[Vocabulary] Pronunciatio of 'the' before 'united', 'UK' and 'USA'

[wotcha]

I've learned that we have to pronounce 'the' as 'ðíː' not 'ðə' before vowels such as 'a, e, i, o u' and

I wonder if the same rule can be applied to 'united', 'UK' and 'USA'.


Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

I don't do phonetics but I'm assuming that the two versions you quote are the equivalent of "theee" and "th-uh". If so, then before UK and USA, we use "th-uh" (your second phonetic one I think) because the letter "U" when spoken sounds as if it starts with a "y" so that's how we treat it. Don't forget that vowels can be pronounced differently at the beginning of a word depending on the word (underground vs unicorn for example - "underground" takes your first phonetic "the" and "unicorn" takes the second).

 

[5jj]

emsr2d2 is right.

In most major varieties of English, we use /ði:/ before vowel sounds, ( so we use it before words that begin with a silent 'h', such as 'hour'). We use /ðə/ before consonant sounds. Word-initial /j/ is considered to be a consonant sound, and we therefore use /ðə/ before such words a 'year', 'European' and 'union'