The Strength Question.

[Colmc54]

For over 50 years living in the UK I have been pronouncing strength as 'strenth'. Recently on BBC 4 I have heard the Open University people saying strength with a hard 'g' between the 'stren' and the 'th'.

Have I been guilty of mispronunciation all these years?

[ToraToraTora]

no one has justified the pronounciation based on spelling jake, what a rediculous comment. What I said is correct for this word. not stenth not Strenf but Strength. That does not mean I think the G in Gnat is not silent.

[keyplus90]

English is not my first language but I learnt it with a "g" in it. Strength.

[bhg481]

I used to know someone who pronounced the p in psalm and pseudo and the l in calm. think lazyness and mis-hearing over the generations causes words to be pronouned differenly from their spelling - they must have been spelt that way for a reason.
As an opposite to omitting letters, when I moved down south from Lancashire I discovered there was an r in saw and law.

[boxtops]

I'm from the south originally, and I've always said Stren-gth

[boxtops]

what do you say for Length, colm?

[ToraToraTora]

the L in calm is pronounced, its not carm!

[gingejbee]

My current dislike: fith (fif-th) and sickth (six-th)

[pixie373]

It is pronounced carm,like psalm is. The dictionary gives pronunciation, so there is an officially correct answer.
I did point out to a friend (42) at the weekend, writing a list of what she needs for new house, that it wasn't "chester drawers".

[Wharton]

Strength is the longest 8 lettered word in the English language containing only one vowel.

[cupid04]

My O H never pronounces 'month' properly. Always sounds like munff, it really irritates me.

[pixie373]

The longest 8-lettered? Lol:-)

[Tilly2]

Whilst we are talking pronunciation. Do you pronounce the 'h' when using the words when, where, whilst and what?

[jno]

I don't pronounce the H separately, Tilly, but the blowing WH sound I use is different from W. I remember the OED used to give the pronunciation of "when" as "hwen", and that seems about right. I've never been bothered by wen, or strenth, but I say strength as if it was strenkth - a very hard G, I suppose.

[jno]

no one has justified the pronounciation based on spelling jake, what a rediculous comment

Did you read the first post on this thread, TTT?

[ToraToraTora]

yes I did.

[Colmc54]

boxtops
I say lenth just like I say strenth. I was born and raised in Scotland which might be significant, particularly as when I moved to England at the age of 22 and found people laughed when I said 'oven' as in oven, which in England is pronounced 'uven'!

[ichkeria]

Strength is probably one of those 'awkward' words where simplified alternatives like 'strenth' have become commonplace in some areas. However I'm amazed the OP has never heard it pronounced with the g

[andres]

The English language has some funny words .How about 'eighth'or 'eighthly'?.The' g' is silent in these words.

[Tilly2]

g is silent in:- phlegm, gnarl, champagne, sign, gnat, gnaw . . ..?

[mikey4444]

I always like the word "Pterodactyl", where the p is silent, like p in bath !