How do you pronounce "est" in superlative adjective and "less" in adj?

[-hell_boy-]

How do you pronounce "est" in superlative adjective and "less" in adj?

Can anyone show me how to pronounce "est" when we form a superlative adjective and "less" in adjective like careless or homeless?
According to this website http://goo.gl/M2SsVH you pronounce "est" as "ɛst", but sometimes I hear native speakers pronounce it as "ist". Similarly, most adjective ending with "less" is pronounced "[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] as "l[/FONT]əs" according to dictionaries like Oxford or Cambridge. But I still sometimes hear native speakers pronounce it as "lis'. I don't know if I was right or it was just my feelings.

So can anyone tell me if the pronounciation of these 2 things above is unchanged in any circumstances or it follows a certain rules. Thanks for answering me

 

[Skrej]

Re: How do you pronounce "est" in superlative adjective and "less" in adj?

You will often hear variations in pronunciations from not only country to country, but even regions within the same country, even from native speakers. This is true of any language. That's why native speakers can often pinpoint where other speakers are from, based on those differences.

You list Vietnamese as your native language - can't you often tell if another native Vietnamese speaker is from a particular part of Vietnam based on their pronunciation or vocabulary? That's the same thing happening here in your post with English.

You could use whichever pronunciation of 'est' and 'less' you like. Neither one is "more correct" or better. My suggestion would be to adopt the pronunciation most widely used in the area you plan to live or work.

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: How do you pronounce "est" in superlative adjective and "less" in adj?

In my variant of BrE (south coast), "careless" sounds like "care-liss". However, my friends from the Midlands and the north of England would say it slightly differently, more like "kerr-luhss".