send them
/ˈsɛnðəm/
RP: /ˈsenðəm/
Meaning: send them
d dropped between n and ð; them→/ðəm/
Mistake: Pronouncing every consonant in "send" clearly, including a full [d], before starting "them": "sendo them".
Why: Japanese phonotactics require consonants to be followed by a vowel, so the natural instinct is to give the [d] its own full articulation rather than letting it disappear before another consonant.
Fix: Drop the [d] between [n] and [ð], moving straight from the nasal into the voiced "th" sound: [ˈsɛnðəm].
Mistake: Releasing the [d] as a distinct stop and then adding a full vowel to "them", producing "send duh-them" with two audible extra beats.
Why: Korean final consonants are usually released clearly, and there is no [ð] sound in Korean, so learners often substitute a [d] and treat the whole cluster as a series of separate releases.
Fix: Skip the [d] entirely and pronounce "them" with the reduced weak form [ðəm]: [ˈsɛnðəm], keeping the phrase compact and unstressed on "them".
Mistake: Pronouncing "them" with a full, stressed vowel and a hard [d] sound instead of "th", producing something like "send dem".
Why: Spanish has no voiced "th" [ð] sound, so speakers often substitute the closest available consonant, [d], which also makes it harder to notice that the earlier [d] in "send" should disappear.
Fix: Practice the voiced "th" with the tongue lightly touching the top teeth, and let "send" flow directly into it without its own [d]: [ˈsɛnðəm].
"Send them" combines two common connected-speech features at once: cluster reduction and weak-form pronunciation, which makes it a compact but powerful example for learners. First, the [d] at the end of "send" is caught between the nasal [n] and the voiced "th" sound [ð] that opens "them", and like other nasal-stop-consonant sequences in English, that middle stop disappears in normal speech. Second, "them" itself is almost always reduced to its weak form [ðəm] rather than the full, stressed [ðɛm] unless the speaker is specifically emphasizing who receives the action. Combining both reductions gives the natural pronunciation [ˈsɛnðəm], noticeably shorter and smoother than a word-by-word reading. Learners who pronounce every letter — "send-duh them" with a full vowel — will still be understood, but the extra syllables and stressed vowel make the phrase sound unnaturally careful. Because "send them", "ask them", "tell them", and "find them" all follow this same combined pattern, practicing "send them" as a model phrase gives learners a reusable template for a huge family of everyday verb-plus-pronoun combinations.