Learn English – Pronunciation of double consonants

american-englishdoubled-consonantspronunciation

How do you pronounce double consonants in American English?

For example:

  • Daddy – Do you say "Da-di", "Dad-di" or "Dad-i"?
  • Mommy – Do you say "Ma-mi", "Mam-mi" or "Mam-i"?
  • Swimming – "swi-ming", "swim-ming" or "swim-ing"?

I try to listen but I can’t catch it. Are there any rules to pronounce double consonants?

By the way, I'd to know more about syllabic-boundary of double consonants.
For example, I read two dictionaries online. For "Mommy" one pronounces "Ma-mi" and another one pronounces "Mam-i". It makes me confused. Can we say both?
But when I hear by myself it looks like "Mam-mi", can I say that too?

And about "butter" (it's interesting) which EnabledZombie wrote that it is pronounced "budder" (two Ds) but I saw in a dictionary, it wrote that it has to be pronounced "bud.er". There is only one D. How are they different? Or does it share "d" between 2 syllabics?

Best Answer

To expand on the other answers, you will find that some American English pronunciation of consonants is different from that of British English. For example, the Ts in butter are pronounced distinctly as Ts in the UK (buht-er), but just the same as Ds in America (buh-der). Note that both of these pronunciations use only one consonant sound, not two.

An audial example can be heard at 01:52 in this video.

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