UNRELEASED FINAL STOPS (Question raised by Eduardo) Great question, Eduardo. Yes, we usually do pronounce the final ‘d as an *unreleased* occlusive. This is true of all the occlusives in syllable-final position before a consonant most of the time. The reason you’re asking about the ‘d is that it constitutes a complete word (“had”, “would”, or even “did”), and is the regular simple past-tense ending, so hearing it is important. Between vowels (or continuant consonants), occlusives (ptkbdg) involve stopping the airstream entirely, and then releasing it as we pronounce the following vowel. If there is no following vowel, then we only pronounce the first part (the stop) and there is no audible release. (Of course there is a release at some point — but it is covered by the articulation of the following consonant, or by shutting our mouths.) Most natural languages have “lazy” ways of producing different phonemes, but these shortcuts are different from one language to another. In Spanish, the bdg are usually pronounced as fricatives or approximants and not as full stops. Native speakers will barely notice the difference in their own language, but the differences in other languages will confuse them — until we have internalized the phonological “rules”. Getting back to the /d/ in American English, note that it (as well as /t/) is pronounced as a so-called “quick-D” in many intervocalic contexts — this is similar to the sound of the simple R in Spanish, Japanese, etc. In fact the T phoneme is almost never realized as /t/ in American English (and in many “British” accents other than RP). Back to the ‘d: In many cases, while you’re continuing to train your ear, you’ll be able to guess its presence by the verb it governs: He likes eating / to eat pizza. He’d like (not “likes”) to eat (not “eating”) pizza. (‘d = would) He’d eaten a lot of pizza. (‘d = had) What’d he do? (‘d = did) What’d he done (‘d = had)

CORRECTION: In the last sentence of PART 3, I meant to say: In my opinion, the final syllable in the VERB “certificate” is pronounced with a secondary accent. (The final syllable in the noun “certificate” is unstressed, and the vowel is reduced to a schwa. This is typical of noun / verb pairs in English.

PART 3 OF 3: We can look up some words in the Cambridge Dictionary, which shows syllable breaks by means of a little dot. Additionally, a tiny vertical line on top is placed before the syllable with primary stress. A tiny vertical line on the bottom is placed before the syllable or syllables with secondary stress (if any). Here is the link to the dictionary page with the key to the phonetic symbols. In my opinion, the three levels of stress (primary, secondary, and unstressed) are much more important than syllable breaks. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.html Phonetic transcriptions from the dictionary: civilization noun (UK usually civilisation) UK /ˌsɪv.əl.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ US /ˌsɪv.əl.əˈzeɪ.ʃən/ certificate noun [ C ] UK /səˈtɪf.ɪ.kət/ US /sɚˈtɪf.ə.kət/ certificate verb [ T ] UK UK /səˈtɪf.ɪ.keɪt/ US /sɚˈtɪf.ɪ.keɪt/ significantly adverb UK /sɪɡˈnɪf.ɪ.kənt.li/ US /sɪɡˈnɪf.ə.kənt.li/ Notes: In my opinion, the final syllable in the noun “certificate” is pronounced with a secondary accent.

PART 2 OF 3: Another principle in English is relative sonority. Briefly, here are some typical consonant clusters that can begin a syllable: (s or occasionally sh) + (k, or p) + (l or r) (s or occasionally sh) + (t, k, or p) + r For example: stray, screen Syllables generally cannot begin in other clusters. Syllables can end in more than one consonant, but the rules are complex. Here are some examples of very complex finals in English: Worlds, adjuncts.