How to pronounce Can we push back the meeting time by about thirty minutes? in American English

Words 11 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Flap T

kuhn can wee we PUUSH push BAK back dhuh the MEE·duhng meeting TAHYM time bahy by uh·BOWT about THUR·dee thirty MIH·nuhts minutes

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Americans pronounce "Can we push back the meeting time by about thirty minutes?" as "kuhn wee PUUSH BAK dhuh MEE-duhng TAHYM bahy uh-BOWT THUR-dee MIH-nuhts" in casual speech. Several things bend the textbook pronunciation. The headline is the Flap T — the T between vowels turns into a quick D-like flap. You'll hear it on meeting and again on thirty — a small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. Keep stressed words long, unstressed words short, and link the consonants forward into the vowels.

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Stress

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Intonation

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Common mistakes

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

In "meeting", the "d" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "back", the "k" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.

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The breakdown

What's happening in this sentence.

Small tricks that turn a textbook sentence into how an American actually says it.

→ə

Reduced Words (to, for, of) in "can""can" is a function word — in connected speech, the full vowel reduces to a quick "kuhn" sound and consonants may simplify.

Unreleased Stops in "back"In "back", the "k" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air.

t→ɾ

Flap T in "meeting"In "meeting", the "d" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.

V–V

Vowel-to-Vowel Linking between "by" & "about"Between "by" and "about", a brief "w" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow.

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can kuhn we wee push PUUSH back BAK the dhuh meeting MEE·duhng time TAHYM by bahy about uh·BOWT thirty THUR·dee minutes MIH·nuhts

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Watch out

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

MEE-tuhng→MEE·duhng

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "back", the "k" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.

BAK→BAK

Leaving a gap between two vowels.

Between "by" and "about", a brief "w" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow. A brief glide (y or w) bridges two vowels for smooth flow.

bahy→bahy

Pronouncing the function word too fully.

"can" is a function word — in connected speech, the full vowel reduces to a quick "kuhn" sound and consonants may simplify. Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.

kuhn→kuhn

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Why do the T sounds turn into D-like sounds in this sentence?

That's the flap-T rule: when /t/ sits between two vowels — inside a single word, or across the boundary between two words — Americans replace the crisp T with a quick D-like flap. It's one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech and one of the first things to copy if you want to sound less textbook.

Why is "can" said so quickly in this sentence?

Function words — articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns — reduce to short, unstressed schwa shapes in casual American speech. Pronouncing them fully like the dictionary entry is a dead giveaway of a textbook accent. Native speakers stress only the content words and let everything else collapse.

How are the words connected in casual American speech?

Americans don't pause between words. A consonant at the end of one word links forward into the vowel that starts the next; two vowels in a row get bridged by a tiny W or Y glide; an identical consonant repeated across a word boundary is held just once. The result is a continuous flow rather than a textbook word-by-word delivery.

Is this how the sentence is taught in textbooks?

Textbooks usually teach the citation form — every word pronounced fully, every consonant crisp, every vowel pure. Americans actually flap their Ts, drop function-word H's, link consonants forward into vowels, and reduce unstressed syllables to schwa. The respell on this page shows the casual form you'll hear in real conversations rather than the textbook version.

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Common mistakes

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

What's happening in this sentence.

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

Leaving a gap between two vowels.

Pronouncing the function word too fully.

Questions people ask about this.

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