end cat, wait, night. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /t/ spelled in English?
It is written "t", "tt", "ed", "bt". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /t/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu place t either on the teeth or curled back on the palate; the English T sits between the two, on the ridge, and sounds wrong from either side.
Record the T sound and see if it landed
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