How to Pronounce ‘t’ Sound

This pronunciation lesson is designed for 3-6-year-old children to help them pronounce the letter ‘t’ using its phonic sound.

Learning phonic sounds is important for children as this helps them read faster and more fluently. This is the first step in learning spelling and vocabulary.

In our previous video lesson, we learned about phonics, the importance of learning phonics, and the phonic sound of the letter ‘s’. This video lesson is the 21st in a row of learning the sound of letters.

Why is it Important to Learn Sound Through Phonics?

Introducing the English language using phonics is the best way to teach children how to read and write. This is well supported by research. Systematic phonics instruction has been shown to outperform any other approach to learning to read.

Why are they so effective? Because phonetics gives your child, the tools to read almost any word they come across. And it’s really powerful.

Learning phonetics will benefit your child. The more your child succeeds in reading words using phonetics, the more their reading ability and confidence will grow. The child will feel a sense of accomplishment repeatedly, so it’s a great motivation to read and write effectively.

What is the Sound of the Letter t?

T is a consonant thus, the “t” sound /t/ is unvoiced (the vocal cords do not vibrate during vocalization) and correspond to the voiced “d” sound /d/. Air is temporarily blocked from exiting the vocal tract when the tip of the tongue is pressed against the ridge while the sides of the tongue are pressed against the upper molars to produce /t/. When the air is removed, the sound is aspirated.

The effort for /t/ is greater than the effort for /d/, especially when it is the first sound of a word or the first sound of a stressed syllable.

How to Pronounce the Letter ‘t’ with Examples?

To produce the sound of the letter t, the tongue stops the airflow in front of the mouth. This sound forces the tip of the tongue behind the upper teeth. The sides of the tongue also press against the upper teeth to stop airflow. The T sound releases more air.

Letter ‘t’ used in words with /t/ sound: tap, tip, tank, turtle, tomato, truck, troll, etc.

How to Introduce the Pronunciation of the ‘t’ to the Child?

Invite the child to the table and tell them, today we are going to learn the sound of the letter ‘t’ produces.
Show the child how the letter ‘t’ looks like and what is the sound of the letter ‘t’.
Say it several times by producing the /t/ sound.
Ask the child to repeat the sound after you.
Show the child a picture or miniature of words starting with t such as a tap.
Repeat the sound of ‘t’ every time while showing the image of the tap.
Now show another picture that starts with t and again pronounces the letter ‘t’ sound.
Encourage the child to make the sound of ‘t’ whenever the picture is shown to them.

List of Activities to Introduce the Letter t to the child:

T for a tree – Make and cut a picture of a tree. Ask the child to color it and, if possible, decorate it. Let them pronounce t-tree as they keep working on it.
T for time – Give a paper to children and then tell them to make a clock that defines times. Ask them to pronounce t- time as they continue working on it.
T for tulips – Make tulips from muffin cases. Make tulips using paint and white paper. Make a red-orange body to the flower, or make it pink or purple. Petals can be of any color. It’s fun to make gorgeous flowers bloom.
T for train – Create the letter t from the train tracks and add a paper train. What a fun learning idea. There is a simple craft tutorial that teaches you how to build a simple train through The Little Legers.

This video allows the child to explore the short consonant sound of the English letter ‘T’ and learn words starting with it, such as a tree, train, tractor, and turtle. The sounds are repeated for each word so that the child can hear and pronounce the letter accurately.

FAQs

What kind of phoneme is t?

/t/ is one of six plosives in English. This plosive is described as an alveolar voiceless plosive.

In the production of /t/ sound, two articulators move against each other without releasing air from the vocal tract. Because of the compression of the air, the air escapes the closure, causing the plosion (a burst of sound) to be heard.

Is ‘t’ sound voiceless?

Both /t/ and /d/ are alveolar plosives in English. If produced in isolation, /t/ is voiceless, while /d/ is voiced, which is a fundamental difference between the two sounds. Voiceless plosives /t/ is pronounced with more force than voiced ones /d/.