why do people say pree but not preetee like in "thats pretty hot"?
isn't pretty supposed to be said as preetee?
isn't pretty supposed to be said as preetee?
pretty
What is going on here is something called flap elision, which occurs in very many North American English dialects to varying degrees. In particular, it is very common (almost universal) in NAE in everyday speech for certain words such as "little", "pretty", and "city".
As for "pretty", in General American it is really ["p_hr\I4i:] in careful speech, rather than the ["p_hr\i4i:] indicated by "preetee". However, it commonly undergoes flap elision to ["p_hr\I:i_^], which is probably what you mean by "pree", which would actually be ["p_hr\i:]
Similarly, in General American "little" is carefully ["5I45=:] but in everyday speech is more commonly ["5I:5=:] or ["5I:5]. Likewise, "city" is carefully ["sI4i:] but in everyday speech is frequently ["sI:i_^].
(As for the transcriptions here, they are in X-SAMPA; for more information on such, one can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA )
As for "pretty", in General American it is really ["p_hr\I4i:] in careful speech, rather than the ["p_hr\i4i:] indicated by "preetee". However, it commonly undergoes flap elision to ["p_hr\I:i_^], which is probably what you mean by "pree", which would actually be ["p_hr\i:]
Similarly, in General American "little" is carefully ["5I45=:] but in everyday speech is more commonly ["5I:5=:] or ["5I:5]. Likewise, "city" is carefully ["sI4i:] but in everyday speech is frequently ["sI:i_^].
(As for the transcriptions here, they are in X-SAMPA; for more information on such, one can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA )
Are you talking about the pronunciation of the word "pretty" in expressions like "pretty much" which gives [p=r\4i] "purty" rather than [prI4i]? I have that.
I do not think mike's talking about such cases, which are likely rather limited dialect-wise within North American English (for example, such does not happen in the dialect here at all). Rather, he's talking about cases where "pretty" is pronounced monosyllabically with a diphthong in it rather than disyllabically, which seems to actually be very common in North American English.
Americans tend to pronounce "pretty" as "priddy", and in fast speech the d's get softened even more until they are more there in spirit than actuality.
To my knowledge, though, NO ONE ever pronounces "pretty" as "preetee" -- even Brits use the short I sound ("pritty").
To my knowledge, though, NO ONE ever pronounces "pretty" as "preetee" -- even Brits use the short I sound ("pritty").
Only time I ever hear pretty said as "preety" is in an exaggerated accent on a villain of uncertain Nationality on cartoons etc. "Come with me preety lady". I've never heard it pronounced "preety" by any native English speaker anywhere.