Long standing argument, please help to settle this once and for all!

[sensiblehead]

For a very long time now (10 years or more!) we have had a "discussion" at family gatherings - usually after the wine has gone round a few times!

So, here it is...

Is the word soften pronounced, "sofen" or "soften"?

Oh, and I would be really grateful to also know why it is pronounced that way please!

I woudl say sofen and Dictionary.com appears to agree
dictionary.reference.com/browse/soften

soffen.

dunno why though.

HTH

my vote goes to sofen

soffen

SoFFen, surely?
Silent 't'.

sofen

is it an accent thing though?

sofen.
Just because (there is no other reason in english pronunciation, surely )

Soffen. Not soften or sofen. If it only has one f it would have an "oh" sound in the middle which is clearly wrong. [even more pedantic]

actually (seeing last two posts, yes sof-fen

In the word softener though, you can almost (but not quite) hear the silent 't' - there's a sort of imperceptible split-second pause between the sof and the ner.

Extremely pedantic since we sofens were politely copying OP even though we knew she meant soffen

It's pronounced quietly. The 't' isn't hard, but it's there. A bit like Phil Mitchell.

You literally brush the T over your tongue as you speak it.

Well I agree, but the argument always is that, oft becomes often so why should soft differ. I am finding it hard to disagree- even though I have tried very hard!

Message withdrawn

I say offen as well (does that help?)

soffem? wossat then, cod? Like stuffem but gentler?

I say offen and often. Helpful.

lol - yes I did mean soffen. I was getting tied up thinking about how to make the t clear in the second option!

I think the T gets pronounced with an Irish accent... I've certainly heard it pronounced somewhere.

Most people say it without pronouncing the 't'. Some people (some Scots?) pronounce it with the 't'. Both are correct. It is just an accent, regional thing. Like people from the Midlands over-emphasising the 'g' in words ending in '-ing'. e.g. 'swimminggg' or people from some areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland pronouncing a word ending in 'arily', e.g. 'ordinarily', as 'ordinArily' whereas most of us would say 'ordinErily'.

I think this is what is throwing me I know that the t is not a hard t, however, the fact that it is there however softly (no pun intended!) makes it difficult to explain why it is not a hard sound.

Also, I do use often and offen - I think they have slightly different uses (in my use of language anyway) but I could not explain what those uses are.

Having said all of that, SD, I also suspect I have heard it with a hard t - perhaps in Cornwall?

Oh heck, now I am really confused! Thanks anyway!

Soffen, but can't decide between Often and offen. Think I actually say both...just to confuse things

jinx sensiblehead

Skyatnight, they can't both be right, I need to print this thread off as conclusive proof that I am right!

Sorry .