> . No American English speaker in his or her right mind pronounces these words as though there's a "hard" t in them. > This is one of the main things you shou

> . No American English speaker in his or her right mind pronounces these words as though there's a "hard" t in them. > This is one of the main things you should do if you're trying to sound like the British upper crust: aspirate your t's. Oddly enough, I do this and I'm an American English speaker. This might be the reason people say I sound kind of pretentious if I'm not faking a regional accent. > NPR is a hotbed of inconsistent nonflapping. One thing I've noticed as a long-time NPR listener is that NPR is allowing and/or encouraging their normal reporters to use their native accents. In the past, this, I think, was more of a privilege granted to big names (Car Talk, Diane Rehm). But now a lot of reporter sound on air like they probably do IRL.