Inconsistent with my 't/d' swapping

I know Americans almost always tend to replace the 't' in words like 'butter', 'little' and 'later' with a 'd', while the English don't. In Australia it's kind of in between and depends on how posh the accent sounds.

I say words like 'caterpillar' sometimes with the 't' and sometimes the 'd'; usually the 't' when I want to sound more proper. Same with the 'teen' words: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Or 'fifty', 'forty'. Anyone else like that?

On that don't, does anyone pronounce words two different ways? I sometimes say 'plant' as plaent and sometimes as plahnt.

I'm American and I pronounce "teen" words with a T sound and "caterpillar", "forty", and "fifty" with a D sound, and I am consistent in my pronunciations.

As for multiple pronunciations of the same word, sometimes I pronounce "for" like "fore" and other times I pronounce it like the word "fur".

<<Same with the 'teen' words: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.>>

I've read that that's a distinctively Australian thing. Here in the US, the "teens" have a hard [t].

<<I've read that that's a distinctively Australian thing. Here in the US, the "teens" have a hard [t].>>

Hmm. Interesting. I usually have a hard "t" in the "teen" words, however, what about "fifteen" and "sixteen"? I tend to say those as "fifdeen" and "sixdeen" however I've heard other Americans pronounce them with a hard "t".

Another interesting thing about the "teen" words is for "thirteen", "fourteen", "eighteen" and "nineteen" (but not "seventeen") I pronounce them as if they had two "t's", "thirt teen", "fort teen", "eight teen", and "nient teen".

I sometimes do that as well, I have also noticed.

I notice how Americans say the 't' in the teens, while Aussies usually don't. Some broad Aussie almost gets rid of the the 't' when it's a linker. They only pronounce ts at the start or end of words.

I often pronounce seventeen and nineteen as "seven-een" and "nine-een".

Otherwise the written t in most of those words is usually pronounced as a flap or tap.

^ Hey Bob, what accent do you have? What do you mean 'flap or tap'?

Australian accent.

A tap is that d-like sound in "butter" you were describing. The only time I might pronounce a [t] in that situation is if there is confusion over what's being said.

I often involuntarily use a trill for the "thr" combination in words like "three" or "thrifty".

I thought trill was synonymous with flap but not according to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flap_consonant