sound t

1.

Sound /t/
Prepared by Yana Geints and
Eva Evdokimova
Group 3.055.2.24

2.

Pronunciation rule
1. Press the front part of your tongue against the alveolar ridge (the
area immediately behind the upper teeth).
2. Push air forward in your mouth.
3. Remove your tongue from the alveolar ridge.
❗ Remember: /t/ is a voiceless sound and it’s pronounced with the
aspiration!
• Raise your tongue tip to the alveolar ridge and press it firmly. Push
air forward in your mouth. Then drop your tongue quickly.

3.

• Lips: relaxed and neutral, not involved in the
articulation.
• Air pressure: built up behind the tongue tip
and released with a short puff (aspiration)
before a vowel.
• Release: the tongue tip quickly drops from the
alveolar ridge, letting the air escape.
• Vocal cords: not vibrating — /t/ is voiceless.
• Tip: the tip of the tongue presses firmly
against the alveolar ridge (just behind the
upper teeth) to block the air.

4.

Сlassification
1. Work of vocal cords: voiceless
2. Degree of force of articulation: strong
3. Degree of noise: noise
4. Type of obstruction: occlusive (plosive)
5. Place of articulation: alveolar

5.

Practice
Tin, top, tomato, tennis, technology, water, put,
term, television, tall, table, tear, tell, test, taxi, bite,
talk, team, tiny, heart, late, write, sight, can’t

6.

❗When aspiration is not needed:
• in unstressed syllables: apartment, artist;
• at the end of words: late, write, sight;
• in the st- combination and before s: start, stop, cats.

7.

Reading rules:
1. In some words, the letter «T» is written but not
pronounced:
• Stle – [sl] castle, whistle, hustle, wrestle;
• Sten – [sn] fasten, listen, glisten
• Ften – [fn] soften.
❗In words borrowed from French, the sound [t] is not pronounced:
ballet, gourmet, chalet, crochet.

8.

2. The letter combination «th» in English can be pronounced
as two different interdental sounds: the voiceless [θ] (as in
«think») and the voiced [ð] (as in «this»).
• th - [θ] think, three, thick, path
• th - [ð] this, that, mother, brother, breathe

9.

❗The voiced sound [ð] is most commonly found:
• In function words: the article “the”, pronouns “this, that, these,
those, they, them, their”.
• In adverbs and conjunctions: then, there, than, though, thus.
• Between vowels in words of Germanic origin: father, mother,
brother, rather, together, weather.
❗The voiceless sound [θ] is used in all other cases, typically
at the beginning or end of words (except for function words).
Examples: think [θɪŋk], three [θriː], thick [θɪk], thing [θɪŋ], mouth
[maʊθ], tooth

10.

Important exceptions and nuances
• Proper names. In some words of Greek origin, th is pronounced
as [t]: Thames [temz], Thomas [ˈtɒməs], Thailand [ˈtaɪlænd],
thyme [taɪm].
• Nouns and adjectives at the end of a word. As a rule, it is
pronounced as a voiceless [θ]: bath, health, breath, tooth.
• Verbs at the end of a word. As a rule, the voiced [ð] is
pronounced: breathe, bathe, soothe.
• Words of Greek and Latin origin. Usually, the voiceless [θ] is
pronounced: cathedral, enthusiasm, ethics, mathematics, method.

11.

3. Tch [tʃ] match, catch, witch, kitchen
•Ture [tʃə] nature, picture, culture, future
•Tion/tial/tious [ʃ] situation, information, station

12.

Proverbs and sayings
1.Tastes differ.
2.Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.
3.That cock won’t fight.
4.A tattler is worse than a thief.
5.To teach the dog to bark.
6.To tell tales out of school.
7.Time is the great healer.
8.Take a back seat.
9.Tried and true / tried-and-true/
10.Turn the tide

13.

Tongue twister
1. Two tiny tigers take two taxis to town.
2. The two-twenty-two train tore through the tunnel.
3. Two toads totally tired.
4. Mr. Tongue Twister tried to train his tongue to twist and turn, and
twit and twat to learn the letter T.

14.

Tongue twister
5. Don't trouble trouble, until trouble troubles you! If you trouble
trouble, triple trouble troubles you!
6.
A Tudor who tooted the flute tried to tutor
two tooters to toot. Said the two to the tutor,
"Is it harder to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot?".

15.

List of references
1. Буковская М. В. , Вяльцева С. И. , Дублянская З. И. Словарь
употребительных английских пословиц: 326 статей. 3 изд. М.:
Стереотип, 1990.
2. Иванова Ю.А., Jim Whalen Живые правила чтения английского
языка. Харьков: New time, 2011.
3. Казанцева Я.Н., Ростова М. Л., Семенова Е. В. Теоретическая и
практическая фонетика английского языка : учебное пособие.
Красноярск: Сиб. федер. ун-т, 2024.
4. Most Popular English Tongue Twisters for Perfect Pronunciation
(grouped
by
target
sounds)
//
heylama.com
URL:
https://www.heylama.com/blog/english-tongue-twisters
(дата
обращения: 14.10.2026).