ありがと - why I hear "do" instead of "to"

[waternoharm]

In my understanding, と is pronounced as "to"

But I hear people(native) say ありがと as ariga"do"

Is this my hearing problem?

I am a beginner, please excuse me if I just asked a silly question.

[community.japanese]

Waternoharm san,
Konnichiwa.
That is not sully at all.
That is とう、‘tou’ actually.
I think you have your first language influence.
Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[thegooseking]

Waternoharm-san,

In strict phonetics, the 't' you normally hear in English is a voiceless denti-alveolar stop, while the 't' you hear in Japanese is a voiceless alveolar stop. There is a very slight difference between these sounds, but it's so slight that, if you noticed it, I'd say that's not a problem with hearing, but rather very good hearing! (The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) doesn't even consider them different enough to have separate symbols.)

The difference between 't' and 'd' is voicing (that is, vibration of the vocal cords), but the Japanese and English 't' are both voiceless, so it's not that. But because the English 't' involves the teeth more than the Japanese 't' does, the Japanese 't' does sound slightly softer.

However, some accents of English - particularly New York - do pronounce the 't' the same way Japanese does.

小狼

[community.japanese]

小狼さん、
こんにちは。
Thank you for helping Waternoharm san.
Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com