1. 1
The Held /t/
As a simple awareness exercise, let’s first practice saying the /t/ sound
so that you get a feeling of where in the mouth it occurs.
“ttttt“
When you pronounce the /t/ notice that the tip of your tongue is
touching and releasing your gum ridge, which is the upper part of your
mouth, right behind your front teeth. This is what we call a fully
pronounced /t/. The tongue touches and releases.
Now pronounce the following words which end with a /t/ sound:
a. cat
b. right
c. set
d. fate
e. hot
f. put
1
Taken and adpated for academic purposes from Mojsin, Lisa (2009) Mastering the American Accent. Los
Angeles: Barron’s

2. Say them again; this time do no release the /t/. Just let your tongue
stay on top, touching the gum ridge, with no air coming out when you
say the /t/. this called the “held /t/.” The other way to make this kind
of silent /t/ is just to press the vocal cords together to stop the airflow
and then release.
The /t/ sound is generally held at the end of words and before
consonants within words. This “held /t/ is very common in American
English. Using it will help you to sound more like a native speaker since
non-native speakers almost always tend to realease the /t/ when
speaking English.
Note:
You will sometimes hear American release the final /t/. If they do, it’s
usually at the end of a phrase or a sentence, or for special emphasis of
a word. For example: “That’s great!” “It’s no hot!”
There is no absolute rule about always holding the /t/, but keep in
mind that if you release the /t/ at the end of every word, it will sound
like a foreign accent.