The sentence was suspended on the condition of good behavior.

Words 10 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Silent T after N
dhuh the SEHN·tuhns sentence wuhz was suh·SPEHN·duhd suspended ahn on dhuh the kuhn·DIH·shuhn condition uhv of GUUD good buh·HAY·vyer behavior
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In casual American English, "The sentence was suspended on the condition of good behavior" sounds like "dhuh SEHN-tuhns wuhz suh-SPEHN-duhd ahn dhuh kuhn-DIH-shuhn uhv GUUD buh-HAY-vyer". 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 "sentence", 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 "good", 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 "sentence", 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 small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. It comes out as SEHN-tuhns.

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 "the"Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.
t→∅
Silent T after N in "sentence"In "sentence", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.
ə→◌
Silent Schwa Before L/M/N/R in "sentence"Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
ɾ
Flap T Across Words between "suspended" & "on"The "t" at the end of "suspended" links to the vowel starting "on" — it flaps to sound like a quick "d", with the tongue briefly tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth.
⌣
Consonant-to-Vowel Linking between "condition" & "of"Final consonant "migrates" to next word — no pause between.
•
Unreleased Stops in "good"Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
Word by word

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

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

the dhuh sentence SEHN·tuhns was wuhz suspended suh·SPEHN·duhd on ahn the dhuh condition kuhn·DIH·shuhn of uhv good GUUD behavior buh·HAY·vyer
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 "sentence", 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.

SEHN-tuhns→SEHN·tuhns
02

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "good", 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.

GUUD→GUUD
03

Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.

In "sentence", 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.

SEHN-tuhns→SEHN·tuhns
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.

suh-SPEHN-tuht→suh·SPEHN·duhd
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 "the" 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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