In casual American English, "The stopwatch is used to time the sprints accurately" sounds like "dhuh STAHP-wahch ihz YOOZD tuh TAHYM dhuh SPRIHNTS A-kyer-uht-lee". Several things happen here, and the headline one is the Silent T in Clusters: the T inside the consonant cluster drops out. 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 "sprints", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. This is called the Silent T in Clusters, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as SPRIHNTS.
What's happening in this sentence.
Small tricks that turn a textbook sentence into how an American actually says it.
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Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
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Pronouncing the T in a consonant cluster.
In "sprints", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. /t/ is dropped entirely — the surrounding consonants flow together without the T.
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "stopwatch", 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.
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.
Questions people ask about this.
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