Oceanlike
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2014
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- Singapore
- Current Location
- Singapore
I read that when there's a vowel sound, "the" should be read as "thee" before a word that starts with a, e, i, o and u vowel sound.
Then I read that there's short vowel and long vowel sounds. My understanding is that the long vowel sound sounds the same as the alphabet itself. Hence, I'm confused as to the pronunciation of "the" in some words such as (thee or thuh) ice-cream, (thee or thuh) eleventh hour and (thee or thuh) one.
However, it is pronounced "thuh" universe or university, although both words sound (or at least to me) like the long vowel sound of 'u'. So there is something wrong with my undestanding.
I read in http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-pronounce:
Did Squiggly get "thee" MRI? (Note that MRI starts with a vowel sound: E.)
(No matter how I read it, I could not locate the vowel sound 'E' in MRI)
Please help me to understand correctly.
Thank you!
Then I read that there's short vowel and long vowel sounds. My understanding is that the long vowel sound sounds the same as the alphabet itself. Hence, I'm confused as to the pronunciation of "the" in some words such as (thee or thuh) ice-cream, (thee or thuh) eleventh hour and (thee or thuh) one.
However, it is pronounced "thuh" universe or university, although both words sound (or at least to me) like the long vowel sound of 'u'. So there is something wrong with my undestanding.
I read in http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-pronounce:
Did Squiggly get "thee" MRI? (Note that MRI starts with a vowel sound: E.)
(No matter how I read it, I could not locate the vowel sound 'E' in MRI)
Please help me to understand correctly.
Thank you!
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