What’s Better Left Unsaid

People without enough to do like to find unnecessary rules for English speakers. I discussed dangling modifiers last week. In that vein, let’s do “often.”

Many think it should be pronounced “off-ten” rather than “offen,” or at least feel better saying “off-ten.” But why, when we don’t pronounce “listen” as “lis-ten”?

You might say that it’s because there is an actual word “oft” and so we should hold on to the “t” sound, whereas with “listen,” there is no verb “list” that refers to hearing.

Except there........

© The New York Times