to hate hearing tweny twelve?

[Outsideperspective]

So many adverts, promotions, talk about the olympics taking place next year have people referring to tweny twelve. When did twenty lose the second t? This jarrs every time I hear it.

AIBU if you are going to refer to this century as twenty rather than two thousand, the word twenty is pronounced correctly.

Never noticed! I'm sure I will now though

YANBU 'Twenny' should be consigned to the same verbal dustbin as 'thir'y' (or 'fir'y') and 'for'y' with their ugly glottal stops.

Is it really a missing 't', or a glottal stop? I can't say I've noticed this happening, but either way why does it matter? You know what they're saying, they're speaking in an efficient and clear way. And if a word is common, it is going to undergo various processes to make it easier to say. It's really no different from saying 'don't' instead of 'do not'.

Dropping a letter is sloppy pronunciation and not the same as a contraction such as 'don't'. No-one calls a man that makes wooden objects a 'carpener' or the sparky stuff in a storm 'lighning'....

It's exactly the same principle. Is it also 'sloppy' for RP speakers not to pronounce 'r' at the end of words? Or is that okay because middle-class people do it?

Can you imagine what a mumsnet forum would have been saying if there were one in existence around 1911.

There would have been a whole shed-load of different stuff to get upset about.

But that's ok, we move on.

I read somewhere that most people do actually pronounce words like lightning and fortnight with a glottal stop (ligh'ning, for'night). If you say the words out loud it's quite hard to pronounce the t.

I love a good glo'al stop though.

Agree. If the letter is there, and it's appropriate, then pronounce it.

That's absolutely true. The glottal stop is the most common consonant in the English language if I remember correctly, and is used all the time by the very same people who get up in arms about it in the Daily Mail.

YANBU i hate that term as well!

This is what I love about the English language, just when people think they have a rule that needs to be obeyed, then common usage will inevitabley completely ignore that rule.

"If the letter is there, and it's appropriate, then pronounce it."

Consider 'an honour' and 'a hotel', or 'an unnecessary action' with 'a useless action.' Americans say "an herb" which sounds wierd to an English ear nowadays, but would have been quite ok a while ago..

As I said, I love English and am more than happy to listen to those who try to impose rules upon it. (Many of whom will know far more than me, I'm sure)

I dislike this century being called Twenty anything. I dislike Twenny even more.

Never heard it. And if I did, I just be thankful that they were calling it twenty-twelve and not the ridiculous two thousand and twelve.

it's a bit like the word 'cunt' isn't it?

you don't have to pronounce the 't' in it's entirety, but you still get the meaning of the word

GuidoFawkestooearlymustdache

How very rude.

Not a word I can imagine Lord Coe using that often

Oh please do not say that people say ''otel'.

true enough Maisie but if he did it would probably sound more like 'cant' wouldn't it?

Cogito, I say "lighnin". I am Scottish. Or Sco'ish.

I heart the glo'al stop, and the best thing is, I teach English as a foreign language, so I teach all the students the same thing.

YIPPEEEEE!

Outsideperspective

An 'otel.

Fark orf

GuidoFawkestooearlymustdache you cahnt.

I can't say it's something that's high on my list of things that fuck me off. Rather like Guido's take on the subject though. I bet he does say it.

So true Guido!

at Sco'ish - or worse, Scoa'ish. Pronounce the ts, in the name of the wee man!!