How do you pronounce the word “often”?
I’ve always pronounced it as one syllable, but many of the YouTubers I’ve been listening to recently pronounce it as two.

Question:
?

Choices:
Off-ten
Offen

 

^^^
Off-ten.

off-tin

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
off-tin

Ah, yes: Another way as well.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
off-tin

Sounds like how Mr. Chekov would pronounce it. We non-Russians pronounce it “Off-tun”.

Hey now, don't make fun of my singing.

Awfin

quote:

I’ve always pronounced it as one syllable ...

Whether or not the T is silent, there are still two distinct syllables. I don't see how you can do that..

Offen. Another one is solder. It's "sodder" NOT "soul-der"

Solder - sol-der
Soldier - soul-ger

I know how it's supposed to be pronounced, but I say offen.

Is the question about regional pronunciations (e.g., "ole bidness" for "oil business"), or which is correct?



Dictionary.com shows both pronunciations.

I'm pretty sure both versions are two syllables.

I'm from the St. Louis area, so we pronounce some things differently here than other areas.

I pronounce this word more like "offen" without the hard "t".

I say Missour "eee", where some in this area say Missour "uh".

I also ad a nonexistent "r" to wash, saying "warsh". Conversely, my other half, originally the Boston area removes existing "r" from words which is common there.

I think you'll find that not only are the same words pronounced differently depending upon where the person is from, but also entirely different words used for the same thing, like soda vs. pop, cart vs. buggy, etc.

When I first heard my lovely wife omit the "to be" from the sentence "The car needs to be washed." I was mortified. Later I realized that a whole swath of people in the western PA-eastern OH area habitually do the same thing. More recently, it seem this stylistic misuse appears to be spreading. I am no longer mortified, just disgusted. If you must drop the "to be" at least use "washing" (present participle/gerund) rather than the past participle/transgressive form (which are legitimate in Slavic languages, but not English).

Variances in pronunciation of "often" seem of little consequence in comparison, but I suppose we have some room for regional differences, all y'all.

It is "offen" (or maybe "awfen") the "t" is silent.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Whether or not the T is silent, there are still two distinct syllables.

Could be. Depends on how it is pronounced.

Frequently.

I use often quite-a-bit sometimes it's a lot.....

To \t\ or not to \t\, it’s up to you.

From Merriam-Webster,

quote:

How to Pronounce 'Often'
To \t\ or not to \t\?

There’s a t in oftenplay , but often, ahem, you don’t hear it. As you might guess, the t was pronounced in the past, when the word began to be used in the early 1300s as a variant of oft (also spelled ofte in Middle English). (Oft was the more common form until the 1500s; it’s now archaic for most of the senses of often, but it is still used in compound adjectives like oft-repeated and oft-quoted. Ofttimes and oftentimes both carry that archaic flavor but are still in active use.) But eventually the t in often fell away in pronunciation, remaining only as a hint of the word’s meaning and origin.

Frequently you philistine…

I didn’t vote as I think I use both. I said a couple of sentences and depending on the sentence I say both.

“Off-ten I find myself….”

“There are many times I offen choose to…”