Three of the most common English words which end in vowels are the preposition ‘to’ and the articles ‘the’ and ‘a’.
1.
These three words generally have schwa /ə/ before consonants.
a dress əˈdrɛs
to dress təˈdrɛs
the dress ðəˈdrɛs
2a.
Before vowels, their forms alter: the indefinite article acquires /n/, while ‘to’ and ‘the’ typically change their vowels, becoming /tuː/ (/tʉw/) and /ðiː/ (/ðɪj/).
an address ənəˈdrɛs
to address tʉwəˈdrɛs
the address ðɪjəˈdrɛs
2b.
But many younger speakers of SSB now use schwa before vowels as well as consonants, but with hard attack before a vowel. (This pattern is more established in America, and perhaps in Scotland, than in SSB. This is also typical for German learners of English).
to address tə[ʔ]əˈdrɛs
the address ðə[ʔ]əˈdrɛs or ðɪj[ʔ]əˈdrɛ
Note that this creates a potential ambiguity in SSB between the definite article ‘the’ pronounced with hard attack before a vowel and the conjunction ‘that’ pronounced weakly with glottal replacement of the final /t/.
‘She said [ðəʔ]others will be there’.
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