Let's identify any potential roadblocks and address them proactively.

Words 9 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Silent T after N
LEHTS let's ahy·DEHN·tuh·fahy identify EH·nee any puh·TEHN·shuhl potential ROHD·blahks roadblocks and and uh·DREHS address dhuhm them proh·AK·tuhv·lee proactively
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Americans pronounce "Let's identify any potential roadblocks and address them proactively" as "LEHTS ahy-DEHN-tuh-fahy EH-nee puh-TEHN-shuhl ROHD-blahks and uh-DREHS dhuhm proh-AK-tuhv-lee" in casual speech. Several things bend the textbook pronunciation. The headline is the Silent T after N — the T after N drops out entirely. It lands on identify, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. 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 "identify", 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 clean "dr" instead of a "j" sound.

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

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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.

C–V
Consonant-to-Vowel Linking between "let's" & "identify"The "s" at the end of "let's" flows directly into the vowel starting "identify" — the consonant migrates to the next word with no pause between.
ɪ→∅
Short Contractions (it's, that's) in "let's"In fast speech, the vowel in "let's" vanishes — the "eh" is completely elided, leaving only a quick "ts" cluster — this is a feature of casual, connected speech; in careful speech, the vowel is retained.
t→∅
Silent T after N in "identify"In "identify", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.
V–V
Vowel-to-Vowel Linking between "identify" & "any"Between "identify" and "any", a brief "w" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow.
ə→◌
Silent Schwa Before L/M/N/R in "potential"In "potential", the short unstressed vowel before "l" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "l" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own.
Unreleased Stops in "roadblocks"In "roadblocks", the "d" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air.
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let's LEHTS identify ahy·DEHN·tuh·fahy any EH·nee potential puh·TEHN·shuhl roadblocks ROHD·blahks and and address uh·DREHS them dhuhm proactively proh·AK·tuhv·lee
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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.

01

Pronouncing the silent T after N.

In "identify", 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.

ahy-DEHN-tuh-fahy→ahy·DEHN·tuh·fahy
02

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

In "address", the "d" 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

Pronouncing the vowel before M/N too pure.

In "and", the "a" vowel before M or N raises and fronts toward [eə] — the tongue pulls up and forward, breaking the vowel into a tense glide as it anticipates the nasal. The "/æ/" vowel raises and fronts before M or N — tongue pulls up and forward, producing a tense [eə] glide (between /e/ and /ə/). Not a pure /æ/.

and→and
04

Treating every L the same.

The L in "potential" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.

puh-TEHN-shuhl→puh·TEHN·shuhl
Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Why is "and" 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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