Hello people,

I have a American English pronunciation question that has been nagging me forever. I've asked several natives in person but to no avail as of yet.

The question is, when you pronounce a tapped T, where the syllable is unstressed (e.g., Water, Butter, Hitter, ), what is the correct way to pronounce the "T"?

Personally, I have been pronouncing it by tapping the tip of my tongue on the ceiling of my mouth, somewhere around the middle, BEHIND the bones protruding behind the teeth. I do the same thing to pronounce the letter "D" or "T" in words such as "Middle" and "Little".

In contrast, I pronounce "D", as in "Harder" or "Infinity", by tapping the tip of the tongue ON the back of the front teeth AND ON the bone right behind it.

So, in sum, I tap my tongue a litter farther back on the ceiling of my mouth to pronounce the likes of "Water" than I would to pronounce the likes of "Harder or Infinity". This may be because I want to pronounce more clearly the "D" sound for words such as "Infinity" than I would "Water".

So, if all this makes sense to any one of you, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on my inquiry. Thanks.