Which way do you think fluent English speakers normally say the words Please wait, 1 or 2?

Hold on to your answer.

These 6 consonants, /b/ and /p/, /d/ and /t/, /g/ and /k/, are called stops or plosives. In order to say these sounds, we block the air for a moment until the pressure builds up and then release it in a little explosion.

But if these 6 sounds are at the END of a word, we stop the air from exploding with our tongue or lips. We keep the air to save time and breath for the next word.

So the answer to the question above is we say wait like the second one above because we don’t fully make the /t/ sound.

To learn more and practice how to pronounce these stop consonants at the end of words, go the Resources page.

Practice: Listen to the following sentences. Then make sure your microphone is on, push the button to speak, wait 5 seconds, and don’t speak too fast. Repeat them, making sure to not fully say the final stop consonants in bold.

1. I am rarely late to work.
2. Not that my classes are that long.
3. He calls it a night around 11.
4. But my boyfriend and I almost didn’t go.
5. He is too tired to whip something up.