Pronunciation exercises: /d/ vs /t/

/d/ is a voiced consonant. /t/ is an unvoiced consonant.

/d/

 * with initial /d/: day - did - do;
 * with final /d/: and - bad - bed;
 * initial and final: dad - dead - did;
 * past tense: answered - loved - played - waited

/t/

 * with inital /t/: ten - two/too;
 * with final /t/: bat - but - put;
 * past tense: asked - jumped - laughed - missed - passed - pushed

/d/ vs /t/
See more minimal pairs ending in /t/ or /d/ in next section. This is not a minimal pair: dreamed /driːmd/ - dreamt /dremt/
 * aid - eight; bad - bat; bed - bet; bid - bit; bride - bright; code - coat; dead - debt; do - two/too; down - town; dry - try; fade - fate; had - hat; hard - heart; hide - height; inside - insight; mad - mat; ride - right/write; slide - slight;
 * Past tense of verbs: bend - bent; bowled - bolt; broad - brought; complained - complaint; learned - learnt; lend - lent; sad - sat; send - sent/cent; spelled - spelt; spend - spent;

Exercise
An interesting exercise to get students to pronounce these endings correctly, or at least be aware of the problems, is to spell out a series of "base" words and get 'em to come up with the variations finishing in /t/ or /d/: