How to pronounce "wastes"?

My classmate said that the word "wastes" should be read with the "tes" at the end dropped, like "weis".

However, my teachers usually read the word like "weists" or "weis:s".

This confuses me a little bit and I can't check out the actual pronunciation of the word anywhere. Hope anyone who knows the exact pronuncation of the word can help solve the problem.

Click wastes - Pronunciation from www.howjsay.com

:up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rowan

My classmate said that the word "wastes" should be read with the "tes" at the end dropped, like "weis":cross:.

However, my teachers usually read the word like "weists":tick: or "weis:s".

This confuses me a little bit and I can't check out the actual pronunciation of the word anywhere. Hope anyone who knows the exact pronunciation of the word can help solve the problem.

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No need. The phoneme /t/ is present; in less formal contexts individual speakers may 'swallow' the [t] sound to some extent.

b

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rowan

My classmate said that the word "wastes" should be read with the "tes" at the end dropped, like "weis".

However, my teachers usually read the word like "weists" or "weis:s".

This confuses me a little bit and I can't check out the actual pronunciation of the word anywhere. Hope anyone who knows the exact pronuncation of the word can help solve the problem.

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The proper pronunciation is /weists/.
The /t/ might be very weak or missing, but this is not because it is supposed to be pronounced that way. It's just that your tongue gets a bit crowded.

Thanks for everyone's answer.

I was a little unsure because my classmate insisted on his pronunciation and said that he learnt that from BBC.com. I tried looking up the dictionary to decide who's right but couldn't find a situation similar to the one in this case.

Thanks again to everyone.