A bit tricky to explain in words, so bear with me.
Traditionally, the word THE is pronounced differently depending on whether the next word begins with a vowel or a consonant.
So I would say The next day, but Thee afternoon, Thee evening.
Almost all the presenters on my local tv news say The every time it occurs.
This came up in my choir. Obviously we all need to be “ singing from the same hymn sheet” and unifying our pronunciation, so our Director of Music pointed this out in the phrase “ the earth” , to be sung as Thee earth. He stated that this is normal in English. A couple of younger members queried this, saying they had never come across this before.
Something similar with A. Usually pronounced euh, not A as in the first letter of the alphabet.
Yet these same tv presenters say A man, A school.
Even A animal, not An animal, though that is rare.
I don’t think it is a regional thing as the presenters have various accents. It seems to be younger presenters rather than those more mature in years.
It really grates.
I know language evolves, but this doesn’t make for smooth news-reading.
