| Trentonater said: like off-ten instead of just often |
please try again... both your spelling (since you incuded the t in both) and your mostly invalid points.
Often was pronounced with a t-sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the /t/ came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the /t/ for many speakers, and today [aw-fuhn] and [awf-tuhn] [or [of-uhn] and [of-tuhn]] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, often with a /t/ is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.
also see any decent dictionary that keeps both pronunciations. this is much like herb, which can be pronounced urb or hurb. Both are completely acceptable.
