their
/ᴛʜâr/
adjective
- Used as a modifier before a noun. their accomplishments; their home town.
- (Usage Problem) His, her, or its.
Question to the natives: is there any difference between either of the three? Also, if you do distinguish them, it would be interesting for me to know what accent you have. I've almost convinced myself that I can sometimes hear the /j/ sound in "they're" in some accents. Am I tripping?
american english - Pronunciation of "there, their and they're" - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
"There" and "their" pronunciation difference
Pronunciation:their | WordReference Forums
Does anyone else pronounce "they're" differently to "their" and "there"?
Somebody told me today that these two are homophones. You must be kidding me. I consider myself pretty well-versed in many varieties of English, but would never consider them homophones. Is "ei" in "their" really not pronounced as /eɪ/ (like ate, fame), but just as flat /ɛ/?
I'm from Victoria, Australia, and I've noticed that no-one I know and no-one I've ever heard does this except me, most of my friends can't even hear the difference.
I don't know how to write this phonetically but the difference is, as well as I can describe it, like the difference between 'air' and 'aya' only less distinct than 'aya' would be.
EDIT: While recording I may have modified it by thinking about it too hard, but I think this is close to how I would say the two in conversation (as I don't distinguish between 'their' and 'there').
EDIT: I posted this question because I couldn't find anything on it using Google, is there a name for this or is it a relatively unknown phenomenon (the pronunciation of these words not as homophones)?