student asking question

Isn't it right to pronounce "the" in front of the "article" as [ði]? And the pronunciation of "data" is also unfamiliar. Is she pronounce "data" in a standard way?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Pronunciation of the words "the" and "data" can vary from place to place and person to person. When "the" is placed at the beginning of a sentence, it is usually pronounced with a long "e" sound, but towards the middle or end of the sentence, is often pronounced as "tha" or "thuh." This is not standard pronunciation, but it has become incredibly common as native speakers commonly slur their words when speaking quickly or casually. Likewise, "data" can be pronounced like both "day-tah" (long "a" sound) and "dah-tah" (short "a" sound).

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