Learn English – the difference between /tr/ & /tʃ/

consonant-clusterspronunciation

I'm very confused!

A youtube video explained /tr/ should be pronounced like /tʃr/. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNHI1biK0-4.

Another youtube video explained /tr/ should be pronounced like /t/ & /r/ and try to make a quick link between 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMAv3B5xMZc.

So which one is correct?

/TR/ is the most difficult sound I have ever known. In other words, how can I distinguish between "cheese" & "trees"; "choose" & "true"?

Best Answer

There appear to be two separate questions:

  1. Which one is correct?
  2. How can I distinguish between them?

Both pronunciations are correct, but they each represent a different accent. The American pronunciation is /tʃɹ/, as in the first video. The second video features an Australian speaker, thus the pure /tr/ sound.

Assuming you are not a native speaker of English, it seems silly to provide a phonetic analysis of the two pronunciations. My recommendation is to practice the words exactly as taught in the videos. I think they both do a good job, but you need to choose the specific accent you wish to acquire and practice with that video ONLY.

The American accent video does a very good job of teaching awareness of the feel of your lips and tongue so that you include the /ɹ/ sound after the /tʃ/ sound. Here is a bookmark of that portion of the video.

Good luck!