Patients pronunces same to patience?

nick   Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:02 am GMT
Patients pronunces same to patience? So how about "rice" and "right"?
or only /ns/ in the end of word same to /ts/?
Kazoo   Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:56 am GMT
Yes to patients and patience sounding the same. No, rice and right are not pronounced the same. There is no rule to explain this. You just have to remember.
agt   Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:18 pm GMT
You could pronounce patients and patience the same. There is a subtle difference when I pronounce them, though.

Rice and right are pronounced differently.
Uriel   Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:22 pm GMT
I think I, too, have a tendency to stress the final T-sound a little more in "patients". But it's subtle.
Claude   Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:25 pm GMT
peI$&nts

peI$&ns

The t pronouced in patients makes all the difference
francisco   Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:33 am GMT
As far as I know, this is a case of epenthesis (the insertion of a plosive sound that is produced in the same area). Thus, we should say patience without a /t/ in extremely careful pronunciation, but if we just dwell on the transition between /n/ and /s/, a plosive /t/ is likely to be present. The same happens with length /leN(k)T/, etc.