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Comment by Joker_vD | Hacker News Reader

How many silent P's are in the word "prompt"? Let me ask ChatGPT...

Just for fun, I did ask ChatGPT:

There’s one silent "p" in the word "prompt"—right at the beginning! The “p” isn’t pronounced, but it sneaks into the word anyway.

Normally, I'd just dismiss this as ChatGPT being trained not to disagree, but as a non-native speaker this has me doubting myself: Is prompt really pronounced rompt?

It feels like it can't possible be true, but on the other hand, I'm probably due for having my confidence in my English completely shattered again by learning another weird word's real pronunciation, so maybe this is it.

I am not a native English speaker either, but I am fairly certain it's pronounced "promt", with the second "p", the one between the "m" and the "t", merging into those sounds to the point of being inaudible itself.

Also, I too asked ChatGPT and it told me that In the word "prompt," there are no silent P's. All the letters in "prompt" are pronounced, including the P.

Nope. Both 'p's in prompt are pronounced. The second one has no vocalization but it is there.

English is full of these consonant encounters and they are an easy way to tell if someone is not fluent.

I'm a native english speaker, and prompt is pronounced "promt" ( /prɒmt/ in my roughly General American accent). Ie, there is a silent "p", but it's the second one, not the first.

There's no silent p in prompt. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prompt

In my Ohio dialect (which is supposedly standard), I pronounce both p's, but the second one is only half-pronounced. If I pronounce it quickly, there isn't the slight puff of air between the two, so the sound has the beginning sound as a first bit of 'p' and the ending sound of the last part of 't'. This sounds very similar to /promt/, but is not actually the same.

And that uncertainty you feel is the reason why AI slop is so dangerous.

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