Pronunciation of "the" and "a"

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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > Pronunciation of "the" and "a"

Pronunciation of "the" and "a"

joy2bill

The textbook, New Inside Out, which we use in our school says exactly what libertybelle says. I must admit as a native speaker I had never thought about it until I had to teach it.

So once again: The (tha) sound before a consonant sound and
The (thee) sound before a vowel sound.

6 Jul 2011

Minka

I forgot about the before a vowel.�

I think Philip should have a look at weak and strong forms... �for a pronounced as ay

Or is it that you just don-t like the sound of it ?� Tongue

6 Jul 2011

PhilipR

@Minka - Just give us one useful example where the strong form of the indefinite article /ay/ should be used. Evil Smile

I repeat that I don �t think it �s necessary for language learners to focus on this because strong forms /ay/ are a) very rare and b) considered pompous when used inappropriately. Pig

6 Jul 2011

Minka

Why should things in a language always be useful, Philip?

It �s just that from your post I understood it is wrong - actually, I wasn �t really sure what you meant. Now I see and I think there are also many other things that could be omitted or made easier. But what would we use then to annoy our students? Wink

BTW, did yuu know that Slavic languages do not have articles at all? Now how about that?

6 Jul 2011

almaz

Your answer was just fine, Minka. Dale (the OP) simply wanted to know why �we say "ay" for "a" sometimes � and you gave a perfectly good answer - twice. Whether someone considers it �useful � or not is neither here nor there.

6 Jul 2011

Minka

Yes, I could see that drop of humour in Philip �s answer when he wrote his reply. I like this kind of discussion.

Thanks, almaz.

6 Jul 2011

PhilipR

No articles in Slavic languages? You �re so lucky. Clap

Upping the ante: Thai (like other Asian languages) doesn �t have articles, nor verb tenses! Thumbs Up

6 Jul 2011

Minka

Yep, Philip, but we ,on the other hand, have six cases, three grammatical numbers and when we decline a verb, it has nine (9!) different forms... No perfect tenses here. We do have the others, just don �t always call them tenses, it has more to do with aspect - progressive and

non-progressive.

I guess every language has some difficult and some easy elements...

6 Jul 2011

jasmine khan

Hi!
You have already received many replies to your query. What I �m going to tell you now might have been told by some others as well. Well, I �ve learnt a rule in phonology regarding "the" and i.e. we pronounce( the) as thee when the word followed by it begins with a vowel sound e.g thee umbrella, thee honest man, the artist etc. on the other hand (the) is pronounced as tha when it comes before a word beginning with a consonant sound e.g tha desk,
tha university etc.

As far as a (ay or aa) is concerned, I think its interchangeable without making any difference to the word in respect of stress or emphasis but I �m not quite sure about this point as I haven �t read it anywhere. Lamp

Regards
Jasmine Smile

6 Jul 2011

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