Community organizations are working to address food insecurity locally.

Words 9 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Flap T
kuh·MYOO·nuh·tee community or·guh·nuh·ZAY·shuhnz organizations er are WUR·kuhng working tuh to uh·DREHS address FOOD food ihn·suh·KYUUR·uh·tee insecurity LOH·kuh·lee locally
Start here

In casual American English, "Community organizations are working to address food insecurity locally" sounds like "kuh-MYOO-nuh-tee or-guh-nuh-ZAY-shuhnz er WUR-kuhng tuh uh-DREHS FOOD ihn-suh-KYUUR-uh-tee LOH-kuh-lee". Several things happen here, and the headline one is the Flap T: the T between vowels turns into a quick D-like flap. Keep stressed words long, unstressed words short, and link the consonants forward into the vowels.

Now you try.

Read the sentence out loud at native speed. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.

Ready when you are
Tap the mic to start
Preview your accent profile

Get your accent profile and 5-axes assessment.

Sounds
75%
Clarity
68%
Stress
78%
Intonation
65%
Fluency
62%

Overall assessment

Our AI coach listens to your recording and grades 5 dimensions of pronunciation — then tells you exactly what to fix next.

72% Noticeable accent

Common mistakes

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

In "community", the "t" 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.

Saying a clean "dr" instead of a "j" sound.

In "address", the "dr" cluster blends into a "jr" sound — a natural American English pronunciation. /d/ shifts toward /dʒ/ ("j"), so DR sounds like "jr".

Unlock the full report in the app
Why it sounds different

What makes this sentence sound American.

In "community", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, a small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. It comes out as kuh-MYOO-nuh-tee.

The breakdown

What's happening in this sentence.

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

t→ɾ
Flap T in "community"In "community", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
(j/w)
Vowel-to-Vowel Linking between "community" & "organizations"A brief glide (y or w) bridges two vowels for smooth flow.
ə→◌
Silent Schwa Before L/M/N/R in "organizations"Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
⌣
Consonant-to-Vowel Linking between "organizations" & "are"Final consonant "migrates" to next word — no pause between.
·
Reduced Words (to, for, of) in "are"Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.
ɾ
Flap T Across Words between "food" & "insecurity"The "t" at the end of "food" links to the vowel starting "insecurity" — it flaps to sound like a quick "d", with the tongue briefly tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth.
Word by word

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

Each word has its own page with examples, common mistakes, and related words.

community kuh·MYOO·nuh·tee organizations or·guh·nuh·ZAY·shuhnz are er working WUR·kuhng to tuh address uh·DREHS food FOOD insecurity ihn·suh·KYUUR·uh·tee locally LOH·kuh·lee
Watch out

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

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

01

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

In "community", the "t" 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.

kuh-MYOO-nuh-tee→kuh·MYOO·nuh·tee
02

Saying a clean "dr" instead of a "j" sound.

In "address", the "dr" cluster blends into a "jr" sound — a natural American English pronunciation. /d/ shifts toward /dʒ/ ("j"), so DR sounds like "jr".

uh-DREHS→uh·DREHS
03

Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.

In "organizations", the short unstressed vowel before "" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.

or-guh-nuh-ZAY-shuhnz→or·guh·nuh·ZAY·shuhnz
04

Hard T at the end of a word, not a flap.

The "t" at the end of "" links to the vowel starting "" — it flaps to sound like a quick "d", with the tongue briefly tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth. Same flap as within-word (R1) but spanning two words.

FOOt→FOOD
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 "are" 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.

Practice this sentence with an AI coach.

SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.

Download for iOS Android Coming soon