The General American flap T: how to say water, butter and city

0:00–1:00 · THE PATTERN

Between vowels, before an unstressed syllable

T becomes a tap when it sits between two vowel sounds and the syllable after it is unstressed. An R before the T counts as part of the vowel, so party and forty tap too.

In attack and hotel, the T starts the stressed syllable, so it stays a crisp T. If you tap those, it sounds wrong. Before you go on, record yourself saying “The water is getting a little cold.” in your everyday voice.

1:00–2:30 · WORDS

One quick flick of the tongue

water · butter · city · getting · little · party

1. Play each word and repeat it. Keep the tap light and quick. If you hear a crisp T with a puff of air, you're holding on too long.
2. Say water, butter, city slowly, then at normal speed. The tap gets easier as you speed up, so don't over-pronounce it.
3. In little the tap goes straight into the L. In party it comes right after the R. Repeat both until they feel like one movement.

A common overcorrection: a heavy, held D (“wad-der” with a pause). The tap is shorter than any D you'd say on purpose.

2:30–3:15 · AN EAR TEST

Metal or medal? Atom or Adam?

Because T and D both tap between vowels, General American usually says metal and medal the same way, and atom the same as Adam. Listeners tell them apart from context.

1. Play metal, then say “medal” out loud. If the tap is right, you shouldn't have to change anything. Do the same with atom and “Adam”.

3:15–4:00 · ACROSS WORDS

The tap jumps word boundaries

When a word ends in T and the next word starts with a vowel, the T taps across the gap: put it away comes out close to “pudidaway”. This is where accents that keep T tend to give themselves away.

1. Play put it away and count the taps (there are two). Say it slowly as three words, then link it into one phrase.
2. Play what a city and a little water. Notice the tap in what a as well as in city and water.

4:00–5:00 · TWO SENTENCES

Decide for every T, then record

1. Before playing anything, go through “The water is getting a little cold.” and mark every T: tap or full T?
2. Play the reference and check. Water, getting and little all tap.
3. Now “She wrote a better letter this time.” Better and letter tap, and wrote a taps across the words. Time keeps a full T, because it starts a stressed word.
4. Record the first sentence again and play it after your everyday take. Listen only for the Ts. Write down one word to work on next time.

Variation matters. Flapping is standard in General American and also common in Canadian and Australian English. In careful or emphatic speech, Americans sometimes keep a full T, so a crisp T now and then isn't wrong.