Do you pronounce the 'th' in clothes?

Iwasfrozen

I pronounce the 'th' in clothes...

owenc

MmmmmCheese wrote: »

I was having a ridiculously pointless argument with someone about this a while ago, what's the right way to pronounce it?

no how can you pronounce it because then it would come out like cloths. Even english people dont pronounce it, there is about 120 english people in my school and not one of them pronounces it like that they say it the exact way as me.

Ickle Magoo

owenc wrote: »

no how can you pronounce it because then it would come out like cloths.

Why? Cl-oah-th-z would be the best phonetic representation of the way I say it...

owenc

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Yes, but I speak with a Tallaght accent so most people probably hear it as a d and not th.

Is that the one near sligo?? a wee boy in my class comes from there and he says hair like here or something?

owenc

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

Why? Cl-oah-th-z would be the best phonetic representation of the way I say it.

you would look like you had a lisp if you said that it would come out like clofs or something..

owenc

Chillaxe wrote: »

Obviously the majority of posters in here are from Dublin. I find 99% of dubliners don't pronounce th in anything. Such a lazy accent.

as i said i dont know one english person that says clothes the correct way they all say cloves

chopperbyrne

owenc wrote: »

Is that the one near sligo?? a wee boy in my class comes from there and he says hair like here or something?

It's the one in South West Dublin.

Dublin 24 to be precise.

Is there a Tallaght near Sligo?

Ickle Magoo

owenc wrote: »

you would look like you had a lisp if you said that it would come out like clofs or something..

Why on earth would pronouncing "th" come out "f" unless there is a very strong local accent or venacular?! Believe me, it's perfectly possible to follow an "oh" with a "th" sound. More like clothe than cloth or clof.

I don't know anyone who says "cloves" unless they live on albert square. :P

bnt

At some time during my first year in Dublin I went clothes (clo-the-s) shopping, and had some difficulty at the checkout. I couldn't understand whether the guy behind the counter was asking for Thirty or Forty Euros: it came across as somewhere between "Tarty" and "Torty".

I see a few commenters have had a go at "BBC English", but I think a few of you could do with a bit more BBC English. It doesn't mean surrendering your own accent, never mind sounding like the bloody Royal Family (who are about as British as Gerry Adams). You'll find that a surprising number of BBC announcers are Scottish. What it does mean is: elocution, clarity, and effective communication, whatever your accent.

murpho999

The non pronunciation of 'th' is really an Irish thing (ting?).

Was never aware of it until I went travelling a few years back.

Was working in an Irish Bar in Melbourne where the pint of Guinness was $5.30. Could have been $5.20 or $5.40 but I'm convinced the bosses delibrately chose $5.30.

Every single time I said the price to an Aussie they would just piss themselves laughing. They would often ask me to say 'Thirty Three & a Third'. I would oblige and they would just double up. As if their accent was totally unamusing!

As a result I did become quite concious of it but decided not to change who I am.

Upon researching it more I was amazed to discover that even though we all speak English as a mother tongue, that the reason most Irish don't pronounce 'th' properly is because there is no sound like that in the Irish language and as the accents/pronunciation we have now originates from native Irish speakers who learnt English as a second language hundreds of years ago the mispronunciation has been handed down through the generations. I kind of like that explanation to be honest, makes me feel closer to my Irish roots.

So now I saw 'cloze' with pride and gladly say 'Turty Tree and a Turd' to Aussie Tourists!

Son Of A Vidic

Who cares how it's pronounced? People with too much time on their hands perhaps? I wouldn't lose any sleep over it personally, some days my English is perfect and some days it's not. The fact that I'm not English, reassures me that I was never 'designed' to speak it as my native tongue anyway. So considering I'm speaking an 'alien' language, I'm not to worried about it really.

pickarooney

murpho999 wrote: »

The non pronunciation of 'th' is really an Irish thing (ting?).

You eva bin ta Brooklyn, son?

ejmaztec

rainbowdrop wrote: »

This That These Those. That's the way the T h goes

Remember being taught this rhyme at school (in England) when our teacher was trying to encourage us to pronounce our 'T H's. Would have been an absolute nightmare trying to teach that to Irish school kids lol

It didn't work for me anyway... I say 'cloze'

A Kerry bogger girl was asked to read that out in Speech and Drama a few years ago, and the teacher thought she was taking the piss:

"Dis dat, dese and dose, dis is de way dat TH goes"


I pronounce the th in clothes, but I wasn't born here.:D

Caveat

Very few people speak perfect English.

A lot of people speak and annunciate/pronounce quite well but they can be from anywhere - Scotland, Ireland, the US....oh ... and England.

Ironically, England is where you will here some of the worst pronunciation.

"Posh" accented people are technically often no better than the clichéd Cockney, Mancunian or whatever. They maybe have an attitude to their voices, an air of refinement or contrived 'class' or something, but they still completely mispronounce loads of words.

pickarooney

Caveat wrote: »

Very few people speak perfect English.

A lot of people speak and annunciate/pronounce quite well but they can be from anywhere - Scotland, Ireland, the US....oh ... and England.

Ironically, England is where you will here some of the worst pronunciation.

"Posh" accented people are technically often no better than the clichéd Cockney, Mancunian or whatever. They maybe have an attitude to their voices, an air of refinement or contrived 'class' or something, but they still completely mispronounce loads of words.

If only you'd just stuck to using the word you understood there instead of trying to be posh with your slash and your homophone.

Caveat

Eh? Are you sure you understand the meaning of homophone?

I understand all the words in my own post, thanks.

Edit: Oh sorry, you're right of course. Just copped. I've done the classic one there haven't I?

OK, enunciate.



Still though, pretty churlish post - especially from a mod - no?