IPA reference · consonant
t̪ — voiceless dental plosive
Like English /t/, but the tongue tip contacts the back of the upper teeth rather than the ridge behind them.
Also called: dental t, voiceless dental stop
How to make the voiceless dental plosive
Put your tongue tip against the back of your top front teeth — you should be able to feel the enamel — and release. The contact area is wider and flatter than for English /t/, and the release sounds slightly duller.
This sound does not occur in standard English. That means there is no word you can say to find it by accident; you have to build it from the articulatory instruction above and check it against a recording.
Languages that use it
| Language | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| French | tout | all |
| Spanish | todo | everything |
| Italian | tutto | all |
| Russian | там | there |
Sounds it gets confused with
Most pronunciation errors are not random — they are a substitution of the nearest sound the speaker already owns. These are the usual substitutions for t̪, and each one is a minimal-pair drill waiting to happen.
The English alveolar /t/ is made about five millimetres further back. Nobody will misunderstand you, but it is one of the strongest markers of an English accent in Romance and Slavic languages.
What this means for learners
English speakers substitute alveolar /t/ here almost universally, and combine it with aspiration, which compounds the effect. Fixing the place of articulation and dropping the puff of air together is the cheapest accent improvement available in French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.
Teaching this sound
Describing a sound in words gets a student roughly half the way there. The other half is hearing it produced correctly, immediately after producing it incorrectly, with both versions available to replay. That is the argument for recording during the lesson rather than after it: the student leaves with your model of t̪ attached to the actual words they got wrong, not to an abstract chart.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does the IPA symbol t̪ make?
t̪ is the voiceless dental plosive. Like English /t/, but the tongue tip contacts the back of the upper teeth rather than the ridge behind them. It does not occur in standard English.
How do you pronounce t̪?
Put your tongue tip against the back of your top front teeth — you should be able to feel the enamel — and release. The contact area is wider and flatter than for English /t/, and the release sounds slightly duller.
Which languages have the voiceless dental plosive?
Among the languages covered here: French (tout, “all”); Spanish (todo, “everything”); Italian (tutto, “all”); Russian (там, “there”).
What is the difference between t̪ and t?
The English alveolar /t/ is made about five millimetres further back. Nobody will misunderstand you, but it is one of the strongest markers of an English accent in Romance and Slavic languages.