# How Do You Pronounce The Word "Button"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 4, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229 "2009-05-04T00:33:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/21 "2009-05-04T03:14:18Z")
According to my a couple of coworkers, I say “button” oddly…apparently I pronounce both “Ts,” like “but-ten.” To me, it sounds fine though…I can’t even try to say it any other way; it always comes out the same. Am I alone? ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/22 "2009-05-04T03:22:15Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Buh’n, muh’n, cuh’n, nuh’n… siddy, kiddy… standard Southern Ontario accent here. Same here. There was an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, where the detectives were able to track down a killer because he pronounced the t’s in the word “pretty” so it sounded like “priTey.” The characters on the show commented on how odd that pronunciation was. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone in this area pronounce a double t word without the glottal stop. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/23 "2009-05-04T03:26:47Z")
buh-ten. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/24 "2009-05-04T03:32:19Z")
“Buh-din”, unless it’s in reference to a cute girl, then “Butt-in”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/25 "2009-05-04T03:49:33Z")
Butt’n. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/26 "2009-05-04T04:49:42Z")
I use a glottal stop. A friend of mine uses a [flap](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervocalic_alveolar_flapping). He also does for the word “eaten,” and I find it positively weird. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/27 "2009-05-04T05:05:49Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Buh’n, muh’n, cuh’n, nuh’n… siddy, kiddy… standard Southern Ontario accent here. I’m from Toronto (Ter-ON-oh, no T in that either) and that’s how I say it. I noticed a little while ago that two friends from Ottawa pronounced the Ts in Britain, and I made them say a bunch of words like this. They thought I was crazy as I dug around in my closet and pulled out a mitten and asked them what they called it. So I developed this whole theory about that being one difference in our accents. Then I asked another friend from Ottawa a little while later, and she put a glottal stop in there too. So it’s certainly not rare, that’s all I can say. (It’s time to dig out the mitten again and conduct a more extensive survey. I have friends from BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan here, and I bet I’ll confirm that they all say mit’n.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/28 "2009-05-04T06:06:27Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > According to my a couple of coworkers, I say “button” oddly…apparently I pronounce both “Ts,” like “but-ten.” To me, it sounds fine though…I can’t even try to say it any other way; it always comes out the same. > > Am I alone? Yes, I think you are alone. I have never heard anyone pronounce both Ts; most people don’t even pronounce one. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/29 "2009-05-04T07:05:49Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Butt’n. Thank you, that is the best spelling of my pronunciation as well - and I might add, the pronunciation of almost everybody I know except for that teacher and a few of my students. BTW, I am originally from Illinois if that makes any difference in this story. It at least appears I am not alone in speaking the word that way. I seriously had never heard anybody say the word button with silent “T’s” until I moved here. It just sounds so strange to hear the word without the “T’s”. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/30 "2009-05-04T15:13:33Z")
but’n ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/31 "2009-05-04T15:15:14Z")
I’m Amish, so I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/32 "2009-05-04T15:33:41Z")
In the Chicago area, pronouncing the Ts clearly and precisely is just not done. We do the buh-n pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/33 "2009-05-04T16:21:53Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > …I pronounce it “Buttin”…rhymes with mutton, cuttin’, nuttin’. Me, too. Lifelong Ohioan here. ---
**Author:** ![Sebastienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Sebastienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sebastienne)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229/34 "2009-05-04T17:40:44Z")
Philadelphian here, and “Trenton” gets a glottal stop, as does button, sittin’, etc. Fightin’ comes out more like “figh-din.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-button/495229.md?page=1)