How do you pronounce "often?"

I hope you realize I was kidding :slight_smile:
I find it amusing when people provide proof for something that people do, when the people that do it clearly don’t actually do it for the reasons given in the proof.

According to Dictionary.com:
1300–50; ME oftin, var. before vowels of ofte oft
I voted for "OFF-en, but sometimes I kind of pronounce the ‘t’ as well (more as a ‘d’, as others have said).

I live in WV now, but grew up in a suburb of Baltimore, MD.

Off-ten.

I’ve never thought about it before, but yeah, saying it out loud I hear it both ways a lot. When I say it you can definitely hear the T though.

Offin. I’m from Boston. My wife says offten. She’s from Ireland. I have told her that she’s saying it wrong, but she can’t catch herself before saying it and continues to say it incorrectly.

What he said. What kind of accent puts an “in” on the end? :confused: I just tried saying “off-in” and it makes me sound South African.

Oh, and I’m in Hampshire, England.

Saying with the “t” is not incorrect.

Often was pronounced with a t -sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the  /t/ Show Spelled[t] Show IPA came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the  /t/[t] for many speakers, and today  /ˈɔfən/[aw-fuhn] and  /ˈɔftən/[awf-tuhn] [or  /ˈɒfən/[of-uhn] and  /ˈɒftən/[of-tuhn]] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, often with a /t/[t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.

I had to think about it - but…“offin”. My accent’s some muddled mix of UK and Kiwi.

ETA: Actually, looking at the posts that got in before mine - yeah, that “in” is a schwa.

Just got done saying it a bunch of times out loud…good thing no one’s around! lol

I only ever say it without the /t/. Hearing the /t/ pronounced in it always sounds bizarre to me. It wasn’t until a couple years ago I even became aware of its prevalence, and started a thread about it.

It’s what linguists call a “spelling pronunciation.” Historically, there have been a lot of spelling pronunciations that have taken over from the “traditional” pronunciations. I blame the rise of widespread or universal literacy. There are so many words we pronounce as spelled nowadays, we’re not even aware that when the spelling pronunciation first appeared it was considered an error. For example, I was astonished to learn that pronouncing the /l/ in almond was until recently considered “incorrect.” It had never occurred to me that it was possible to say it without the /l/. Whether the /t/ in often will successfully establish itself in standard English is still too soon to say.

Do remember that pretty much every silent consonant was pronounced at one time, so we’re really shifting back to pronouncing them. English spelling was non standardized in the first place, and people spelled words the way they sounded.

(Island is one exception I know of. It got a back-formation from a spurious etymology.)

With a T

Western Canada

No T. Grew up in mid-Michigan and have lived in central Ohio most of my adult life.

OFFten VA

No T in Northern Indiana.

Both, but OFF-IN much more …ummm…often. Grew up in Northwestern Illinois, have lived in the Chicago suburbs for 9 years.

Off-in (no T). I was in St. Louis, MO until age 8, then almost entirely in southern CA. I know few people who actually say the T, and it bugs me when I hear it. Stop it!!

Off-en. And I’m from everywhere, man.

OFFn, always. NYC, NYS.

This. Voted Off-in because I use it more. I’m from Michigan.

Here’s me saying it: Off-en

Currently in California, but I’ve lived everywhere.