Common mistakes by native language
Japanese speakers
Mistake: Pronouncing both "of" and "them" with their full dictionary vowels and a clear pause between each word, producing "most — of — them" as three separate chunks rather than a fluid phrase.
Why: Japanese mora-timed rhythm gives every syllable equal weight, so learners naturally avoid the heavy reduction English applies to weak function words like "of" and the initial [ð] plus vowel of "them" in casual speech.
Fix: Reduce "of" to [əv] and let "them" weaken to [ðəm], with everything flowing together: [ˈmoʊstəvðəm]. Practice the whole phrase as one breath group, almost like a single long word.
Korean speakers
Mistake: Releasing the final [t] of "most" as a clear, separate stop before starting "of them" as its own unit, rather than letting the consonant cluster and the reduced function words flow together.
Why: Korean syllable-final consonants are typically unreleased and kept distinct from the next syllable, so the instinct is to close off "most" completely instead of linking its cluster into the following reduced "of".
Fix: Keep "most" tight and move directly into the weak forms of "of" [əv] and "them" [ðəm]: [ˈmoʊstəvðəm]. There should be no stop or pause anywhere in the phrase — it flows as one continuous unit.
Chinese speakers
Mistake: Treating each word as an independent syllable with its own clear vowel, especially over-pronouncing "them" with a full, stressed [ðɛm] instead of the natural weak form.
Why: Mandarin syllables remain acoustically self-contained, so learners tend to give function words like "of" and "them" the same phonetic weight as content words, rather than recognizing that English systematically weakens unstressed grammatical words.
Fix: Weaken "them" to the unstressed [ðəm] and connect it smoothly to a reduced "of" [əv]: the full phrase becomes [ˈmoʊstəvðəm], spoken as one fluid unit with a single main stress on "most".
Notes
"Most of them" is a common summarizing phrase used to talk about the majority of a group, and its natural pronunciation relies on two connected-speech reductions layered together: the preposition "of" weakens to [əv], and the pronoun "them" weakens further to [ðəm], with its vowel reduced to schwa and its consonant often barely voiced. The result is [ˈmoʊstəvðəm], spoken as a single rhythmic unit with the main stress falling on "most". Learners who pronounce every word with full vowels and equal stress will sound stiff and overly formal, even though the sentence is grammatically flawless. This phrase is especially useful for contrasting with "a lot of people", where "of" reduces all the way to a bare schwa because the following word starts with a consonant — here, "of" keeps its [v] sound because "them" begins with the consonant [ð], which still allows the linking [v] to survive. Recognizing these environment-dependent reduction patterns is key to sounding natural in everyday spoken English.