Consonant dropping in clusters

 

Consonant dropping in clusters

The above grammar particles in some situations create consonant clusters. Consonant clusters are two or more consonants next to each other in a word. Pronouncing consonant clusters can be challenging, even for English natives. While we should try to pronounce them all, in some situations it is also acceptable to omit one of the consonants. 

When there are three or more consonants in a row at the end of a syllable, the middle one can be dropped in most cases. The first and the last consonant may not be dropped. This is especially the case when the last one is a grammar particle: without the particle, the sentence will not make sense. The dropping of the middle consonant sound happens most often when the middle consonant is a stop (/p, b, t, d, k, g/). For example,

hands /hænz/

tests /tɛsts/ or /tɛs/ 

asked /æskt/ or /æst/ 

camped /kæmt/

With the /θs/ consonant cluster, as in the word ‘months’ we can just omit the /θ/ sound. We should not omit the final /s/ since it is a necessary grammar particle. So we can say ‘mons.’ 

months /mʌnθs/ or /mʌns/ 

sixths /sɪksθs/ or /sɪks/

twelfths /lfθs/ or /lfs/

thousandths /ndθs/ or /nz/

The same is true with /ðz/. We can omit /ð/, but not /z/. For example, “clothes” can be pronounced /kloʊz/. When /ð/ is omitted, ‘clothes’ and ‘close can become homophones