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You should not always pronounce this letter in English. There are so many words with silent T's. Today, I'm going to teach you the rules when you should never pronounce the letter T in English, even when it's written. Now, in modern RP, my accent, when you do pronounce the letter T, it should sound beautifully clear. If you want to sound unmistakably British, then you might be interested in my fiveday British accent boot camp. We cover T pronunciation on day two. This boot camp is 5 days of focused pronunciation lessons on the sounds that define a British accent. From the crisp t sound and the soft sound to vowel clarity and natural rhythm. Thousands of my students have already participated in the boot
camp and they say that they start sounding more confident and more authentically British from the very first lesson. Right now I am offering two things. One is a huge discount and two is lifetime access to the course materials. So join the boot camp and start sounding more natural and more British. Just click the link in the description box or scan the QR code there. Let's begin with the lesson. Our first section is very short. Silent T's at the beginning of words. There are very few words that start with silent T's. We have two here. Technically, we don't have any words that genuinely start with a silent T.
However, many English speakers find it difficult to pronounce the consonant sounds t and s together. See, even I'm struggling. That means that even though the words s and tsunami should start with a t- sound, most speakers don't bother with it and just say zah and tsunami instead. Choose whichever is most comfortable for you. It doesn't really matter and I wouldn't say they are everyday words for most people. Next, we have our longest category of silent tword. Words ending in the letters s t l e like castle and whistle. They end with s. Now, some speakers will go directly from the S to the like s.
Others, myself included, will insert a soft schwa sound. S. S. You might find that version easier to pronounce. Castle. Whistle. And can you think of any more words that end in these letters? Well, we've got quite a few that rhyme with whistle. bristle, bristle, and thistle. Bristles are short, stiff hairs in a brush. And gristle is that white, chewy bit you sometimes get in meat. The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland. And in fact, a thistle has sharp bristles. That's a nice way to remember the pronunciation and the meaning of those words. We also have another plant, mistletoe. And I know technically it doesn't end in s TL E, but the letters are in there and the first T is silent.
It's mistletoe, not mistletoe. This is a plant often used as a Christmas decoration. It has green leaves and shiny white berries. We tend to hang it from the ceiling. And maybe you've heard of the tradition that you should kiss under it. I pronounce this word with an unvoiced S sound, mistletoe. But some people use a voiced Z sound, mistletoe. Then we have apossle with a short o vowel sound. With a short e sound, we have wrestle, pestle, and nestle. Take care with the silent w at the beginning of wrestle. And finally, hustle and bustle and rustle. I love saying those words. Hustle, bustle, rustle. Okay, let's practice. Shadow me now to practice those silent T words.
Speak along with me or use the pause button and repeat after me. As the hustle and bustle slowly subsided, I began to hear the rustling sound of a mouse nestling in its burrow. The wind whistled round the castle as the apostle wrestled to close the heavy door. Okay, let's move on now to words ending in the letters s t e n. The letter t is usually silent in words like fasten and listen. It isn't fasten or listen. Drop the t- sound. Fasten. Listen. See how much smoother that feels? It's easier to say without the T- sound. We've also got glisten and christen that rhyme with listen. And then we have hasten,
chasen, and moisten. Be careful though, not all sen words follow this silent t rule. The author of sense and sensibility and pride and prejudice, for example, is Jane Austin, not Jane Austin. Now, let's practice those silent T words. Shadow me if you can or listen, pause, and repeat. We hastened to church to watch and listen as the baby was christened in a glistening gown. Okay, next up we have got soften and often. Should you ever pronounce the T in these words? Okay. In soften, we never pronounce the T, but you can pronounce the T in often. Many people are taught that you should never say often. It's not true. Lots of people
say it. Often or often are both totally fine. I tend to say often. It's definitely safe to say that the T in soften is always silent. Soft. Soften. We also have some silent T's that pop up in the middle of words like Christmas, mortgage, and chestnut. Some people might pronounce a soft T in chestnut, but it's not very common. It's not wrong, but it's not common. And the letters th in asthma are silent, too. So it's asthma, not am asma or asma. Although some people do occasionally say this. I think that's very hard to say.
Asma. Asthma is so much easier. For me, it's asthma. But I have heard North Americans use the voiced Z sound. Asthma. Now, I know this lesson is all about when we never pronounce the T in certain words, but I have to let you know about this next secret because it will make your pronunciation sound so much more natural. So, we don't have to drop the T sound in these words, but we frequently do. Listen and repeat to compare. Post war. Postwar. Lastly, lastly, wristband. Now, did you notice that I dropped the T- sound the second time I said the word? Now, this often happens when we have a fricative like s a t and then another consonant sound. Fricative
consonants are S, Z, F, V, F, V, sh, Z, and H. A silent T in these words just makes them easier to say. The T sound can also disappear like this between words, too. For example, she has the nicest smile. He's got two left feet. We got the last bus home. Nicest smile. Left feet. Last bus. Okay, let's try dropping some te's. Shadow me if you can or listen, pause, and repeat. The bank softened the blow and reduced my mortgage payments last Christmas. Now remember, it is not obligatory to drop the T- sound from reduced or last here, but it's very common in connected speech. If it feels forced, don't do it.
Only do it if it makes you feel that your speech flows more. Okay, we will finish with several words that we have borrowed from French that all end in a silent t. Words like ballet, gourmet, crochet, chalet, and buffet or buffet. We also have valet, but some people do pronounce it valot. Then we have depo and ra. Let's practice those silent T's at the end of words. Shadow me or listen, pause, and repeat after me. After the ballet, we went to a gourmet buffet in a Swiss style chalet. Okay, remember, if you'd like to take your pronunciation even further and master some of the essential modern RP
sounds, that's my accent, by the way. Come and join my 5-day British accent boot camp. It's a really focused way to sound more natural and speak more confidently in just 5 days. As I told you, we are offering a huge discount and lifetime access. Don't miss out. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on screen to learn more and join. I would love to know which of these silent T words you were pronouncing incorrectly. Are there any silent T words that we haven't mentioned in the lesson? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.
