Is it OK to pronounce the T in often?
A: The word “often” can be pronounced with a silent “t” (the more common pronunciation) or with an audible “t.” How “correct” is the second pronunciation? That depends on the dictionary you consult. Both are correct, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.).
Some people pronounce the 't' in the spelling so that it sounds like 'off-ten' /ˈɒf. tən/ . For others, the 't' in the word is silent and it is pronounced as 'off-en' /ˈɒf. ən/.
Fowler mentioned the pronunciation with [t] in his 1926 book Modern English Usage, and The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary recorded the same pronunciation in 1933.
When Is T Silent? The "rules" for silent T are these: if you see -STEN, -FTEN, or -STLE, you should assume that the T is silent. A lot of other silent letters are silent at the beginning (like G and K) or end (like B and N) of words.
She says often /ɒfn/ like orphan /ɔːfn/…and it's one way that you definitely know that Queen is giving her Christmas Message to the Commonwealth of Nations.
because both forms are said very commonly and with relatively little importance. 25% of people say it with "T", and many people say both depending on how fast they are speaking.
4. Before final –le, the letter t is sometimes silent (as in castle).
Here's what we discovered. The phenomenon itself is known as “T-glottalization.” It occurs when a speaker swallows the T sound in a word rather than speaking it aloud. We hear it when words like “kitten” and “water” are pronounced like “KIH-en” and “WAH-er.”
The tin "moisten" is pronounced. It is not silent. The t in "fasten" is pronounced. It is not silent.
The word was borrowed from the French, so it can be pronounced with a silent final 't' as it would be in French.
What accent does not pronounce T's?
Not pronouncing the /t/ sound in the middle or final position of words is a pronunciation feature that is widely known to be associated with London accents. However, what most people aren't aware of is that the glottal stop has spread far beyond London.
The correct pronunciation is “offen,” however many people look at the spelling and think they need to pronounce it “often.” As has been said below, both are correct.
A: The short answer is that the “t” in many words is silent because it's too difficult or awkward to pronounce and has become assimilated into the surrounding consonants.
The /t/ has 4 different pronunciations: 1) a regular /t/ (take), 2) /t̬/ (like a 'd,' as in water), 3) glottal stop /ʔ/ (kitten) 4) become silent (winter).
' First, let's point out that the T is silent. Christmas, Christmas. So it's the first syllable that's accented. And the CH here represents the K consonant sound.
“Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God.”
Anyone who has heard the Queen's speeches will recognise her distinctive British accent. This is RP – 'Received Pronunciation'.
The Queen's Most Memorable Quotes. 'I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. '
Americans don't really say the "t" sound in the middle of words like water, better, and matter. We use what's called a "flap t" in these words. It sounds more like a d.
Silent T words
The letter T is also silent in a lot of French loanwords such as ballet, gourmet, rapport, ricochet, buffet, crochet, valet, debut, and beret. Besides that, the silent T appears in a random assortment of other words, such as asthma, mortgage, tsunami, soften, listen, fasten, glisten, and moisten.
Is the T silent in Peyton?
Below is a spectrogram of this careful pronunciation of Peyton, and the link to the sound file. There's no glottal stop here, just a 45-millisecond closure for the [t], followed by a slightly longer interval of voicelessness (noted as [h]), then a very short but visible and audible vowel before the [n].
Toronto. Unless you want to sound like a tourist, do NOT pronounce the second T. It's not “tor-ahn-toe,” “Toronno,” or “Churrano,” it's “Tuh-ronno.”
The \t\ is silent. Why? There's a \t\ in often , but how often do you hear it? As you might guess, the \t\ was pronounced in the past, when the word began as a variant of oft (also spelled ofte in Middle English), which was the more common form until the 1500s.
When we have the word 'exact', we will make a True T because it's part of an ending consonant cluster. Exact, tt, tt. But when we add the -ly ending, it now comes between two consonants. You'll hear a lot of native speakers say 'exactly', with no T sound.
Adverbs commonly used with the simple present tense are: always, usually, often, sometimes, occasionally, rarely and never.
Adverb. offen (comparative more offen, superlative most offen) Pronunciation spelling of often.
I wanted that. I'm not pronouncing it 'wanted', am I? Most of the time, Americans drop the T in this word. This is common when the T follows the N.
Catch, itch, retch, hatchet, botch etc. The list is huge. They all have different origins, and yet they have the silent 't'. But words like achieve, lecherous, spinach don't have the silent 't'.
Duvet is originally a French word, and it's retained its silent t in English, being pronounced "doo-vay." Originally the French word was dumay, a diminutive of dum, or "down."
“Meet me at the dee-pot!” said one unsuspecting Tyler, right before her friend snickered over the phone and answered “Meet you where?” Pronouncing the “t” at the end of depot is a common mistake; unlike wrangle (which I'll get to later) depot's “t” doesn't have the opportunity to blend in with letters around it, ...
Is the T in ballet silent?
T. T refuses to be audible in ballet, castle, listen, and whistle.
a/an + H. The rule goes that the article 'a' is used before a consonant and 'an' is used before a vowel, so with silent H we would say “an honest” and with pronounced H we would say “a hotel”.
Here's what we discovered. The phenomenon itself is known as “T-glottalization.” It occurs when a speaker swallows the T sound in a word rather than speaking it aloud. We hear it when words like “kitten” and “water” are pronounced like “KIH-en” and “WAH-er.”
For some reason this didn't happen with “soften,” whose “t” is always silent. And in the other verbs we mentioned—“moisten,” “fasten,” “listen,” “hasten” —the “t” is invariably silent, never pronounced.
In traditional accent training work, students are taught to always pronounce their t's inside words and to avoid using glottal stops. Not pronouncing the /t/ sound in the middle or final position of words is a pronunciation feature that is widely known to be associated with London accents.
- I often see Christine when I'm in town. She must do her shopping in the same places as me.
- We used to see him on the beach. Often he would go for a swim, then he would come and talk to us.
- I very often meet him as he's coming out of work.
- Maggie is old now and she quite often forgets things.
In American English, T and D are always pronounced distinctly in words like dip and tip, or attack and adapt, or bleat and bleed. However, there are many words, such as metal and medal, or bleating and bleeding, or bitter and bidder, where T and D are indeed pronounced the same for many speakers of American English.
