I have been trying to find something with a definitive answer on this subject, but have not bee able to find anything specific. If you are conjugating a verb such as
知っています
たべたがっている
The pronunciation seems like the てい is pronounced as a て then the い。 Normally this would be pronounced as ‘ee’ or ‘ei’ as a single vowel sound without any transition. Would somebody tell me which way is correct?
3 comments
You sort of have to remove yourself from the English speaking desire to shove vowels together. Its て then い. So I guess it’s more like “eh-ee” but you have to try not to remove the “e” from the “t” in “te.” They’re a unit much like the “i” is it’s own.
Now I will say when my partner is really going and talking with friends he def sort of slurs those sounds a bit but like just practice with “tay-ee” and exaggerate the sounds a little to practice and once your used to it you can bring it down to a more normal level.
the proper pronunciation of ている is ている, but it often gets slurred into てる
the proper pronunciation of ています is ています, but it often gets slurred into てます
just like てしまう becomes ちまう and ておく becomes とく and うまい becomes うめぇ and all kinds of other casual contractions
practice the correct way, you can let yourself slur things later for casual effect but if you learn the wrong way you will find it harder to undo it when it’s necessary later
Agreed with all of this.
OP — here’s how it sounds: https://youtu.be/Lc48f2VDDHA
My guess is that, in careful, formal speech, い does not officially lengthen て because they belong to two different words: て is an independent word (particle), and いる is an independent word (補助動詞).
This is different from, for example, the word 定食(ていしょく), where て and い belong to the same word, so therefore い elongates the vowel from て.
However, please be apprised that, in most casual speech, てる, てます, etc. are quite common and may be perceived as friendlier or not so impersonal/distant.