English Pronunciation | The Letter 'D' | 3 Ways to Pronounce the Letter D in English!

hello and welcome back to easy english with james today we're going to have a look at the letter d this is part of my a to z series teaching you pronunciation for all of the letters of the english alphabet today we're going to focus on the letter d now how many ways are there to pronounce this letter in english stick with me if you want to find out okay [Music] [Music] okay the letter d the letter d is the third consonant letter in english after the letters b and c if you want to learn about the letters b and c click in the description box below you'll find a link to the lessons on those two letters okay d is the third consonant and as you have just heard it is pronounced in the alphabet as d d a b c d d using the ipa we can see that it looks like this d and then an i and then those two little dots d d the d and the e sound d okay so how many ways are there to pronounce this letter in english the answer is there are three ways to pronounce this letter in english let's look at the first and the most common way as you probably know the most common way to pronounce this letter is as a d sound okay you'll know this from words like dad or dog or do okay okay so how do we make the d sound take your tongue the tip of your tongue put it behind your teeth on something called the alveolar ridge it's the same place that we make the letter t sound the t sound and build pressure okay imagine that there is air that you want to get out of your mouth but your tongue is stopping that air and you're building pressure and then you release the difference between the d and the t is that with the t there is no sound from your vocal chords you're not using your vocal chords with the d sound that we're looking at today you use your vocal chords okay the sound begins here like that and then d okay so vibrate your vocal chords build pressure and release if you don't use your vocal chords you will make a t sound okay they are nearly the same the only difference is those vocal cords remember tip of your tongue on the alveolar ridge that's the thing behind your teeth here vibrate and okay so you'll find this d sound in lots and lots of english words things like door or dog or lad or fad okay or bad at the end of words so what i want to do is to practice this letter and this sound when it comes at the beginning of words in the middle of words and at the end of words why well the truth is that even though this is one sound it can be produced to different levels depending on where it is in the word what do i mean if this d is at the beginning of a word we often say that it is stronger okay so in words like do and dog the d sound at the beginning is very strong okay but in words like made made and had it's a little bit softer where the d is at the end we can find that it's a bit softer in words like rude rude or food it's not food food okay it's a little bit softer in the middle it can be both okay in words like ready or idea or already okay it can be a mix of both normally it's strong okay don't worry too much because the sound is the same both are the only difference is how strong you want to make that d sound okay so remember at the beginning of words it's very strong always and at the end of words you can say it d if you want there is nothing wrong with that but most native speakers tend to make it a little bit softer okay so the difference between do and food you'll notice that that final d that is a little bit more like at the beginning of a word okay okay so let's practice that d at the beginning of words in words like do or day or dance or dinosaur okay at the beginning of words remember it's a strong d sound so practice with me do day dance dinosaur also dear dear and doc doc and dog dog okay now let's practice the in the middle of words in things like body body today today idea idea ready ready and steady steady okay you'll notice that it's still quite strong and don't worry as i said you can make it as strong or as weak as you want everybody will understand you okay ready steady idea today already okay really good words to practice okay let's practice that at the end of words now you'll find this sometimes at the beginning and at the end of words in words like did and dad here you can really hear the difference this the first d sound in da and then a little bit softer at the end dad dad and did did okay did did but also at the end of words like old old or gold or cold or bed or head or fed okay it's a nice little soft d sound at the end not the same as dead where the d at the beginning is stronger than the d at the end dead listen carefully dead dead dead okay can you hear the tiny little difference between the really strong d at the beginning and the slightly softer d at the end okay try this practice sentence with me diego did do some study in his bedroom diego did do some study in his bedroom most of the words in that sentence the d is at the beginning or in the middle so it should be lots of strong d sounds listen again diego did do some study in his bedroom diego did do some study in his bedroom diego did do some study in his bedroom why don't you try listen and repeat diego did do some study in his bedroom one more time diego did do some study in his bedroom okay well done try this one dan's dad did a difficult dance dan's dad did a difficult dance there's a few words in here where the d is at the beginning and at the end so you should be able to practice that hard d and softie here dan's dad did a difficult dance dan's dad did a difficult dance try it again dan's dad did a difficult dance your turn one more time dan's dad did a difficult dance a little bit slower dan's dad did a difficult dance okay well done okay so the second way that we can pronounce this d letter is as a t okay but but when when do we pronounce the letter d as a t luckily it's really simple we pronounce the letter d as a t in any regular past tense verb that ends with a voiceless consonant a voiceless consonant is a consonant that is not made using your vocal chords so take a verb like kick kick if we take the verb kick and we put it in the past tense you'll notice it finishes ed kicked but you probably heard it doesn't have the d sound it has a t sound kicked kicked that e d here is a t sound t sound why the reason is because the k sound at the end of the word kick can you hear that kick the final sound is is a voiceless sound there's no sound from our vocal chords kick if any regular past tense verb finishes in a voiceless sound then easy you just need to use as the next sound so let's look kick ends in so in the past it would be kicked kicked kicked what about wish wish ends in shhh is a voiceless sound so what do we do the d in ed becomes a t wish wished wish wished the same in kiss which ends in a s kiss becomes kissed kissed okay the same in help help ends in a okay a sound so help ed on the end changes to a t helped helped helped also in reach as in to reach for something reach ends in that voiceless sound so what do we do we add a t in the past reached reached reached some more examples are place which ends in that sound again place becomes placed earth earth or even the really cool verb to unearth it's one of my favorite verbs in english to unearth something to unearth something means to find it and discover something interesting to unearth something so if they find a mummy in a pyramid in egypt you would say they unearthed a mummy in a pyramid okay and you'll notice that earth and unearth ends in that difficult th sound but it's voiceless there's no vocal chords being used so after that is a t again in the past unearthed unearthed okay so remember past tense verbs that are regular that means they end in ed if the final sound of the original form the infinitive form of the verb is a voiceless sound the next sound will be a okay that ed will always be a the only time this doesn't happen is when the verb ends in t for example want here the final sound is already so we can't have two we can't have you can't say want so here we have to add a second sound we add it and we change it back to the d wanted one tid one tid okay one tid okay so one more time just remember past tense verbs that end in a voiceless sound the infinitive is a voiceless sound that ed will become a t sound so there is where the d letter can be pronounced as a t let's practice a sentence with this one try this i helped he worked she laughed they wished and we kissed all of those end in that sound okay go back and listen to that sentence as many times as you need to and listen for all of those t sounds on the end of those ed ed verbs okay practice that as many times as you need to okay now for a little test to make sure that you understood everything i have just said i'm going to give you five verbs in the present tense okay not in the past and i want you to think in the past which one of these verbs would not not have the pronunciation okay which one does not have the pronunciation that means that you should be thinking which one of these verbs ends in a voiced sound not a voiceless sound if you can see or hear which one of the following verbs ends in a voiced sound you will be able to write in the comments below which one of these does not have a t sound in the past in the past tense okay let's have a look guess guess dance dance love love park park and shop shop okay can you tell me in the comments which one of those ends in a voiced sound a voiced consonant okay if you know which one of those ends in a voiced consonant you can tell me in the past which one does not have that t sound okay good luck write your answers in the comments let's look at the next way to pronounce this letter d okay the next way that we can pronounce the letter d is a little bit less common not so often you won't see this so often as you will the d and pronunciations okay but the third way that we can pronounce this letter d in english is as a j j if you know how to pronounce my name james james that is the same sound that makes the first letter of my name you can also pronounce the letter d in english as a j j okay now the letter d as a j how do we make that sound it's a little bit more difficult okay to make the j sound you start with the d the position of the d so your tip of your tongue on the alveolar ridge and then you take it down and put it into the position of the ch but it's all got to be done really really quickly okay watch closely okay it is not the same as cha cha okay and it is also not the same as shu this time make sure you're starting that sound in the d position but you go down to the ch or sh position [Music] make sure your vocal chords are vibrating okay so when do we pronounce the d as a j luckily it's quite rare but examples would be words like soldier soldier there aren't many other words in english with this pronunciation okay d i d i i think this is the only word in english that has d i pronounced as a j soldier normally d i is pronounced d in words like brigadier brigadier or grenadier okay so don't worry this soldier is an exception to the rule soldier but it's worth remembering because it's quite a common word soldier soldier as in someone in the army soldier j soldier also in words where d comes before a g often after the g there's an e too d g e so words like edge or ledge or hedge or bridge or badge okay try these bridge as in thing that goes over the bridge bridge badge something you wear badge badge and edge edge edge many houses and gardens in england have a hedge around their garden a hedge hedge okay it's quite difficult when this sound comes at the end of a word hair g okay make sure that your jaw is forward it's much easier hedge edge ledge also wedge wedge and badge badge also in words where you can see the d followed by the letter j like in adjust adjust adjust and also adjective a very common word if you're studying english grammar adjective adjective adjective adjust and adjective so remember the d followed by a j is often a single j j sound adjective okay also the d followed by the letter u in words like individual difficult word individual or procedure procedure or even education education and graduate or graduate graduate graduate the verb and the noun graduate and graduate both have that d followed by the letter u gra jew not grad do don't make that mistake and have a d sound here the d followed by the letter u is a j j j sound graduate education individual jewel okay well done try this practice sentence with me the soldier gradually adjusted the bridge the soldier gradually adjusted the bridge one more time the soldier gradually adjusted the bridge okay practice these sentences lots and lots of times because you probably know by now there are so many rules in english it's hard to remember them all but if you practice this sentence maybe 20 or 30 times you will start to feel the correct sounds every time you hear soldier soldier soldier soldier eventually just like an english native speaker when they're growing up and learning the language your brain will get a feeling for the correct sound that will allow you to speak much much more fluently in english okay it means that you don't have to think in your head of all the rules okay the more you think of all those rules the slower you will speak and the less fluent you will be so you might need some of the rules when you're a beginner but the plan for you should be not to need those rules okay native speakers don't know those rules they just guess or instinctively instinctively feel what the correct sound will be soldier okay the soldier gradually adjusted the bridge practice that as many times as you need to try this in education a graduate graduates from university in education a graduate graduates okay try this in education a graduate graduates and you'll get that grad grad you edu okay the more you practice the more you will begin to feel the correct sounds let's try one more the lodge was near the edge of the ledge the lodge was near the edge of the ledge the lodge was near the edge of the ledge oh difficult one try it really fast the lodge was near the edge of the ledge the lodge was near the edge of the ledge and you'll get that j j d well done okay there's another way that we can pronounce or not pronounce the letter d we've heard the three ways the three ways to pronounce the letter d are d and j but we also have something called silent d okay this is a little bonus part of this lesson when do we find a d that we don't say that we don't pronounce in english this one's really simple when you see the letter d and it is in between two other consonants usually that d is silent take a look at the word handsome in the word handsome you'll see that d is in between two consonants han so the n then the d and then an s two consonants and the d in the middle so the d is silent handsome we don't say hand some we just say handsome as in the handsome man the handsome man or the handsome teacher okay handsome also in the word sandwich sandwich most people don't say sandwich sandwich they just say san which because the d in the middle is silent san witch sandwich not sandwich okay so remember silent d is usually found in between that's in the middle of two other consonant sounds perfect examples are handsome and sandwich silent d can also be found in some exceptions some special words you probably know the word wednesday wednesday this is a crazy word in english but it's very common because you use it every wednesday every week okay monday tuesday wednesday we don't say wed nesday we say wednesday wednesday there's a few silent letters in there when's day wednesday no d no d sound wednesday okay also in family names some family names for example grandma and grandpa and granddaughter and grandson okay most people don't say grand son or granddaughter in granddaughter there are two d's the first one is silent daughter of course we need d daughter but in grand there we don't pronounce the d we just say gran gran same in grandpa and grandma we don't say grand par because it's too difficult it's very hard to say that so grandpa and grandma grandson and granddaughter silent d all the time and in the word wednesday wednesday okay try and remember those little exceptions okay what about when we have words where there are two d letters together normally when you see two d letters together it's really easy you just pronounce it as one d so in words like middle and cuddle and add you can see two letter d's two d letters but we pronounce them as one d usually a strong d sound add add address address okay also middle and cuddle and fuddle and fiddle okay but as usual in english there are exceptions to this rule okay the exceptions here are words like midday midday okay in the word midday you've got two d's okay midday and in headdress headdress something special can happen here though in the first word midday you probably notice that that first d is a little bit too soft we use something here called a glottal d in this lesson i'm not going to talk or teach you too much about what that is but basically it means that the first d here is kind of half pronounced we stop ourselves saying it so we don't say midday we say mid and then we stop and then day midday we stop our throat it's known as a glottal sound in english a glottal stop okay midday head dress headdress okay but it is also not wrong to pronounce both d's okay head dress or mid-day okay so remember those are exceptions we'll have a look at that glottal stop sound in another lesson another time let's go on to try some tongue twisters with the letter d okay let's try some tongue twisters now with this letter d and all of the different ways to pronounce it try this dan the dinosaur danced until he died of dizziness down the dinosaur danced until he died of dizziness a little bit slower dan the dinosaur danced until he died of dizziness dizziness is when you spin around too many times dan the dinosaur danced until he died of dizziness okay practice that one as fast as you can also the verb do is great for practicing that d the strong d sound in english because when you open it up and you see all the different forms of this verb you'll see that there are lots of different d sounds in there okay so do do or does does or doesn't doesn't or did did and didn't didn't also doing doing and done done okay this lesson is nearly done practice all of that verb do did doesn't does doing done and you'll be able to practice that strong d sound okay try it do does doesn't did didn't doing done lots of different d sounds there okay practice that one as many times as you need to okay as a final bonus to this lesson we're going to practice some really long words in english to improve your pronunciation of long words beginning with d okay number one is deadliness deadliness deadliness this is how deadly how bad or deadly something can be okay a deadly animal the deadliness deadliness deadliness number two is deceitfulness deceitfulness another long word deceitfulness deceitfulness number three our final word today decentralization that's a really long one decentralization decentralization now look this up in a dictionary and see if you can write what is this in the comments decentralization decentralization okay well done one more thing if you want to practice the d and t sounds they can be tricky to hear the difference between these two sounds so check out words like and and ant okay remember the d sound is the same as the t sound but the d sound is made in your vocal chords so look at and and ant and practice them together and aunt and aunt and aunt okay well done okay thank you very much for joining me today for this lesson i hope that you learned something useful if you did find this lesson helpful make sure that you hit that like button and you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss any of my future videos okay if you know anybody that would be helped by this lesson make sure you share this video so that other students can also improve their english okay thank you again for joining me and i'll see you again for the letter e which is our next lesson okay bye bye [Music]

Channel: Easy ENGLISH with James

Views: 261,518

Keywords: english speaking practice, The Sounds Of English, Perfect English Pronunciation, english pronunciation, british english pronunciation practice, English pronunciation course, English pronunciation lessons, British Accent, received pronunciation, english sounds, Sounds of the letter d in English, How to pronounce D in English, Silent D, English Consonants, British English sounds, D vs T, Glottal Stop, Glottal D, How to pronounce the letter D, Soft D vs Hard D

Id: Yc8zMsHgRJg

Length: 33min 5sec (1985 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 25 2021