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I don't know exactly the meaning of the following sentence.

it's an American pronunciation video which is talking about the sound of "d".
the teacher brought a sample word "dad", she made the first "d" sound, then said "It's the same with a D at the end of the word, though a little more subtle. "
though a little more subtle, means
1. the two "d" sounds have a little difference.
2. the difference between the two "d" sounds is hard to distinguish.

thanks a lot for help.

For learning: English
Base language: English
Category: Language



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    "D" is a stop-plosive sound, which means that you need to stop making other sounds for a brief moment before you can make a "D" sound (the same goes for letters like B or P).

    However, when a vowel follows a D, the D can slip into the other sound. When D is by itself, the tendency is to stop the sound abruptly, which creates a small "uh" noise at the end of it.

    So when you say "dad", the sound being made is "Dah-duh". It's the same sound, but because there's no vowel for the second D to follow, it creates that little pop at the very end. You can hear it by simply saying it; your mouth will almost naturally create the pop.

    As for what they mean by their sentence, I'd say that they MEAN no. 1, but I'd also say that it's implied that, due to the subtlty, that the difference IS hard to distinquish.

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