How to pronounce The museum is hosting an exhibition of impressionist paintings. in American English
In casual American English, "The museum is hosting an exhibition of impressionist paintings" sounds like "dhuh myoo-ZEE-uhm ihz HOH-stuhng uhn ehk-suh-BIH-shuhn uhv ihm-PREH-shuh-nuhst PAYN-tuhngz". 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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What makes this sentence sound American.
In "paintings", 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, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as PAYN-tuhngz.
What's happening in this sentence.
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Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
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Pronouncing the silent T after N.
In "paintings", 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.
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "museum", 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.
Pausing between the words.
The "" at the end of "" flows directly into the vowel starting "" — the consonant migrates to the next word with no pause between. Final consonant "migrates" to next word — no pause between.
Pronouncing every consonant in the cluster.
The "" at the end of "" is dropped before the consonant starting "" — the surrounding consonants flow directly together — common in flowing natural speech; in careful or formal speech, the sound is often kept. The /t/ or /d/ at the end is dropped — surrounding consonants flow directly.
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