4

I know seven words ending in "sten" : chasten, christen, fasten, glisten, hasten, listen, moisten

All of them are pronounced without the sound "t". Is there some rule that explains this? Are there some other situations when "st" is pronounced as just "s"?

Improve this question
9
  • 5
    Not an answer to your question, but tungsten is pronounced with a t.
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Jan 17, 2016 at 11:24
  • Often is another word where the t does not always get pronounced, this happens more frequently than is convenient in English, which is a reason the language is not easy to learn
    – Peter
    Jan 17, 2016 at 12:15
  • Glorfindel, thanks indeed you are right. Maybe this exception is explained by the fact that tungsten is a noun...
    – aglearner
    Jan 17, 2016 at 13:13
  • 1
    @Glorfindel In tungsten, the second syllable is "sten", while in the question examples it is ten.
    – user3169
    Jan 17, 2016 at 18:25
  • 3
    List of st words with silent t is here
    – Peter
    Jan 18, 2016 at 5:54

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

If a syllable ends with "s", and the next syllable is "t" plus schwa plus L or N, the resulting "st" is reduced to just /s/.

e.g.

moisten, whistle, thistle, hasten, fasten, christening, glisten, ...

This rules out tungsten, because its syllables are tung-sten and not tungs-ten.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .