Interview, internet.....are there more worlds like these?

Gravity is pronounced as "gravidy" in A.E. Brits will pronounce it with the 't' sound

 

How about "often", you Americans don't say the 't' there right? That bugs the ever-lovin crap outta me, because I'm supposed to teach American English and I can't say 'offen' (or 'dering' vs/ during for that matter...as well as a host of others but that's getting off topic).

 

In some words I don't pronounce the T because it's simply easier and faster to pronounce. An example, would be water.

 

It is hard to leave out letters in words, here words are:
Petrol/Oil = O'l
Water = Woher or just woh
Often = Off in
Is = Tis
Them = M
Her = Ir
Hat = At
You = Yall
Hello = Howdy or How (only words they pronounce the H at the begining of)
Just = Ust
Car = Truck
Truck = Ick up
Stupid = Stew id
About = Bout or A out
Brought = Brung
Ate = Et
Thought = Thunk (outside of grammar class)
Thing = Thang
Time = Ime or Lime
All words ending in B end in P

And people say I am the one with an accent!

Actually, now that I see how the rest of the world pronounces it, I can see why people say I have a British accent.

 

I've always pronounced the T in both words.

 

I try to pronounce the Ts, but I don't always do so.

 

Our 7th grade English teacher got upset when people pronounced the "t" in often. So, I did drop it. Some of the other instances where letters are silent are more due to people being lazy or speaking too fast. You will often hear Michigan pronounced "Mich-a-can" with the last syllable being with a long nasally "a". Some people here also say "ciddy" rather than "city".

It is very important to note that accents and sounding out words vary drastically depending on where you are in the U.S.

 

I actually speak very clearly when needed to and this means pronouncing everything.

 

The following only applies to standard American English.

As far as I know...
>The "t" is typically pronounced, and the most common variation isn't leaving it off entirely, but rather replacing it with a "d" sound.

I can see how someone might leave it off with the words you mentioned, but it really isn't that frequent and depends on the person and the American dialect in question.

Like for these words, I say "enter-view" or "enter-net" most of the time. But I've heard "inner-view" and "inner-net" too. I think it sounds more phonetically correct and proper if you pronounce the "t." On the other hand, leaving it off may sound more fluid.

Bottom line is: you can use whichever pronunciation you want for these two words, as both are acceptable and used here in the US.

But let's look at some exceptions, shall we?

Now a lot of times, the "t" will be replaced with a "d" sound. Usually this happens when the "t" is in between vowels (only vowels which are pronounced, not silent vowels).

Like: water, gravity, bottom, lettuce = wah-der, gravidy, boh-dum, leh-dus.

Not with: lute, mute, cute because the "e" here is silent and therefore doesn't technically make a vowel sound so the "t" is still pronounced.

But if it's paired with a consonant, you can usually leave it. Such as: tantrum, metropolis, petrify

Another sidenote is that sometimes the "d" version of the "t" is used when you have vowel + "r" combinations. Examples would be: martyr, party, sitter = mar-der, par-dee, sih-der.

As to the often being "offen" or "often" YOU CAN USE BOTH. Neither one is more or less proper than the other. I had an English teacher correct me once, stating emphatically that the "t" was silent. I proceeded to look up the rule on that and come to find out she was wrong. Because both our versions are right, so it's really just a matter of preference. A perfect example, I like to say "often" and my brother likes to say "offen."


In summary:
>Pronounce it as "t" when paired with consonants
>Pronounce it as "d" when paired with vowels, or vowel sounds (except silent vowels)

I'm sure there are more exceptions, but this is what I have observed.

Disclaimer:
I'm not an English teacher nor do I actively teach English.

But I am American and very good with reading and writing. My mother is also an English teacher (she actually taught it at schools in Russia).

 

I pronounce the t in often.

 

I'm pretty sure it depends on the accent/dialect someone has. I usually don't say the 't' in any of those words, but lots of English speakers do.

 

AP is correct about dialect.

When speaking informally, I, as well as most people I know, really do mess up the english language, and slur our phrases together, simply because it's easier, and quicker. When speaking formally, I enunciate as best as I can.

Examples:

• Toronto vs Tronno.
• what about that, though? vs whadda bout dat, do
• them over there becomes dem over der
• those vs dose

 

Another weird english thing is people muting, or dropping an h entirely if it begins a word.

Examples

• my house vs myouse
• well how about that vs well ow bout dat
• ham and cheese vs amancheese

Also, I have never heard someone actually pronounce hotdogs as it is written. It's always oddogs. No wonder learning english is so difficult.