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Australia is now spending over $40 million to combat the deadly virus, but it hasn't silenced the critics, who say the response has been underdone and tardy, or hushed calls to send the military.
(Aussie ABC, here is the part, 'or hushed calls to send the military, of ABC)

When you pronounce ‘send the,’ do you cancel/delete /d/? Or do you fuse/combine /d/ and /th/ together?

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    When I say it, my tongue moves into position to say the "d" but instead of saying it I then immediately move on to the "th" and pronounce that as usual. And the faster I speak the less pronounced the "d" becomes until it disappears altogether. When speaking slowly and properly the two words are kept separate and each are fully pronounced.
    – Jim
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 3:29
  • As Jim says, whether a person articulates the [d] often depends on how much of a pause there is after the word. But some speakers never say the [d] no matter how slowly they may be speaking.
    – TimR
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 10:57
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    You can do either one. The /d/ and the /th/ can be fused together to form a kind of more emphatic /th/ (I think it's called a voiced dental stop). Or the /th/ can simply be dropped. Or you can even pronounce them both.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 12:38

1 Answer 1

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Neither. You pronounce them both. However, depending on the accent of the person who is speaking, some people end up leaving off the "d" at the end of "send." But you are supposed to pronounce both.

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    There is no question of us being 'supposed' to pronounce both phonemes. The /d/ of send is assimilated into the /ð/ of the in the everyday speech of many native speakers. This is natural and normal.
    – tunny
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 4:14
  • @tunny why have you deleted your answer?
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 11:09
  • @Araucaria. I thought it more appropriate as a comment than an answer.
    – tunny
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 11:22

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