We need to know when we can and when we can't pronounce it.

But today I'm actually going to be talking about the most important situation with the letter T that will make you sound British and avoid that American sounding pronunciation.

Yeah, so I want to ask you a quick question.

Would you say better?

Or would you say better?

There are actually two different pronunciations there, and you might think that the second one was pronounced with a sound The D right?

Well, it's not in American English.

They have a sound called the Tap.

Now the tap is when it's kind of a combination of a T and A D, and it happens between vowels.

So, for example, the word better, right?

There is a T, of course there before the ti, there is an E f sound, and after there's a Schwab sound, and, uh, so that's two vowels surrounding the T right.

And because there is no stress after the tea, an American is more likely to pronounce it as better.

You'll also hear this in places like Australia.

It doesn't happen everywhere.

But it's the one thing which will remove that British sound from your accent before I talk anymore.

I will tell you that you will hear Native British speakers make this mistake, and we might not even call it a mistake anymore because it's becoming more common.

But it's something that we've caught on to from American TV American everything right?

America is everywhere, and we pick up their accent.

I don't want you people who are passionate about British English to start pronouncing it as this tapped sound.

Let's firstly practice how we need to pronounce that sound.

So the tip of your tongue needs to go on the ridge just behind your teeth.

So the bit of gum that's literally just behind your teeth.

So pop the tip of your tongue there and then the sides of your tongue need to touch the sides of your top teeth.

That might sound confusing, but it's a lot more simple than you think.

You have to block air from coming out of your mouth, and when you release the sound, you drop that tongue.

Let's try in a few words where it's at the beginning, where an American and a British person would pronounce it the same tips.

Two.

Travel.

It's a bit more of a difficult one there because lots of people find it difficult to get to the er sound from a Now there is a video about this in my course, my online course, which you can join.

Just go to E.

T j english dot com, which is in the description box below.

It teaches you everything you need about British pronunciation, So now we hopefully kind of know how to pronounce that sound.

Let's learn more about this situation where we need to pronounce it to sound more British.

The first word is British and American would pronounce this as British.

If you want British pronunciation, pronounce the word British as British, not British.

Another word better, so we don't say better.

We say better.

We're finishing with that nice Schwab sound, which I've made many, many videos about here, The earth so better the famous one water we don't say water like an American.

We say war to water, whatever, whatever metal metal.

So the main thing to know is that we're not pronouncing it as this tap sound that I mentioned which is like a combination of the T and A.

D.

And this also happens during connected speech.

Remember I said that this tap happens when we have a vow before and a vow after.

And usually it's because there isn't a stress in the next word, right?

So, for example, some phrase, all verbs I could tell you to get out.

Meaning leave, Get out, get out of my house!

But an American might say, Get out with that tapped sound right, get out, get out!

So the main thing to do is to the main thing to understand is that this sound is not voiced.

Its a strong aspiration and we don't make a sound with our throat.

So it's just a instead of saying, Get away, get away, Get away!

I need to get away, Which means I need to go on a holiday.

Get on, get on.

There's an old fashioned phrase, which is we get on like a house on fire.

To get on with someone is to be very good friends with them.

You don't argue you're friendly with each other, so you get on.

If you get on like a house on fire That's an idiomatic expression.

Meaning that you really are good friends.

You don't argue.

You're just the best friends ever get on, like a house on fire and the most common one.

Where I hear this the most is when we ask someone how they are.

So I could say hi.

How are you?

They could say Yeah, I'm good.

Thanks.

What about you?

What about you?

Which is saying, how are you?

You know, it's like the response.

Yeah, but we don't want to pronounce that t as What about?

We need to say What about what about you.

Now?

Some British people might do something where they drop the T.

So instead of saying What about you?

We might say.

What about you?

What about you, or what about you?

We can drop all kinds of teas at the end of words when we remove the T sound.

What about you, for example?

Now that's up to you if you want to do it.

There's detailed lesson in my course about that as well.

So the main thing for you to know is that in this situation try not to pronounce the t with this tap sound.

This American style sound better?

We want better.

British people might do it.

It might happen.

But I really recommend that you try to pronounce those teas because it will make people think that you really are British or that you're creating a really good British sound when you speak that maybe you were educated in British English, So yeah, in a summary, when you have a T which is surrounded by two vowels, just pronounce it, pronounce it as a use that aspiration make it strong, make it nice and clear And it will make you sound more British, more comfortable, more confident with your speaking if you want that British style of speaking and never pronounce the word British as British because I will cry.

Okay, so that's it for now.

If you enjoyed the video and you like my style of teaching and you really want to improve your pronunciation, I would suggest joining my online course the links in the description box below.

And it teaches you everything you need, including more detailed stuff about this, to help you with sounding perfectly British in your pronunciation.

And you also have me as a contact on WhatsApp to give you feedback advice evaluations on your speech and homework.

So hopefully I'll see some of you on the course soon.

If not, I'll see you in the next video.

Cheers, guys.

Take care.

Bye.