Is there a difference between “bitter” and “better” in pronunciation?

Question

I was wondering if there was any difference between "bitter" and "better" in pronunciation? My assumption is that one is pronounced with a soft "d" as in "better" and the other one with a hard "t" as in "bitter". What do you guys think?

Answer 1

In Standard American English, like some other posters mentioned, [t] between vowels is pronounced as a voiced flap (see The IPA Handbook for further details):

city, water, utter, bought it.

It does resemble [d] but still those are different sounds.

Answer 2

The difference in pronunciation of the letter t, in American English, depends on its position in a word. For example, when it is inside a word, it is silent.

There is a good example of this in an episode of the Simpsons, called the Blunder years. It shows Homer, Moe, Lenny and Carl as children. The part where they are all sitting around a camp fire and Carl mentions the internet. Watch from 11:54 to 12:06.

http://en.simpsons-live.net/season-13/episode-5_The_Blunder_Years/smotri

Answer 3

I was wondering if there was any difference between "bitter" and "better" in pronunciation? My assumption is that one is pronounced with a soft "d" as in "better" and the other one with a hard "t" as in "bitter". What do you guys think?

The page at this link http://www.americanaccent.com/pronunciation.html, explains it well. Further down the page, at the section called "The American T". It says:

The American T is influenced very strongly by intonation and its position in a word or phrase. It can be a little tricky if you try to base your pronunciation on spelling alone. There are, however, 4 basic rules: [T is T], [T is D], [T is Silent], [T is Held].

It then gives examples. This is the best explanation, so far.

Answer 4

In my observation, the heavy T pronunciation (which many people mistake it with the pronunciation of D) has its origins from lazy pronunciation phenomenon common in French and English.

The confusion of the lazy T with the pronunciation of D is rather pronounced among students learning to speak "American English" in China, where they learn to pronounce "letter" as "ledder".

Here are examples of lazy/elided T pronunciation:

• Bo^^le (bottle)
• But^on (button)
• Of^en (often)
• Le^^er (letter)
• Be^^er (better)
• Bu^^er (butter)

Elided T pronunciation is a signature of cockney, too. The effect of skipping the T is a pharyngeal/palatal resonance.

Perform this experiment:

1. Practice saying bo^^le, but^on, of^n, le^^er, etc until the elided T's flow out of your mouth spontaneously and almost naturally.
2. Then, have a drink, and before you revert back to your original sense of pronunciation, attempt to pronounce bottle, button, often, letter, etc, without skipping the T.
3. That is how the heavy T effect can be brought about.

I realise that many people who prefer to use a "respectable" form of English pronunciation would take the trouble to pronounce "of^en" as "oft-ten". (And in Boston, I notice people in "respectable" circles pronounce "figure" as "figeuer", "coupon" as "kiupon" - which puzzles me. But would not "pict-teuer" or "picheuer" their picture.) But then, they also oft-ten have to look for pairking spots.

I believe how you pronounce your elided T can be directly correlated to how you pronounce the word "English". Is it

• Eng-glish,
• or is it, En^^lish (with a palatal+pharyngeal resonance)?
• Mont-gumry or M^-gumry (for Montgomery)?

Which would then affect whether there is a difference in how you pronounce the T's in "bitter", "better" and "butter".

In my opinion, the reason is, as you tend to elide your consonant T, you might as well elide its preceding vowel, resulting in having scant differences in pronouncing the preceding vowels.

Answer 5

You have to specify dialect and accent to get a true answer. For me and my dialect (Midwestern American English), the distinction is slight if at all noticeable. But in many "highbrow" dialects, the tt is more voiced. Other examples include betty and bottle. Read more about this regional variation at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_pronunciation#Allophones

Answer 6

That will depend on which form of English you speak. In American English, it is pronounced with a soft "d". It is normal for Americans to drop the letter t, inside a word. Depending on the word, this can end up being pronounced as a soft "d" or, just not pronounced.

It is not normal to drop the letter t, for British people. As a British person, this t dropping is immediately obvious when I hear Americans speak. Because of this, when they say the words "bitter" and "better", they sound like "biddeRR" and "beddeRR" (not only with the soft d sound but, with a harsh, rolled r sound, as well).

Answer 7

I think the 'soft d' you're referring to, if you're and American English or Ulster English etc. speaker, is the alveolar tap /ɾ/. I imagine the two sounds you do produce if you speak one of these varieties is pretty similar. There is no "correct" way to pronounce it really, so just keep pronouncing it as you normally would. If you're asking if there's a difference in the pronunciation of and then there isn't one really, because English (generally) doesn't have geminates, unlike a language like Italian for example

Answer 8

I'll admit, sometimes my tongue gets lazy, and I'll say "bedder" when I mean "better." But the dictionary would exhort me to do a better job of enunciating my t's, like Howard Jones.

bitter |ˈbitər| (adj) 1 having a sharp, pungent taste or smell; not sweet
better |ˈbetər| (adj) 1 comparative of good and well; of a more excellent or effective type or quality