Pronunciation of "the": thee versus thuh [duplicate]

Solution 1:

To summarize the discussion here and elsewhere:

In contrast to the pronunciation-based distinction between a and an, the pronunciation of "the" is not strictly determined by the pronunciation of the following word. The guidelines in, for example, the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary are in fact just guidelines for non-native speakers. If one listens closely to native speakers, it becomes obvious that [ðə] and [ði] are chosen relatively freely, irrespective of the following word. Hence, it is interesting that people who learn English as a foreign language are usually told by teachers and textbooks that the pronunciation of "the" follows the same strict rule as the distinction between a and an. This misconception can even be found on English language sites such as here.

A similar answer was given here.

Solution 2:

For rather a lot of English there are "rather simple rules" that are flat out wrong (the order of the letters "i" and "e" when together is my favorite example). You just have to memorize them.

In the case of "The", it is often pronounced with the long E sound for emphasis, which means that the same phrase might use a different pronunciation depending on the point the speaker wants to get across. The point of emphasis is often if the speaker wants to draw attention to the fact that it is somehow unique.

For example there's "The Ohio State University". If someone is just rattling off its official name, typically you'd hear the softer sound. However, many people are kind of annoyed at how insistent they are about the "The" at the front of the name (most US universities don't do that), so I often hear it pronounced with the harsher long E sound (and the entire word "The" louder than the rest of the name).