it's such a big subject, I can't quite seem to get away from it. Today we're going to

talk about this case: party, party. Do you hear how the T is being pronounced here? Party.

If you've already seen my video on T pronunciations, then you know when the letter T or double T comes

between two vowel sounds, that it is often pronounced in everyday speech by native speakers

as a D sound. For example, butter, water. But I got an email from someone recently saying

that he's noticed when the letter T comes after the R and before a vowel, that in this

case too, it is sometimes pronounced as a D. And I admit, I've noticed this myself.

Now, I'm not saying that new English speakers should try to do this. But I am saying I've

noticed that native speakers to it, so let's point it out, let's talk about it, so you

know what's happening when you hear it. The R consonant sound. When it is not at the beginning

of a syllable, whether by itself or in a cluster, it sounds just like the 'ur' as in 'her' vowel.

For example, in the word alert, alert. Here it is the R consonant sound, but it's just

like the ur vowel sound, rr, rr. So when the R comes after the vowel or diphthong in a

syllable, it functions much like the 'ur' vowel sound. For example in the word alert,

alert alert, there is no change in sound there from the 'ur' as in 'her' vowel symbol to

the R consonant symbol. Ur, it's all just one sound. And this R consonant as a vowel

sound occurs any time the R consonant comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable.

For example in the word 'father', er, er. It's that same sound, even in a syllable where

there is a distinct, separate vowel sound before the R consonant. For example, in the

word 'part'. Ah, rr. Part, part, part. It may be a little quicker here, but it's that

same R consonant as vowel sound. This is why native speakers might pronounce it as a D

when it comes after this sound and before a vowel sound. It's that same rule, when it

comes between two vowel sounds, even though it would be written in IPA with the R consonant

sound. The R consonant sound in these cases is just like the 'ur' as in 'her' vowel sound.

Let's look at some examples. Alerted, alerted. I've alerted the staff. Article, article.

I read that article. Charter, charter. They'll sign the charter tomorrow. Mortified, mortified.

I was mortified. Sorted, sorted. We sorted it out. Vertical, vertical. Please draw a

vertical line. You may find that you hear this not only within a word, but in a phrase.

When a word ends with -rt, and the next word begins with a vowel. Let's look at some examples

of that. Part of, part of. It's part of the problem. Sort of, sort of, it sort of got

out of hand. Expert in, expert in. He's an expert in pronunciation. Airport on, airport

on. I want to get to the airport on time. As I said, if you're not comfortable with

integrating this into your speech, that's ok. But you probably will hear native speakers

do it. Part of, part of, part of, part of. When the T gets changed to a D sound, it does

smooth out the line somewhat. Part of, part of, part of. And linking and smoothing things

out is a big part of American English. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English