does the word subtract have two Ss in a bunch of cognates or something? because we see "substract" a lot from 2L english speakers
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@starkatt that would make sense, yeah. Can't think of any other words with it, but I haven't tried much. (consonant cluster, but i imagine that was just a slip of the brain)
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@Felthry I think it's just that the "bt" consonant pair is hard to pronounce. Observe what your mouth is doing when you say "subtract" - it's quite a complex set of movements. Then try it as "substract" and you'll notice that the tongue and lip positions for s are right in between b and t, while also breaking up those two plosives.
@terrana That makes sense, yeah...
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@Felthry Might be that the "bt" vowel cluster is kind of uncommon in english?