There’s a t in oftenplay , but how often do you hear it? As you might guess, the t was pronounced in the past, when the word began as a variant of oft (also spelled ofte in Middle English), which was the more common form until the 1500s. Oft is now archaic for most of the senses of often, but is still used in compound adjectives like oft-repeated and oft-quoted. Ofttimes and oftentimes both carry that archaic flavor but are still in active use. After the -en suffix was added to ¬oft, the t fell away in pronunciation, but remained in the spelling.
Henry Gillard Glindoni, «John Dee performing an experiment before Queen Elizabeth I.» Though Queen Elizabeth did not pronounce the t in ‘often’, most careful speakers in 17th century England did. Nevertheless, standard pronunciation seems to have followed the queen’s example.
Silent Medial T’s
Similarly, the medial t in words like soften, hasten, and fasten was originally pronounced, as the -en was added to base words that were recognizable (soft, haste, fast). Listen is a bit different; although the archaic verb list exists, listen comes from the Middle English listnen, and evidence is that t after s and before n was not pronounced.
In often, the t came back via a spelling-influenced pronunciation in the 1600s, as both literacy and printing expanded rapidly in England. E. J. Dobson’s authoritative work English Pronunciation 1500-1700 notes that Queen Elizabeth herself did not pronounce the t, but that phonetically spelled lists made in the 17th century indicate that “the pronunciation without [t] seems to have been avoided in careful speech.”
Nevertheless, the prestige or upper-class standard pronunciation seems to have followed the queen’s example, because three hundred years later, the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary added this note to its entry for often:
The pronunciation (ȯf-tən), which is not recognized in dictionaries, is now frequent in the south of England, and is often used in singing.
And the 1934 unabridged Webster’s Second had this:
The pronunciation ȯf-tən, until recently generally considered as more or less illiterate, is not uncommon among the educated in some sections, and is often used in singing.
This note is curious—and dubious—for two reasons. It apparently judges the speaker rather than the word, to which it adds the irony that the criticized pronunciation in question is based entirely on the word’s spelling. A person who uses this pronunciation would almost certainly be able to read.
The medial t dropped out of many common words formed with -en, but came back in often. It is common today, but still stigmatized with the label ÷ in the dictionary; some educated speakers certainly do use it, but others consider it unacceptable. And they will often correct you.
Возможно вам будет интересно узнать, что изначально известное нам слово «often» имело краткую форму «oft» и использовалось в таком виде до 1500-х годов. Несмотря на всю архаичность этого слова, «oft» до сих пор используется в таких составных прилагательных, как «oft-repeated» и «oft—quoted».
Однако с течением времени слово «oft» приобрело суффикс «-en», а звук /t/ в образовавшемся слове «often» исчез. Произошло это потому, что примерно в XV веке носители языка просто перестали произносить некоторые согласные звуки, что упростило артикуляцию языка. Примерами могут послужить немой /d/ в «handsome» и «handkerchief», а также /p/ в «consumption» и «raspberry».
В XIX веке с ростом числа грамотного населения и увеличением осведомленности о правописании, некоторые «выпавшие» звуки начали частично возвращать в слова. Это и произошло со звуком /t/ в слове «often».
Сегодня в Америке, Британии, Канаде, и даже в Австралии слово «often» произносят двумя разными способами — /ˈɒfən/ и /ˈɒftən/. Это вопрос привычки, которая чаще всего формируется происхождением и окружением человека. Оба варианта верны, однако по наблюдениям многих, в Америке и Канаде данное слово чаще произносят со звуком /t/, в то время как британцы и австралийцы традиционно предпочитают /t/ опускать.
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часто, зачастую, много раз
наречие ↓
Мои примеры
Словосочетания
hands often chap in winter — зимой руки часто трескаются 
every so often — время от времени
once too often — слишком часто
as we are often apt to think — как мы часто бываем склонны считать
spoil best frock by wearing it too often — затаскать выходное платье
which is more often the case — что чаще имеет место
he often chooses marble for his portraits — он часто выбирает мрамор для скульптурных портретов
designer often trades the looks for more strength — конструктор часто жертвует эстетикой ради прочности
disappointment is often the salt of life — разочарование часто и есть смысл жизни
often a highly polished person is dreadfully dull — слишком утонченный человек часто ужасно скучен
Примеры с переводом
How often do you call your mother?
Как часто ты звонишь матери?
We often met over a cup of coffee.
Мы часто встречались за чашкой кофе.
She often works at the weekend.
Она часто работает по выходным.
How often do you see your parents?
Как часто вы видитесь с родителями?
He travels more often than I do.
Он путешествует чаще, чем я.
I quite often go to Paris on business.
Я довольно часто бываю в Париже по делам.
They go out to dinner fairly often.
Они довольно часто ужинают не дома /в ресторане/.
ещё 11 примеров свернуть
Возможные однокоренные слова
unoften — нечасто, редко, изредка
The word often is a good example of the way our language goes round and round.
Old English had the word oft, meaning “frequently.” It also had the word seldan, which meant “rarely,” and is the source of our word seldom.
It is thought that oft morphed into often by analogy with seldan. Then seldan changed to seldum by analogy with another time word, hwilum, which meant “sometimes” or “once”. Over time, seldum came to be spelled seldom.
The t in often continued to be pronounced until some time in the 15th century when a consonant simplification occurred in some words that had two or more consonants in a row. It was at this time that speakers stopped pronouncing the d in handkerchief and handsome, the p in raspberry, and the t in chestnut and often.
John Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, published in 1791 and still available in a 2001 reprint of the 1838 edition, stipulates that “in often and soften the t is silent.”
By 1926, enough speakers were pronouncing the t in often to provoke this testy comment from H. W. Fowler in Modern English Usage:
[the pronunciation of the t in often] is practised by two oddly consorted classes—the academic speakers who affect a more precise enunciation than their neighbours…& the uneasy half-literates who like to prove that they can spell….”
In 1996, an editor of the OED2, R. W. Burchfield, avoided censuring the “t” pronunciation in this conciliatory comment:
Nowadays…many standard speakers use both [AWF-in] and [AWF-tin], but the former pronunciation is the more common of the two.
However, writer on language Charles Harrington Elster, in The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide For The Careful Speaker(1999), rejects such compromise:
I would caution those who might be consoled by the comments of … Burchfield to heed the admonitions of the past and avoid pronouncing the t.
Elster supports his position with an appeal to analogy:
analogy is entirely unsupportive: no one pronounces the t in soften, listen, fasten, moisten, hasten, chasten, christen, and Christmas—so, once and for all, let’s do away with the eccentric AWF-tin.
For the fun of it, let’s poll DWT readers (if you are reading this via email you’ll need to visit the site to cast your vote):
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