/d/ and its allophones
A quick recap
/d/ is produced by our tongue tapping against the back of our top teeth – slightly further forward than for our English /d/, which leads to a softer sound:
Variations
/d/ has two allophones: a “hard” [d], and the “soft” [ð]. The hard [d] is the sound we’ve been practising recently (although we call it “hard”, it’s still softer than our English /d/ sound). The softer [ð] sound is closer to our English “th” sound from “this” – although not so soft. It’s between a “d” and a “th” sound in English:
Hard [d]:
Soft [ð]:
Where these occur
Hard [d] sound occurs at the beginning of the phonemic phrase, or after /n/ and /l/. Listen to the slightly harder quality of the [d] sound in these words and phrases:
Día
El día
Dar
Dolor
Dulce
Un dulce
Dónde
Notice that with “el día” and “un dulce”, the [d] sound is still used, as it is affected by the /l/ or /n/ in the previous word (this is assimilation in action, once again!). Speakers in real life do not pause between words!
Softer [ð] sound appears everywhere that [d] is not used. Listen to the slightly softer quality of the [ð] in the following recordings:
Pedir
Estado
Una docena
Ese dedo
Again, the quality of the /d/ sound is affected by the sounds that come before it, whether or not these are part of the same word.
When it occurs at the end of the word, the /d/ can actually disappear in casual speech in certain accents:
Usted
This elimination of the sound also often occurs in words ending with “-ado” (so, a lot of verbs), at least in fast speech:
¿Qué has tomado?
You’ll also often hear the “d” sound disappear with words ending in “dad”, although this is not true with all dialects:
Verdad, ciudad, amistad
Exercise
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