The Tap/Flap Sound
Today, we’re going to discuss a sound that we make that doesn’t have its own letter.
The symbol looks like a lower case R-letter but it is typically referred to as a flap T.
It is called an alveolar tap or flap and is represented by the /ɾ/ symbol in the international phonetic alphabet. In actuality, there are slight differences between a flap and a tap but there isn’t a meaningful difference worth looking into for the sake of our level of pronunciation.
No one is going to say, “Woah, woah, did you just say a flap T instead of a tap T? That’s wrong!”
The sound is a replacement sound for the T-letter or D-letter, specifically when placed between two vowels, provided the second vowel is unstressed (as in butter, writing, wedding).
Have you ever noticed that some English speakers will say, “budder” for “butter” or “madder” for “matter or even “wader” for “water”, especially in North America?
This is why.
The location is either alveolar or slightly further back in the post-alveolar space.
THE SOUND
The voiced alveolar tap/flap is similar to the voiced alveolar stop. The one difference is the manner of articulation is an especially brief obstruction or contact whereas as a stop is prolonged - we’re talking about timing in terms of milliseconds. So it may even sound like a D-sound to people.
Verbal cues
The sound is made by a distinct tapping strike of the tongue like a very brief stop along the alveolar ridge or slightly further back at the post-alveolar space.
Visual Cues
Visually, there won’t be any clues because all the work is done on the inside of your mouth.
Tactile Cues
The alveolar ridge or post-alveolar space is important as a tactile cue. Your tongue tip or a slight curl in your tongue is important for this contact point.
THE SOUND IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS.
Here's the sound in different positions of a word.
MIDDLE OF THE WORD - butter, writing, wedding, loader, whatever
END OF THE WORD - “get over it”, “might I”
*NOTE - As you can see, this flapping can extend to a pattern across words in short phrases. It cannot be done in word-initial position but can extend across syllables. I won’t get too deep into the linguistic reasons why but just know that the beginning of a word prior to the word’s first vowel is important and as such, the consonant sounds must be retained (i.e. cannot be swapped out/changed).
SITUATIONS THAT SEEM LIKE THE SOUND BUT AREN'T
Remember that the flap/tap R-sound is intervocalic (a.k.a. between vowels) between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel. Therefore, it won’t apply if both vowels are stressed.
SITUATIONS THAT SEEM LIKE THEY AREN’T THE SOUND BUT ARE
The flap/tap replacement can also be used in specific circumstances that aren’t (VOWEL + T/D + VOWEL) circumstances. For example, VOWEL + R-letter/L-letter + VOWEL situations as in party and occasionally faulty.
WHY IT MAY BE HARD
It can be hard to know when to correctly and fully produce the actual letter (a.k.a. the T-sound or D-sound instead of using the flap. Depending on where you are in the world, the frequency of the flap T differs and it truly does depend on your local English community.
Now, let’s reiterate. There is nothing wrong with producing the T-sound or D-sound accurately in these words. People will still 100% understand what you said. The difference is it may not sound “local” to the region.
For example, flapping after the L-sound is more common in Canadian English than in American English. You won’t find a resource online that goes through every single word in English to distinguish between Canadian English and American English. Nor will some authority say you are wrong if you flap T instead of normal T-sound. The point being there is no cookie-cutter way to master this extra nuance, so the main difficulty will be noticing and picking your battles on when you do it.
I suggest just listening to the speakers around you. If you know a word has a T-letter in it, but the resulting pronunciation sounds closer to a D-sound, the speaker is probably using the flap T. For example, if they say the word ‘Water’ and it sounds closer to ‘Wadder’ then it’s a flap T. Make a mental note of it and try to use it too! Gradually, these habits will become a part of your speech and you will sound closer to a local English speaker.
Then rinse and repeat. For all those intervocalic T and D letter words.
I said I would help but I never said it would be an easy process.
WHAT TO DO
So let's say you do have trouble with your Flap/Tap R-sound. What can you do about it.
Well, here are the features of the R-sound.
Place of articulation - The place of articulation is alveolar or post-alveolar which means just behind the upper front teeth or alveolar ridge. The tongue tip or curled tongue (aka retroflexed tongue) is the point of contact .
Manner of articulation - Tap or Flap. A single contraction of the tongue muscles so the tongue makes very brief contact. Think of it like a hot potato or hot stovetop. Your tongue does a quick touch and that’s it.
Voiced or unvoiced - voiced (this means the vocal cords vibrate).
I’m breaking down every single sound down for you so that you can learn how to produce each sound in English accurately. Sometimes, we’ll have easier sounds and sometimes we’ll have harder sounds.
If you’ve grasped this sound, then great! But if you’ve got a tip that might work for others, or you took a while to produce this sound correct but something clicked for you, let me know down below in the comments. My goal is to have a community know what to do when they’re stuck!
