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Tesco Posted 16 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Some words that I need help to pronounce

Hi everyone,
I've studied American English with some audio books and I learnt some useful rules.
But sometimes with some words, I really get confused how to pronounce.

For example, a native American English speaker doesn't pronounce the first "t" letter in the word "internet" right? Because there's an "n" sound before it.
Okay, but what about "content"?
There are two "t"s that you shouldn't pronounce.
Should I pronounce at least one of them or none of them? It sounds kinda strange when I don't make the t sounds.
I'm gonna keep writing some other words that I will have difficulty in pronunciation. 
Thanks!
  

Top answer

Hi, some t's can be left out, but not always. It tends to happen in words that are common, and when the following syllable is not stressed. Internet: the main stress is on "in", and the secondary stress is on "net".

— Kooyeen

  • Hi, some t's can be left out, but not always.
  • It tends to happen in words that are common, and when the following syllable is not stressed.
  • Internet: the main stress is on "in", and the secondary stress is on "net".
  • The syllable following the "t" is not stressed.
  • Center: the main stress is on "cen".
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27 Answers
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Hi,
some t's can be left out, but not always. It tends to happen in words that are common, and when the following syllable is not stressed.

Internet: the main stress is on "in", and the secondary stress is on "net". The syllable following the "t" is not stressed.
Center: the main stress is on "cen".
The "t" is often dropped in these words.

In "content", there seem
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Dropping T's is common in American slang, but not in formal pronunciation.
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trhutchins3Dropping T's is common in American slang
It has nothing to do with slang.
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As far as I know, dropping T's is not related to informal or sloppy speech. It's standart American English.
I just asked if we drop the T's in the word "content".
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TescoI just asked if we drop the T's in the word "content".
No, they are pronounced.
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Neither of the T's is dropped. In fact, T's are rarely dropped in any standard English word; I can't think of a single example of when one is dropped.
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I'm saying that pronunciations such as "twenty" without the second T are informal. Informal speech is, in a way, slang.
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TescoFor example, a native American English speaker doesn't pronounce the first "t" letter in the word "internet" right? Because there's an "n" sound before it.
Okay, but what about "content"?
All the T's are usually pronounced in internet and content. You may occasionally hear "innernet", but my recommendation is not to imitate this pronunc
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Here I want to write a quote from the book I have about American Accent.
Silent t After n
The t after an n is often silent in American pronunciation. Instead of saying internet Americans
will frequently say “innernet.” This is fairly standard speech and is not considered
overly casual or sloppy speech.

Words for Practice
1. interview 5. dentist 9. international
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