Huh? I have lived in every corner and the middle of the United States and I have never heard anyone pronounce the TH in clothes no matter the accent. It always sounds like close as in to close the door.
Unless you are thinking of cloths, as in a pile of wash cloths.
I’m American and I’ve never heard a single person ever pronounce it “close”. Listen closely and you’ll hear that the word sounds longer. That’s the pronunciation. It’s not a hard “thuh”. It’s a soft “ths”. Say the word “cloths” but use a long “o” sound rather than “awh”.
This is just wrong. Im canadian but think about how you would pronounce the word ‘clothe’ as in 'he can barely clothe himself" and then add an s sound. Although it is more of a ‘z’ sound abd can blend with the ‘th’ a little bit, the ‘th’ is definitely pronounced clo-th-z.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but the th is indeed silent in my area regarding the word ‘clothes’. I’ve never heard it pronounced any different than ‘close’.
Now if it’s said as ‘clothing’, the th is indeed pronounced. But not for ‘clothes’. And I’ve worked at a clothing store before.
You might be thinking of the word ‘cloths’, which indeed does pronounce the th.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but the th is indeed silent in my area regarding the word ‘clothes’. I’ve never heard it pronounced any different than ‘close’.
I’m not sure where you’re from, the th in is always pronounced in my area regarding the word ‘clothes’. I’ve never heard it pronounced the same as ‘close’
I will say that people got called out for pronouncing it the same as the spice ‘cloves’.
Oh well that’s easy then, it’s because you guys speak British, not English!
Kidding aside, I lived in East Anglia for a few years as a kid and I don’t remember the British kids saying it that way either, but that was a really long time ago and my memory ain’t what it used to be! I think. I can’t remember how it used to be actually.
Fighting talk, sirrah! Fighting talk… But yes, I guess.
British English has been described as three languages dressed up in a trenchcoat that go around mugging other languages in dark alleys and stealing the best bits…
I’m in the US and I pronounce it, I think a lot of people do? Maybe I just know a lot of snobs and “regular” Americans mush the word together but I don’t think so
You seem like the sort of person that would pronounce the word often with a hard T,
Not at all. Used to make fun of people who did.
yet still pronounce the letter A as if it was an O.
No - there are two sounds for A, bath (short, as in cat) for tub of usually hot water and Bath (long, as in car) for the city famous for its hot water. Never heard it like O - no, wait… RP has an O sounding A doesn’t it? Lloyd Grossman was famous for his mangling of vowel sounds.
ETA that distinction for the A sound is probably familial rather than regional; grew up with Geordie mam and Home counties dad.
I’ve had to train my ear because I learned to speak spanish so I notice these things with my friends who are learning english.
The one that broke my mind the other day is that the D in drink is pronounced like a J. My friend was practicing his D sounds and came up with that out of the blue.
According to the international phonetic alphabet they’re the same sound.
Here is the IPA for drink: dɹɪŋk
Here is the IPA for jury: d͡ʒʊɹi
Mainly it’s noticeable for spanish speakers because the spanish D is pronounced closer to the english th or is unvoiced depending on where it is in a word.
I don’t know shit about fuck when it comes to the differences between accents/dialects but it’s at least enough of a thing to be there in dictionaries.
Hey we may have our language rules pulled from 30 different other languages and applied seemingly at random, but at least we don’t have to memorize the gender of every inanimate object in the world!
I’ve taken 5 years of German and self studied some Russian and Spanish, and goddamn that gendered noun shit is really, really hard for native English speakers.
Okay you got me there. Also for what it’s worth, gendered nouns are hard even when you natively speak a language with gendered nouns. Source: Am an Arabic speaker and will Jihad anyone who says a chair is female.
At least in my dialect (US northeast) clothes and close don’t quite share a pronunciation. They’re similar enough that you could probably fully elide the th sound, and I’m not sure anyone would notice.
When I pronounce clothes I can still feel my tongue move into the th position, and hear a small difference.
I don’t know that they sound that different, but I definitely “pronounce” them differently in that my tongue is in a different party of my mouth for both of them. When I say clothes, my tongue is near touching my front teeth, where as close is more just below that ridge behind my teeth, so farther back.
Hoes drop their clothes.
Who the hell decided that close is pronounced the same as clothes?
No one? They aren’t pronounced the same in any accent that I’m aware of.
Edit: I’m dumb. I was reading that as the “nearby” close and not the "shut " close.
You’re probably thinking of the pronunciation of close as in ‘close to you’
I was thinking of the pronunciation of close as in ‘close the door’
Which is pronounced the same as clothes.
Those still aren’t pronounced the same. The th in clothes isn’t silent.
Huh? I have lived in every corner and the middle of the United States and I have never heard anyone pronounce the TH in clothes no matter the accent. It always sounds like close as in to close the door.
Unless you are thinking of cloths, as in a pile of wash cloths.
English kinda sucks sometimes.
I’m American and I’ve never heard a single person ever pronounce it “close”. Listen closely and you’ll hear that the word sounds longer. That’s the pronunciation. It’s not a hard “thuh”. It’s a soft “ths”. Say the word “cloths” but use a long “o” sound rather than “awh”.
This is just wrong. Im canadian but think about how you would pronounce the word ‘clothe’ as in 'he can barely clothe himself" and then add an s sound. Although it is more of a ‘z’ sound abd can blend with the ‘th’ a little bit, the ‘th’ is definitely pronounced clo-th-z.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but the th is indeed silent in my area regarding the word ‘clothes’. I’ve never heard it pronounced any different than ‘close’.
Now if it’s said as ‘clothing’, the th is indeed pronounced. But not for ‘clothes’. And I’ve worked at a clothing store before.
You might be thinking of the word ‘cloths’, which indeed does pronounce the th.
English is weird like that.
I’m not sure where you’re from, the th in is always pronounced in my area regarding the word ‘clothes’. I’ve never heard it pronounced the same as ‘close’
I will say that people got called out for pronouncing it the same as the spice ‘cloves’.
FWIW My area = rural southern UK.
Yeah absolutely not silent. Unless perhaps you’re a cockney. Source: I’m in northern England. Perhaps it is a British thing.
Oh well that’s easy then, it’s because you guys speak British, not English!
Kidding aside, I lived in East Anglia for a few years as a kid and I don’t remember the British kids saying it that way either, but that was a really long time ago and my memory ain’t what it used to be! I think. I can’t remember how it used to be actually.
Fighting talk, sirrah! Fighting talk… But yes, I guess.
British English has been described as three languages dressed up in a trenchcoat that go around mugging other languages in dark alleys and stealing the best bits…
I’m in the US and I pronounce it, I think a lot of people do? Maybe I just know a lot of snobs and “regular” Americans mush the word together but I don’t think so
You seem like the sort of person that would pronounce the word often with a hard T, yet still pronounce the letter A as if it was an O.
Not at all. Used to make fun of people who did.
No - there are two sounds for A, bath (short, as in cat) for tub of usually hot water and Bath (long, as in car) for the city famous for its hot water. Never heard it like O - no, wait… RP has an O sounding A doesn’t it? Lloyd Grossman was famous for his mangling of vowel sounds.
ETA that distinction for the A sound is probably familial rather than regional; grew up with Geordie mam and Home counties dad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_pronunciation_differences
Meanwhile, why do we pronounce cheese as cheeze?
Who threw the Z sound in there?
So on laundry day you put away your clo_s_ing? The rest of us have clo_th_ing.
I can edit also.
I pronounce the th sometimes, but not always, depends how fast I’m talking
Close isn’t always pronounced the same?!
Sit close to me vs close the door
Ooh wow you’re right.
Close to me is “closs”
Close the door is “cloz”
I never noticed
Your wright!
And I’m rong.
Why is English so weird?
Because it’s wired…
I’ve had to train my ear because I learned to speak spanish so I notice these things with my friends who are learning english.
The one that broke my mind the other day is that the D in drink is pronounced like a J. My friend was practicing his D sounds and came up with that out of the blue.
Hmm, it is similar to a J, and may become the same depending on the speaker, but not necessarily exactly the same
According to the international phonetic alphabet they’re the same sound.
Here is the IPA for drink: dɹɪŋk
Here is the IPA for jury: d͡ʒʊɹi
Mainly it’s noticeable for spanish speakers because the spanish D is pronounced closer to the english th or is unvoiced depending on where it is in a word.
Bingo.
I don’t know shit about fuck when it comes to the differences between accents/dialects but it’s at least enough of a thing to be there in dictionaries.
Even the second one isn’t pronounced the same. Some accents drop the th sound in clothes which is why they can sound similar.
They sound pretty close to me. We can close this issue.
Okay as a non-native speaker who struggles with consonant clusters this is both the best and worst thing I learned today.
Hey we may have our language rules pulled from 30 different other languages and applied seemingly at random, but at least we don’t have to memorize the gender of every inanimate object in the world!
I’ve taken 5 years of German and self studied some Russian and Spanish, and goddamn that gendered noun shit is really, really hard for native English speakers.
Okay you got me there. Also for what it’s worth, gendered nouns are hard even when you natively speak a language with gendered nouns. Source: Am an Arabic speaker and will Jihad anyone who says a chair is female.
At least in my dialect (US northeast) clothes and close don’t quite share a pronunciation. They’re similar enough that you could probably fully elide the th sound, and I’m not sure anyone would notice.
When I pronounce clothes I can still feel my tongue move into the th position, and hear a small difference.
As a native English speaker, English is freaking weird like that.
I don’t know that they sound that different, but I definitely “pronounce” them differently in that my tongue is in a different party of my mouth for both of them. When I say clothes, my tongue is near touching my front teeth, where as close is more just below that ridge behind my teeth, so farther back.
I’m from the center of the U.S. for reference.
I had half my jaw ripped open when I was 16 or so. So I guess I’m lucky to pronounce or enunciate anything correctly these days.
Southern Mississippi, if that means squat.
Yeah Mississippi will do that to you.
They aren’t universally, just in certain dialects. I pronounce the “th” just like with “clothing.”