How do you say it?
Offen, and I suspect those who say “often” are hypercorrecting based on the spelling.
Offen.
I know it’s not really correct, but “OFF-TEN” sounds a bit cumbersome to my ear.
Off-ten. I’ve always pronounced the t. I know some people believe that it is pretentious to pronounce the t, but I don’t do it out of pretension. I just always thought the t was there for a reason.
Both.
In casual conversation, it usually comes out off-en. In more formal speech, I convert to off-ten. A single word response is usually off-ten.
Offen
But then…do you pronounce the G in gnat, the K in knot, etc?
English is full of words that include silent letters that IRL are not supposed to be pronounced.
Mind you I don’t think pronouncing the T in often is pretentious. I moved to the US from the UK decades ago, and got teased about precise diction - like saying “Mirr-OR” instead of the American “MEER.”
Niether. More like off-tin. I seldom hear people around me say it without at least a hint of the “t” sound.
Off - ten
My parents both pronounced it that way. All my sibs pronounce it that way. It has nothing with trying or wanting to sound pretentious or trying to be correct. It’s just how we say it.
Offen.
ETA: this is the first I ever heard of pronouncing the ‘t’ being pretentious.
Here we are again!
I say “often”.
I used to say the t. Now I don’t. I don’t care unless a T’er tries to tell me I’m saying it wrong.
What, no Pirates of Penzance jokes yet?
I don’t know this board anymore.
No T for me. The only person I’ve heard pronounce the “t” consistantly was one of my college teachers, and it struck me as annoying.
I don’t say ‘meer’ and I’d chuckle at anyone who did. I don’t say ‘offen’ that often, either. On occasion, it comes out muddled - offen - but I don’t use the word that much in the first place.
I also say “thee” instead of “the” a lot. shrug
Do you liss-ten to music? Fass-ten your seat belt?
I pronounce the T, but I don’t *emphasize *it. My mom enunciates crisply and pronounces everything correctly, it rubbed off. I also say ‘Feb-ru-ary’.
The t is silent. Yourdictionary lists it as one of the 100 most often mispronounced words and phrases in English.
I’ve never heard anyone have trouble with listen, soften, fasten, hasten, etc. I don’t understand what makes often so hard.
I don’t know how to spell it phonetically, but it’s not quite ‘fas-ten’ or ‘fassen’. It’s something in between.
Offen. As much as I like Paul Simon, I’ve never liked the way he sings “offten” in American Tune.