Minimal Pairs With the Alveolar Flap

The alveolar flap is common in North American English. It occurs in intervocalic position between an unstressed vowel and a stressed one. In other varieties of English such as Irish, Australian and New Zealand the alveolar flap is also common. For those speakers who have an alveolar flap, the following words are pronounced the same:

Adam atom
coding coating
ladder latter
leader litre
medal metal
odder otter
pedal petal
rider writer
tidal title
tudor tutor

In Canadian English and also in varieties of American English, the pairs rider/writer and tidal/title are not identical. Due to vowel raising in words such as write, speakers who maintain a distinction have a raised vowel in writer but not in rider. In the case of tidal/title, speakers who distinguish the pair have a raised vowel in title. In addition to the raised vowel in writer and title, the vowel in rider and tidal has a longer duration.

Though many speakers pronounce words such as leader/litre and pedal/petal identically, the meaning is usually understood from context. In the sentences I have a tutor and I bought one litre, the meaning is clear. For this reason misunderstandings are rare.