Of TEN or Of EN?

[Idle_Thoughts]

Often. How do you pronounce it?

I usually find myself switching back and forth between the two. I didn’t even realize this until a friend of mine pointed it out when I used the word a couple times when talking to him.

Looking at Dictionary.com, I see both pronunciations given. So which are you partial to? Or don’t you ever notice?

[MovieMogul]

Actually, I pronounce it: OFF-en

[Motorgirl]

@ArchiveGuy

Actually, I pronounce it: OFF-en

me too.

[Ghanima]

I put the T in in it: Of-ten

[Shrinking_Violet]

OFF-TEN here.

[Lobsang]

Off’tn

[AskNott]

My elementary school teachers would correct any child who sounded the t.

[wonky]

OFF-n

[Lobsang]

@AskNott

My elementary school teachers would correct any child who sounded the t.

:dubious: say it ain’t so.

[Peter_Morris]

I suspect that ArrMatey would pronounce it orphan.

[Loopydude]

@AskNott

My elementary school teachers would correct any child who sounded the t.

They musta been off’n they rockers.

[Giles]

In the well-known scene in G&S’s Pirates of Penzance, Major-General Stanley and the Pirate King clearly pronounce “often” and “orphan” in the same way, and presumably with an educated upper-class 19th-century English accent:

MAJOR-GENERAL: I ask you, have you ever known what it is to be an orphan?
PIRATE KING: Often!
MAJOR-GENERAL: Yes, orphan. Have you ever known what it is to be one?
PIRATE KING: I say, often.
ALL: (disgusted) Often, often, often. (Turning away)
MAJOR-GENERAL: I don’t think we quite understand one another. I ask you, have you ever known what it is to be an orphan, and you say “orphan”. As I understand you, you are merely repeating the word “orphan” to show that you understand me.
PIRATE KING: I didn’t repeat the word often.
MAJOR-GENERAL: Pardon me, you did indeed.
PIRATE KING: I only repeated it once.
MAJOR-GENERAL: True, but you repeated it.
PIRATE KING: But not often.
MAJOR-GENERAL: Stop! I think I see where we are getting confused. When you said “orphan”, did you mean “orphan”,a person who has lost his parents, or “often”, frequently?
PIRATE KING: Ah! I beg pardon-- I see what you mean – frequently.
MAJOR-GENERAL: Ah! you said “often”, frequently.
PIRATE KING: No, only once.
MAJOR-GENERAL: (irritated) Exactly-- you said “often”, frequently, only once.

[Rhiannon8404]

I pronounce the t. Off-ten

[Bippy_the_Beardless]

Posh: We don’t orftern have guests, let allone offer them horsepitality.

Not Posh. My dog is like a famous composer. He off’n barks.

[lisacurl]

There are really no absolutes in this case, because the ‘t’ sound has been restored with modern spelling conformity and awareness of same. But, the ‘t’ in ‘often’ is silent, just as it is silent in ‘listen’ and ‘soften’.

[FairyChatMom]

I don’t pronounce the t, and I cringe when I hear it pronounced.

[RealityChuck]

The pronunciation has an interesting history. From the OED:

Often is less commonly used than oft until the 16th cent. Several orthoepists of the 16th and 17th centuries, including Hart, Bullokar, Robinson, Gil, and Hodges, give a pronunciation with medial -t-. Others, including Coles, Young, Strong, and Brown, record a pronunciation without -t-, which, despite its use in the 16th cent. by Elizabeth I, seems to have been avoided by careful speakers in the 17th cent. (see E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500-1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §405). Loss of t after f occurs in other cases; cf. SOFTEN v., and also RAFT n.1, HAFT n.1, etc. The pronunciation with -t- has frequently been considered to be hypercorrection in recent times: see for example H. W. Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage (1926), s.v.

Nowadays, the “t” is more commonly silent, but pronouncing it is not “wrong.”

I don’t: it’s “offen.”

[1010011010]

I pronounce the T, just like in “oft”.

“Of’en” sounds lazy to me.

[Cunctator]

OFF-EN, with the t silent. The other sounds ridiculously affected to me.

[Antigen]

I use both.