Some 'y' and 'ty' at end of words are impossibly difficult to pronounce.

>which ends up sounding like 'loyal tea' as an American, loyal-tea (or loyal-tee) is exactly how I say it.

“Loyal tea” is literally how it’s pronounced lol

What do you call tea that is loyal?

“Loyal Tea” is literally exactly how it’s pronounced. I’m sitting here saying “loyalty loyal tea loyalty loyal tea” repeatedly and I can’t tell the difference.

Perhaps a bit of unorthodox advice, but try singing along to the Kendrick Lamar song “LOYALTY” over and over again as practice

Practice saying the "ull" sound. It's used a lot in American English, and it's difficult if you're not a native speaker because it's such a soft sound, I guess. To be clear, "ull" sound as in words like : mull, cull, dull, hull, and null. A more subtle version of this sound is often in the middle or end of words with an "L" like : little, loyalty, camel, brittle, etc.

What’s wrong with sounding like “loyal tea”? That’s almost how I was about to tell you to try practicing the word.

As others have said, pronouncing it like loyal-tea is still correct, especially at the end of sentences. However, when included in a sentence many native speaker replace the “t” sound with a “d” sound without thinking about it. So it sounds like loyal-dee instead of loyal-tea. Is that what you’re talking about?

You might be being too perfectionist with your approach. If you say the word as "loyal tea", it might not sound the *most* natural, but that's just a matter of accent more than anything else - if you have an accent, you're going to pronounce things slightly different than a native speaker, that's what an accent fundamentally is. An english speaker will still totally understand what you're saying and it's a correct pronounciation. If your aim is to say the word correctly and in a way others will not trip up over, then I'd say you've already got it. If your aim is (long-term) to make your accent completely disappear, that's a much harder task and I'd say it can only come from speaking the language for a very long time.

Loyalty is pronounced pretty much the way you phrased it - loyal tea. If it helps, I would personally keep saying that over and over, gradually speeding up until that gap no longer appears. It would also help if we knew where you were from - then we might be able to relate it to a sound from your native language?

I think you might be over correcting. Americans do turn t’s into taps (such as latter and ladder sounding the same). But “loyalty” does not do this. “loyalty” and “loyal tea” are pronounced exactly the same except for the syllable stress.

I’m curious what your native language is - I’m guessing it might be a syllable-timed language. English is a stress-timed language and it sounds like you’re wanting to give -ty its own stress but you can hear that that’s not how native speakers say it. If you’re musical at all, try to think of loyalty as a triplet with the downbeat on “Loy”. Loyal tea gets a downbeat on Loy and tea. If that means nothing to you I’m sorry that’s the only way I can think to explain it 😅

I think I understand your challenge. It sounds like when you do put an audible “tee” sound at the end, you involuntarily move the primary stress to that last syllable. That’s why it ends up sounding like “loyal _tea_”. Try to focus on leaving the primary stress firmly on the first syllable. The “tee” at the end can use the same vowel sound as for “tea”, but it must be completely unstressed. (That might naturally shorten it a bit, which is fine.)

I think it's that "oy" sound in the middle of the war that makes it hard. Loy-l is hard enough in itself. I could see loyalty coming out like loyld. The key is in the LOY and in the enunciation of the "t" LOY-l-tee

They aren’t as tenses in a running sentence. Reduce the vowel by loosening your muscles and shortening it.

Just try saying "loyal tea" in one breath. What's your native language? Maybe I can find an example word for you to relate to.

OP, please add a Vocaroo recording to your post, it would help everyone understand the issue so much better.

I feel like you're referring to the natural release of air caused by making the t sound, which is indeed what you want. Loyalty is pronounced with a voiceless alveolar plosive—this means that you stop the passage of air through the mouth with your tongue before releasing it and creating the "tea" sound. If you want it to sound less spaced out, practice doing this more quickly and effortlessly and with a greater stress on the LOY. This should solve your problem. Remember, you want to block the passage of air! That's how you make the sound :)

where are you from, mate?

If this helps, it's a tongue tap on the roof of your mouth, very quick.

Is your issue with the y sound, or the ty sound, or both? The comments about 'one exhale like Americans' makes me think maybe you're trying to say it with the 'flap' sound like how Americans say the t in 'water'? If so, both the flap and nonflap "loyal tea" are acceptable

Try saying it as loyal tih with the i sound from bit or sit. Then move it back until it has a level of ee that you like. You could also play with saying it more like loyal dee and loyal chee. And then finally you could play with aspirated and unaspirated T sounds. Try gliding your tongue vs building up a puff of air behind it (idk how to explain this better, I'm sorry) and see if that helps. My guess based on your description is that you are aspirating the t too much plus possibly over stressing the vowel. T tends to be aspirated at the start of words and not in the middle so that might be what you're hearing. The good news is that most English speakers hear these as the same sound. Unstressed vowels at the ends of words don't become schwas like they do in the middle of syllables but they do get a little bit more schwa-ey sometimes.

How can they be impossibly difficult to pronounce if hundreds of millions of people do it every day?

loyalty the y is the as the second part of t, which is really handy because it's immediately preceeded by t. l-oil-t

This almost sounds like a situation where you’ve said the word so many times that it just sounds weird to you. Even if you say it in your head, this can happen. Either that or you’re stressing the accent at the end of the word instead of the beginning.

The way I pronounce it uses an “alveolar tap/flap” rather than a true [t] sound. Basically the tongue just taps the top of the mouth, like how (in my dialect) people pronounce the tt in “butter” or the dd in “ladder”. Depending on your native language I could give you a word in that language that has the same sound, or it might just be harder for you because your language just doesn’t have that sound in its lexicon.

Ignore the tea for now. Get to planting the second L and blow a burst of air out. A sharply-released L makes the Tee sound.

"loyaldy" is probably pretty close to how people say it in the US. As I'm listening to my own speech, I think I un-aspirate the T, so it sounds more like LOyalt-y or maybe with a glottal stop between the second L and the T?

Yeah, I get you, I think—it’s still a “T,” not a vocalized “D,” but if I’m not deliberately enunciating it unusually strongly, it’s a little bit softer “T” sound. If you’re any more able to say it as “loyaldy,” try doing that, and then just stop the “d” very slightly harder. Or—I have a similar problem with the Spanish “r” sound, especially in the middle of a word. Often it helps me to slow the whole word down enough that I can pronounce it continuously, and then speed up gradually as I repeat it. Also, though, if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re really not mispronouncing it—you’re just enunciating a little more clearly than many of us would, in everyday speech.

As a British English speaker, “loyal tea” is exactly how “loyalty” is pronounced. Or rather, “loyal tea” with emphasis on “loyal”. I can’t hear Americans saying anything different. The “y” here isn’t a reduced vowel at all. It’s pronounced exactly as the “ea” in “tea”.

I asked Google Translate to voice "loyalty" and "loyal tea".The difference I hear is a slight pause because it's two words, and tea slightly longer than ty. I would say that there is no difference.

As a native speaker I don't even pronounce the t!

Try rebracketing it. Say: loy-alt-y. By ending the second syllable with the t/d sounds you should find it easier to add that little e that's less aspirated.

Practice saying Ltee. The L in loyalty is a dark L. Without knowing what your first language is, I'm guessing the problem is with the quality of your L. We generally use dark L before consonants and light L before vowels. If the languages you already speak only have light L, then you might have difficulty producing dark L.

As a native British English speaker, I can confirm that "loyal tea" is the perfect way to pronounce this word (and it also sounds like something we British we enjoy - a nice cup of loyal tea!)

The difficulty with pronouncing words like *loyalty* comes from a combination of articulation, airflow, and intonation. In American English, the "ty" ending often sounds like a soft /ti/ or even a flap /ɾi/ (similar to the "d" in "butter"), which can be tricky to produce smoothly, especially when the word is said in isolation. Many learners subconsciously insert a second burst of air after "loyal," making it sound like “loyal tea” or fragmenting the word altogether. This issue usually disappears when the word is placed in a sentence, since the following word naturally bridges the pronunciation. To fix this, practice saying *loyalty* with another word immediately after it (e.g., “loyalty is”), then gradually drop the second word while keeping the breath and tone consistent. Break the word into parts like "loy-al-ty" and repeat them slowly, focusing on gliding from one syllable to the next without pausing or over-emphasizing the "ty." Also, try to maintain a single, smooth exhale and end the word with a falling pitch, which is typical in American English intonation. This combination of muscle memory, airflow control, and prosody will make the word much easier to pronounce.

"loyal tea" is absolutely fine. That's how many natives pronounce it, including me. Exactly like "tea".

Without knowing what language you’re coming from it is difficult to picture your problem, but one problem could be how you’re forming your L sound. There are *many* ways to make an L sound - even among English accents - but some nonnative speakers bring L sounds that are hard to make flow into consonants the way English does.  My L sound is made with the tip of my tongue just above the back of my teeth - it’s a very liquid L sound. At the end of it my tongue is perfectly positioned to make a T sound - my tongue closes the side gaps and then drops to make the plosive T, while my lips widen to make the ‘ee’ vowel. If your L sound is a flicked L, like some Spanish speakers, where the tongue comes away from the top of the mouth at the end; or is a dark L with the tongue looped back into the top of the mouth, you’ll have more trouble connecting it to the T, which might explain your trouble pausing. 

"LOYal-tea", three syllables all run together, with only a slight emphasis on the first syllable, is correct.

Sounds like you’re saying it right tbh, considering there’s many people in a certain country that pronounce it as “loyal Eee” lol

"loyal tea" is pretty close to natural if I'm interpreting correctly. Are you stopping for a breath in between? The 'y' doesn't really make a sound, it just modifies the 't' to be a 'tee' sound. I dunno if it'll be very helpful but try conceptualizing it as "loy-olt-ee" and move the t to the second syllable. If you say it quickly nobody's going to notice. Can you handle other '-ty' words like faculty, faulty, or other similar ended words like committee? If so it might not be the -ty, but rather the 'l's or 'y' in loyalty.

so... you folks know what "semantic satiation" is? loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty

This reminds me of the time I went half batty over questioning myself on the way I pronounce “fire”. Where I’m from people would often say it as one syllable (but not always), and then when I moved cross-country people there would often say it in two syllables (but not always). I said the word so much trying to practice it that it started to sound weird, and then I lost all objectivity.

y in loyalty like ea in tea but shorter.

Loyalty= "loyal tea", for Americanized pronunciation if youre saying it at speaking pace and not adding in a full stop or a long pauce in-between.

Pretend you are from the southern us and drag out that “yull” to allow your tongue to get in place for the “tea”.

Are you sure it's the **ty** you are struggling with? Maybe it's the **-lty** consonant cluster? Are you pronouncing a **dark L**? Maybe that is what is tripping your tongue up. Just a thought. If you're not certain about light L and dark L pronunciation watch this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kZxyMGOUwlU Good luck. Finding a way to say it your way is always a good start 👍

The “ty” sounds like the word “tea”, loyal-tea

I might be wrong, but could it be the l? Do you know the difference between a light l (at the beginning of a syllable) and a dark l (at the end of a syllable)? If you pronounce the first l the same as the last in loyalty, it will always sound more disconnected—and foreign (for in both English and American English, a dark l is used on the second l).

But I think I we native speakers do pronounce it as “loyal tea“. It sounds to me like you’re doing it right

From your description it sounds like you are pronouncing it fine. I aspirate the final syllable in loyalty and it sounds exactly like "loyal tea". Do you have the same problem with "royalty"?

Some audio would be really helpful in understanding what your problem is.

Practice with lamb balti

Can you pronounce the letter 't'? Then just say "loyal" + 'T' (tee) together.

That’s interesting, what’s your native language?

If you make sure pronounce the second “l” with the tip of your tongue toward the front of your mouth, touching the back of your front top teeth (rather than swallowing the “l”), that may better position your tongue to quickly follow with the “t” sound of “ty”

I'm very confused.  I'm a native speaker and I'm pretty sure I say "loyal tea".

How do you pronounce the letter ‘t’?

Could it be that you are over-pronouncing the syllable before? Example: loy-AL-ty instead of loy-əl-ty. (Note the *schwa e*.). Over-pronouncing the "a" or "al" might leave your tongue too far back to comfortably, quickly come forward to form the "t". Just a guess. Do you have the same issue with the word *difficulty* or *faculty*? My guess is you do not, or not as much.