See a speach therapist; a good speach therapist can give you a strategy and work with you to overcome your “DUR” to “TUR” problem.

However, to be perfectly frank, since you asked this question, I decided to ask some folks at a local mid-western mall how to pronounce “WATER”; and you know what – it’s really very hard to tell whether people are saying “wa’tur” or “wa’dur”, – even when you tell them why you asked, and ask them to say the word again, and they are suprised to discover that most of those that think they said W-A-T-U-R actually said W-A-D-U-R, (including myself – by the way).

By the way, when I first read your Question, I was kind of angry about it, thinking to myself, “Why do some idiots think it’s funny to put absolutely stupid waste-of-everybodys-time crap like this in here?” And then I read you explaination, and I was intgrigued, – and of course I was hooked. Very interesting question – thanks for the thought.

If you pronounce it the same way other folk in your town do, I don’t see the problem. If you plan to move, or communicate with people who speak differently on even terms, you’ll have to change more than that one word.

When actors from outside the U.S. are trying to develop an American-sounding accent, the transition from a hard “T” to a soft “D”, if it occurs in the middle of a word, is actually recommended.

Molly, I don’t like that you are referring to my regional accent as “not caring about the proper pronounciation or use of words.” I live in an area where we pronounce water “wudder.” If I lived down south and broadened my vowels, or flattened them in the midwest, would you say I didn’t care about proper pronounciation? What if I lived in Boston and dropped my r’s? Different regions have different accents or dialects; it does not mean that we don’t care about the way we speak. If we never changed the way we spoke or assimilated other accents or words, we’d all be speaking with English accents.

It’s probably an accent. I live in NYC, and I don’t know if this is an accent of the area but most people I know just say “Manhan’en” for Manhattan. I kinda say “wadur”, not like a Wa DUR but like a mumbled “T” in water. You don’t have to enunciate the “T” if you don’t want to, I doubt most people notice.

I’m so glad you’re concerned about this.

So many people don’t care about the proper pronunciation (or use ) of words nowadays.

We are losing our language skills because of it.

Many people use the pronunciation you use, however, the proper way to say it is ‘wah-tur’.

Keep trying to make yourself better.

;o)

i over enunciate so i say TER but its not that big of a deal, most ppl say waDER. I have a friend named Katey and i pronouns the T in her name too. most ppl say it Kaedy no matter how its spelled. they will still know whatt ur talking about

Hooked on Phonics worked for me, maybe you should look into it. Also, there is a pronunciation guide in the front of every dictionary, look it up.

don’t feel bad, i say wadur too. (i grew up in wisconsin… you must be from the midwest too???)

its just like the people in boston who say “i have an idear… lets go fah a walk to fenway pahk and drive up to hahvahd aftah.” (i live in boston now- i know this from experience)

what state do you live in?

just pronouce the ‘T’s – very few of them are silent, if any.

i say it like war-ter but fast