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How do we pronounce THE in sentences? I heard that THE can be pronounced as "tha" and "thee".

What is the criteria for pronouning as such?

Void
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Vinayak
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1 Answers1

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Ordinary pronunciation

If the following word starts with a vowel sound, you pronounce it “thee”. For example, in the end and the hour, “the” is pronounced with a long ē.

If the following word starts with a consonant sound, you pronounce it “thə”. For example, in the beginning and the uterus, “the” is pronounced with a schwa.

Notice that the following word’s spelling doesn’t matter. What matters is the pronunciation.

In both situations, the is unstressed.

Euphony

The reason for the different pronunciations is euphony: it sounds ugly in English to follow a schwa with a vowel. When you pronounce a schwa followed by another vowel, as in ultra-atomic, usually you separate them with a glottal stop, which is felt to be ugly in English, though sometimes necessary. When pronouncing the with a long ē before a vowel, the ē flows smoothly into the following vowel.

Some people do pronounce the with a schwa before a vowel. It sounds crude, and suggests that the speaker lacks aesthetic sense.

Emphatic pronunciation

The can be pronounced with a long ē before a consonant, as well as stressed, for special emphasis, to indicate that something is unique and special. “The schedule says we’re meeting Michelle Obama at 2:00. Does it mean the Michelle Obama?” The emphatic pronunciation distinguishes the U.S. president’s wife from other people who might be named Michelle Obama.

See also this ELU question.

Community
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Ben Kovitz
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  • Nice answer mostly, but do you have any evidence for your rather unusual suggestion about glottal stops eg 'ultra-atomic'? – Araucaria - Not here any more. Dec 27 '14 at 15:24
  • How do u pronounce" the uterus" – Vinayak Dec 27 '14 at 17:03
  • @Araucaria “Ultra-atomic” was an example I read in a dictionary many years ago to illustrate what a glottal stop is. The use of the glottal stop to indicate separation is an everyday AmE observation. Of course, people don't always indicate separation, the glottal stop is not the only way to do it, non-rhotic accents also use ‘r’ in this role, but (I think) wouldn't after “thə”—and “the evening” often still gets a glottal stop anyway. Do you think this opens too big a can of worms? If so, I'll delete it. Or maybe there's a better way to explain it (without getting technical). – Ben Kovitz Dec 27 '14 at 17:29
  • @Vinayak In IPA, /ðə ˈjuː.təɹ.əs/. Here's a dictionary entry with an audio pronunciation. The main thing to notice for pronouncing “the uterus” is that “uterus” begins with a consonant sound (as if it were spelled starting with a y). – Ben Kovitz Dec 27 '14 at 17:39
  • @BenKovitz I'm not entirely up-to-date with GenAm, so I'm not saying that it ain't so, but a reference would be very useful - for me at least :) – Araucaria - Not here any more. Dec 29 '14 at 11:04
  • @Araucaria Try looking up "open juncture". I think that's the most common heading under which this role of the glottal stop is usually covered. If you can't find anything quickly, post again and I'll search. – Ben Kovitz Dec 29 '14 at 11:15
  • I've done quite a lot of searching, but can't find anything on inserting GS between vowels in standard Englishes, apart from their use in hard attack. I've found sites like this that cover intrusion of /w/ or /j/-like sounds, also lots of stuff on the growing use of glottals with "the" before vowels in estuary English (not yet considered standard), but not on glottal stop intrusion :) Doesn't mean it isn't out there of course! :) – Araucaria - Not here any more. Dec 29 '14 at 11:23
  • Yup, the /w/ and /j/ are some of those other ways to do it. The most common example of the glottal stop for separation that I've heard of among linguists is someone saying “an aim” so you don’t hear it as “a name”. That’s between a consonant and a vowel, though, but it’s the same kind of thing. That’s mentioned here (toward the end of first paragraph of §4.5.1). I’ll keep googling… – Ben Kovitz Dec 29 '14 at 11:37
  • @Araucaria Here's a neat one: people insert a glottal stop in the neologism “mora-ize” because (partly) a schwa leading into a vowel needs to be broken up. Still no example between words, though, and this text explicitly denies that there’s a glottal stop in “Indiana is wonderful” (and I live in Indiana!)… – Ben Kovitz Dec 29 '14 at 11:47
  • @Araucaria How’s this? It’s about Londoners inserting glottal stops between vowels at a word boundary, especially if the first vowel is a schwa, although many of the subjects seem to be Bangladeshi, I’m not completely sure. – Ben Kovitz Dec 29 '14 at 12:09
  • Yes, it's a common feature of many non RP varieties of British English, and is even starting to spread into RP - though it isn't considered standard yet. You can hear it in the songs of artists such as Adele, for instance, and living in London, I hear it a lot. I just haven't heard it in contexts outside of joining function words with other words (eg. to + vowel or the + vowel). I've never heard anyone talk about it with GenAm, but I'm happy to take your word for it. But if I had a good ref, I could use it in my teaching when people ask about American accents (I only study British English) – Araucaria - Not here any more. Dec 29 '14 at 12:25