I have noticed a regrettable trend toward using the short "e" when pronouncing "the" before words beginning with a vowel: "thuh Earth"; thuh older one". This used to be a cultural symbol (e.g., old movies) of illiteracy and still sounds so to me.  Is there any specific recommendation on this other than taste and pleasing the ear?
50011
I read that the definite article is pronounced differently depending on the word that follows it.  Which is the exact pronunciation of the?
16082
The is sometimes pronounced &quot;tha&quot; (/ðə/) or &quot;thi&quot; (/ðiː/). Which is the correct pronunciation of this word? Are both correct and used interchangeably at specific places? If the second question is correct, please provide the rule of pronouncing at different places.
14877
What is the origin of “long long i” before voiced consonants (the [ai] of wide, while, &amp; tribe) versus “short long i” before unvoiced consonants (the [ʌi] of white, wife, &amp; wipe)? When did this difference appear? Is it just a secondary distinction, or are there minimal pairs for these two diphthongs?  Obviously the distinction is not present in all accents—though its presence in most leads me to believe it's not a late arrival—and yet I've never found a dictionary that distinguishes them.
279
when the phrase "Can't complain" is pronounced [ˈkænt kəmˈpleɪn] I think that the T is dropped in fast speech because of the alveolar plosives. Right? I read that when T comes before these letters: / s, f, n, l, p, k / it's silent.  I know that in American English the T is held in "I can't do it" but above I'm talking about dropping it completely. I recorded myself:  Does it sound okay?
107900
There is a  with a similar title, however it then focused on two specific examples. The main question is when we should use "the" before an Of-phrase.   Is "the" used for the first part or the whole phrase?  for example, is it [the history ] of the internet. Or the [history of the internet ].  Some examples by searching google:        the International Day of the Girl Child   the study of Pattern Recognition    The Charter of the United Nations   More than 60 United Nations Member States have never been Members of the Security Council.   the Word of the Day   The history of the Internet   Transactions of the American Mathematical Society   Proceedings of the Royal Society    Types of problems and tasks      For example in     Machine learning is a subfield of computer science that evolved from the study of pattern recognition and computational learning theory in artificial intelligence.   Why "the study". Please note there is not much context for the "study" and I suspect the possessive construction has a role.   Apart from these examples, I feel in Of-phrases the domain of objects become limited, and it allows to use "the" for the noun before "of". For example you can't say "the mouse"! which mouse? but you can say "the mouse of a computer" because in the domain of a single computer, mouse is specific.    For another example we may say "The manager of a shop" (even without any context) but not "the customer of the shop" (again without any context). maybe "the customers of the shop" or maybe just "customers of the shop". "the door of the house" but not "the window of the house", because without any context we don't have one window but one door. Similarly, "the head of a human" but not "the hand of a human" (maybe the left hand of a human).  Does this analysis creditable?
72258
Observed some words get pronounced with a /sh/ rather than /s/ in certain situations.   Stripes as "Shtripes" (from some "The Wire" episode) Screw it as "shcrew it" (from a rap song)   In both situations, it seems to be a matter of emphasis, but is there some generic etymological root to this, e.g. a yiddish language background?
110815
In certain words, the letters 'th' are pronounced just like in &quot;the&quot; or &quot;clothes&quot; — /ð/. But in a word such as &quot;filthy&quot;, the sound changes (/θ/). Which sound is more common? When seeing 'th', would you naturally pronounce it like in &quot;the&quot; or like in &quot;filthy&quot;?
90486
I have been wondering recently if there are any Pronunciation "Easter Eggs" in the English language (not unlike how "Ghoti" is pronounced like "Fish"). Are there any others? Please provide phonetic proof if you claim so.
66465
I am getting confused while using an article an. Because an is used while referring to vowels (a,e,i,o,u).  But today I read an article where for user they used a user.  My question is, why was an not used?  Could someone explain this with an example?
65717
"Welcome. You've come to Earth." ()  There seems to be a definite article or not in front of earth in dictionaries. For which meaning, there isn’t one in the example? For what meaning, is there one in other cases?
77568
Is there a single ᴀᴅᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ to denote short, sweet, to the point?    I am thinking of  but I'm not sure that it connotes elegance/brevity, which is an important aspect of the meaning I would like to convey.
5952
My coworker and I have been having this discussion for a day or two...  What is the most correct way to pronounce 'new' or 'news' ?  Does it rhyme with 'few' ? or 'snooze' ?  Does 'new crew' rhyme?  I know both 'noo' and 'nyoo' are correct, but what are the origins of the two different pronunciations?  Asking around the office, it seems that 'nyoo' might have a British English origin, but I would like to know if anyone is more knowledgeable on this topic.
114803
About three decades ago I read a book on English usage that was already quite old at the time—I think it was a 1940s book—which pointed out a pronunciational habit that I hadn't noticed before. The word "street" in any location name would have the stress on the other word—BOND Street, OXFORD Street, DEAN Street—while with any other kind of generic topographical descriptor it would be the other way round: Hyde PARK, Leicester SQUARE, Angel LANE, Dollis HILL, Edgware ROAD, Portland PLACE, Crouch END.   The book limited itself to UK referents, but it seemed to me the same was true elsewhere. In the US people would say, FOURTH Street, TENTH Street, etc, but Madison AVENUE, Times SQUARE, Central PARK, Dealey PLAZA. And I think all other English-speaking countries followed the same rule. It was even true of fictional names with a figurative purpose: GRUB Street, EASY Street, but Fat CITY, Lonesome ROAD, Tin Pan ALLEY...  But I wondered whether it was still true today, or completely true. Because I do notice one strange pronunciational development, which I think of as the "leftward-drifting stress". This is more noticeable in the US than elsewhere. I've seen pre-war American films where people can be clearly heard talking of cigarETTES and magaZINES, in contrast to modern renderings, CIGarettes and MAGazines. More recently, we've had olive OIL and soy SAUCE becoming OLIVE oil and SOY sauce. One of the clear-up crew after the Twin Towers attack spoke of "powdered CEment" (and he wasn't even from the south, where you might expect it). And only last week I heard a news report mentioning PAKistan and BANGladesh. There seems to be this trend of shifting stresses leftwards of where they are supposed to be, and I wondered if this might start infecting the pronunciation of the kind of place names I listed above. Is anyone tempted to say, "I visited TIMES Square"?
116698
I confess! Being a non-native speaker, I struggle a lot especially when I come across a new word. And I wonder how do native speakers pronounce perfectly even though they read the word for the very first time. There should be some rule/technique? I'm not sure.  Let's take a case.   If I see a word having 'ch' for the very first time, how do I guess it? Remember, I don't have dictionary. Nor do I have access to this great site when I encounter that word. For example,   Take the word 'chariot'. Being a non-native with quite limited knowledge of orthography, I know that 'ch' is pronounced as in 'Charles'  But then, imagine, I came across the word 'charade'. Undoubtedly, for me, it is 'ch (as in Charles)-re-d-s'. But then, actually, 'ch' there is 'sh' (as in Shane).   It's not just 'ch' but it goes for 'g' as well. 'G' as in 'goat' or 'g' as in 'gymnastic'. Is there any source that teaches how to pronounce a letter if it is placed after/before certain letter? Is there any such rule? The one I remember is when a word ends with 'mb', you don't pronounce 'b'. 'Bomb', 'Comb', 'Tomb' and .      There are a few more words that add another nail in the coffin of my pronunciation complexity!      penis (pee, and not as in 'pen')  asthma (no 'th' pronounced)  Dengue (dengeee)  and many more...
20830
When I pronounce the phrase:   "Look, it's the first day. I don't wanna be late."  I think that the /t/ in the words "first" and "don't" can be deleted. Am I right? I'm talking about casual speech.  Below is the phonetic transcription. I stressed the content words (the bolded words) without shifting stress for special meaning. I deleted the /t/ in both words, though.  lʊk, ɪts ðə fɜrs deɪ. aɪ doʊn wʌ nə bɪ leɪt.
96439
The article a becomes to an when the following noun starts with a vowel.     Not a adventure but an adventure.   But how is it, when there's an adjective before the noun?     Not a thrilling adventure or not an thrilling Adventure?   And how is it, when the adjective starts with a vowel but the noun does not?     Not a exciting tournament or not an exciting tournament?
102544
What does this E symbol mean?     It is from the .