He conducted interviews as part of his qualitative research study.

Words 10 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Flap T
hee he kuhn·DUHK·tuhd conducted IHN·ter·vyooz interviews uhz as PART part uhv of hihz his KWAH·luh·tay·duhv qualitative REE·surch research STUH·dee study
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In casual American English, "He conducted interviews as part of his qualitative research study" sounds like "hee kuhn-DUHK-tuhd IHN-ter-vyooz uhz PART uhv hihz KWAH-luh-tay-duhv REE-surch STUH-dee". 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.

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Common mistakes

Pronouncing the silent T after N.

In "interviews", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. /t/ is completely silent — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

In "qualitative", 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.

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Why it sounds different

What makes this sentence sound American.

In "qualitative", 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, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as KWAH-luh-tay-duhv.

The breakdown

What's happening in this sentence.

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

·
Reduced Words (to, for, of) in "he"Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.
•
Unreleased Stops in "conducted"Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
ɾ
Flap T Across Words between "conducted" & "interviews"The "t" at the end of "conducted" links to the vowel starting "interviews" — it flaps to sound like a quick "d", with the tongue briefly tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth.
t→∅
Silent T after N in "interviews"In "interviews", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.
⌣
Consonant-to-Vowel Linking between "interviews" & "as"Final consonant "migrates" to next word — no pause between.
h→∅
Silent H (in him, her, has) in "his"The "h" in "his" is dropped in connected speech — the preceding word's final consonant links directly to the remaining vowel — most natural in casual, rapid speech; in careful or formal speech, the H is typically kept.
Word by word

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

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

he hee conducted kuhn·DUHK·tuhd interviews IHN·ter·vyooz as uhz part PART of uhv his hihz qualitative KWAH·luh·tay·duhv research REE·surch study STUH·dee
Watch out

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

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

01

Pronouncing the silent T after N.

In "interviews", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. /t/ is completely silent — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.

IHN-ter-vyooz→IHN·ter·vyooz
02

Saying a hard "T" in the middle.

In "qualitative", 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.

KWAH-luh-tay-tuhv→KWAH·luh·tay·duhv
03

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "conducted", the "" 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.

kuhn-DUHK-tuhd→kuhn·DUHK·tuhd
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.

kuhn-tUHK-tuht→kuhn·DUHK·tuhd
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 "he" 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.
Why does the H in "his" sound dropped here?
In casual speech, Americans drop the H from unstressed function words like "he", "her", "him", and "his" when they sit inside a sentence. So "tell him" sounds like "tell-im". The H stays only when the word is sentence-initial or carries emphasis.

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