Soft pronunciation of de, te, ne, di, ti, ni

If the consonants d, t, or n are followed by the vowels e, i, or í, or the diphthongs ia, ie, or iu, they have a soft pronunciation (ď, ť, ň).

deti /ďeťi/
teta /ťeta/
pekne /pekňe/
rodina /roďina/
ticho /ťicho/
nikto /ňikto/
dívať sa /ďívať sa/
dieťa /ďi̯eťa/
peniaze /peňi̯aze/
cvičenie /cvičeňi̯e/

Exceptions: jeden [jeden] , ten [ten] , tamten [tamten] , sveter [sveter] , tip [tip] , politika [politika] , titul [titul] , foreign loanwords, etc.

In the descriptions of Slovak pronunciation, you read a rule regarding soft pronunciation for the consonant "l". However, in the modern day, the letter "l" in this position is usually pronounced hard.

ale ... is pronounced /ale/, although the prescribed pronunciation is /aľe/
lebo ... is pronounced /lebo/, although the prescribed pronunciation is /ľebo/
lipa ... is pronounced /lipa/, although the prescribed pronunciation is /ľipa/