I was very worried about the interview.

Words 7 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Silent T after N
ahy i wuhz was VEH·ree very WUR·eed worried uh·BOWT about dhee the IHN·ter·vyoo interview
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In casual American English, "I was very worried about the interview" sounds like "ahy wuhz VEH-ree WUR-eed uh-BOWT dhee IHN-ter-vyoo". Several things happen here, and the headline one is the Silent T after N: the T after N drops out entirely. 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 "interview", 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.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "about", 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.

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Why it sounds different

What makes this sentence sound American.

In "interview", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. This is called the Silent T after N, and it's why Americans sound more relaxed than the textbook. It comes out as IHN-ter-vyoo.

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 "was"Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.
ɾ
Flap T Across Words between "worried" & "about"The "t" at the end of "worried" links to the vowel starting "about" — it flaps to sound like a quick "d", with the tongue briefly tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth.
•
Unreleased Stops in "about"Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
(j/w)
Vowel-to-Vowel Linking between "the" & "interview"A brief glide (y or w) bridges two vowels for smooth flow.
t→∅
Silent T after N in "interview"In "interview", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.
Word by word

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

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

i ahy was wuhz very VEH·ree worried WUR·eed about uh·BOWT the dhee interview IHN·ter·vyoo
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 "interview", 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-vyoo→IHN·ter·vyoo
02

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "about", 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.

uh-BOWT→uh·BOWT
03

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.

WUR-eet→WUR·eed
04

Leaving a gap between two vowels.

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

dhee→dhee
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 "was" 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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