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I could correctly pronounce 'da' 'de' pairs of letters, as many native speakers told me:

just put the tip of your tongue between the upper and lower teeth and against the back of front teeth.

After training, I could pronounce them. However, I find another problem that when I speak a whole sentence, I always bite my teeth when I pronounce 'd' in the sentence, especially when I speak it quickly.

It is so unnatural to pronounce this sound. I don't believe native speakers have the same problems.

There should have some methods to speak 'd' when speaking fast, can anyone give me some tips/suggestions?

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  • Come to think of it DeslenguaDo is a self-defining word :)
    – deStrangis
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 10:31
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    Hi Peter. "Welcome" to SL.sx! Could you just stop creating more and more accounts, asking all the time more or less the same question? Stick to one account, and engage a discussion in a single question, over answers that don't provide you a satisfying solution. Thanks!
    – Alexis Pigeon
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 12:52
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    possible duplicate of voiceless vs voiced consonants / consonantes sordas vs sonoras
    – AlexBcn
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 15:14
  • The truth is that this all depends on where the Spanish-speaker is from. The Spanish-speaking world is enormous and old. People from different countries, regions, even towns, speak with different dialects, colloquialisms, accents, etc. You have to specify the birthplace of the Spanish-speakers you are referring to in your question.
    – user11528
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 11:24
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    I'm not sure what you mean that you "bite your teeth".. this seems like quite a feat!
    – Flimzy
    Commented Jan 4, 2016 at 9:31

2 Answers 2

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It's all about practice. You would bite your tongue a lot if you were just now learning to chew your food. It just takes practice. In the meantime, you can try closing your teeth more so your tongue can't fit in there, putting your tongue behind your teeth. That way you can't bite it.

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  • I agree - learning phonetics is all about repetition of the sounds until the movements are smooth. I've nipped my tongue before as well with "t" at first :) Also, listen to how it sounds if you alter the position a little. Like Rorok below mentioned, I think that your tongue may be protruding more than necessary in order to render the "d" sound.
    – DoctorWhom
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 18:08
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In my case (native speaker), when I pronounce the D, the tip of my tongue barely touches the upper-inner part of my front teeth, and the upper part of the tip rests on the very beginning of my palate. Maybe you are forcing the tongue placement a little too much. You shouldn't need to feel you're moving your tongue forward, just upward to make it touch the palate.

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