How to pronounce What are you going to do now? in American English

Words 7 Difficulty Beginner Featured sound Flap T Across Words

WUHT what er are yuh you GOH·uhng going tuh to DOO do NOW now

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Americans pronounce "What are you going to do now?" as "WUHT er yuh GOH-uhng tuh DOO NOW" in casual speech. Two things bend the textbook pronunciation. The headline is the Flap T Across Words — the T at the end of one word flaps into the vowel that starts the next. It lands on what, what turns word-by-word reading into actual conversation. Keep stressed words long, unstressed words short, and link the consonants forward into the vowels.

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Sounds

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Clarity

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Stress

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Intonation

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Fluency

62%

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72% Noticeable accent

Common mistakes

Hard T at the end of a word, not a flap.

The "t" at the end of "what" links to the vowel starting "are" — 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.

Pronouncing the function word too fully.

"are" is a function word — in connected speech, the full vowel reduces to a quick "er" sound and consonants may simplify. Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.

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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.

Flap T Across Words between "what" & "are"The "t" at the end of "what" links to the vowel starting "are" — it flaps to sound like a quick "d", with the tongue briefly tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth.

→ə

Reduced Words (to, for, of) in "are""are" is a function word — in connected speech, the full vowel reduces to a quick "er" sound and consonants may simplify.

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what WUHT are er you yuh going GOH·uhng to tuh do DOO now NOW

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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.

Hard T at the end of a word, not a flap.

WUHT→WUHT

Pronouncing the function word too fully.

er→er

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 "are" 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.

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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Common mistakes

Hard T at the end of a word, not a flap.

Pronouncing the function word too fully.

What's happening in this sentence.

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

Hard T at the end of a word, not a flap.

Pronouncing the function word too fully.

Questions people ask about this.

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