Qanda wrote:dlowan wrote:Most speakers pronounce them identically.
Precisely, that's why I said that people here never pronounce "have" as "of". Even in the short form, we still pronounce it as "have" or at least "af".
My point was that, in many situations, the pronunciation of both is the same.
I know it sounds weird - but if you listen really hard to conversations around you, I think you will find that it is true.
I suspect this will vary from place to place, though, of course!
Australians are notoriously lazy speakers....and I am from Australia!
For instance, I truly doubt you will actually hear "have" pronounced often with the "a" sound as it is in "apple" - which is how we pronounce it when we are thinking of it as a single word - or when we are looking at it on a page - any more than "of" is often pronounced with the "o" sound as it is in "often".
I think you will find that, in practice, the vowel sound in both is pronounced the same - with some speakers putting a clear "h" sound in front of the vowel for "have", and many not.
Aded: Actually, on thinking, I suspect the "apple" "a" sound in"have" only occurs when the word follows a vowel - eh "I have done that" vs "I could 've done that." Kind of like the way in which "the" is only pronounced as "thee" when it precedes a vowel - "The end" vs "th' beginning."
(We moved to Australia a year ago)
