Attends is a verb meaning to be present at an event or location or to regularly go to a place or engage in an activity. It is commonly used in everyday or formal contexts to describe gathering participation, school attendance, or attending to someone’s needs in a broader sense. The form attains the third-person singular he/she/it attends and the present participle attending.
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- You might mispronounce the second syllable vowel as /æ/ (as in cat) instead of /e/ (as in bed). Fix by training your mouth to relax into a mid-front vowel before /n/; think: tuh-NDS with crisp /d/ release. - You may drop the final /z/ and finish with /s/ or / /; ensure your larynx remains active and voice the end, finishing with a slight buzzing sound. - The /t/ can be unreleased in fast speech; practice with a brief released /t/ before the /e/ to preserve the correct syllable boundary and avoid blending into /d/.
- US: a relatively lax /ə/ in the first syllable; keep jaw relaxed but allow the vowel to be a mid-central schwa. The /e/ is clear, with a short duration; maintain a sharper /t/ release before /e/. - UK: slightly tenser vowels; /ə/ may be less reduced; crisp /t/ release and clear /e/; keep non-rhoticity typical for many speakers; final /z/ is softer but voiced. - AU: broader vowel colors; /ə/ may sound more centralized; final /z/ slightly more breathy; keep a more relaxed mouth posture but ensure voicing of z.
"She attends university in the city and works part-time."
"He attends weekly meetings to stay up to date on projects."
"The hospital organizes workshops and she attends them regularly."
"When you attend to clients promptly, you build trust and reliability."
Attends comes from Old French atendre, from Latin attendere, consisting of ad- ‘toward’ + tendere ‘to stretch, aim, stretch toward’. The Latin verb meant ‘to stretch toward, stretch out to listen, pay heed’ and carried figurative senses of attention and presence. In Middle English, attenden evolved from attenden to attend, then third-person singular attends as a present-tense task-marking form. The sense broadened from ‘to give heed to’ and ‘to be present at a place or event’ to include ‘to regularly be present’ and ‘to take care of’ in some contexts. The term is closely linked with attention and attendance, sharing semantic fields with attend, attendance, attentive, and attendant. In modern usage, attend primarily signals active presence at a function or a recurring obligation and, in certain domains (medicine, education, entertainment), is often paired with the noun describing the activity or venue.” ,
💡 Etymology tip: Understanding word origins can help you remember pronunciation patterns and recognize related words in the same language family.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "attends" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "attends" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "attends"
-nds sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
🎵 Rhyme tip: Practicing with rhyming words helps you master similar sound patterns and improves your overall pronunciation accuracy.
Pronunciation: /əˈtendz/. The first syllable is schwa + t, the second syllable is stressed with the vowel /e/ as in 'bed' but longer, and the final cluster is a voiced z [z]. Mouth position: start with a relaxed jaw, raise the tongue to the mid-high position for /e/, finish with a crisp /n/ and voice the final /z/. Tip: emphasize the second syllable, connect to the final /z/ without a strong stop.
Common errors: 1) Reducing to /əˈtændz/ with short /æ/ instead of /e/ in the stressed vowel; correct with /e/ as in 'bed'. 2) Omitting the final /z/ or turning it into /s/; ensure voicing and alveolar fricative. 3) Slurring the t into a flap or not releasing it clearly; practice with a short /t/ release before /e/. Use slow, careful articulation then speed up.
US/UK/AU: All share /əˈtendz/ with a rhotic or non-rhotic variation affecting the vocalic quality of the initial schwa and the length of the stressed vowel slightly; UK tends to have a clipped, sharper /e/ and less vowel reduction, while US shows a slightly lax /ə/ and a clear /ɪ/ in some speakers, but the core is /əˈtendz/. Australian tends toward a broader /ə/ with slightly broader vowel coloring and a more pronounced final /z/.
The difficulty centers on the unstressed schwa in the first syllable, which can reduce or shift in connected speech; the second syllable carries a strong /e/ vowel that must be clearly distinguished from /a/ or /ə/. The final /z/ requires voicing and a rapid transition from /n/; many speakers blend /t/ and /n/ or omit the T-release, leading to /ənz/ instead of /tendz/. Accurate tongue placement and a clean /d/ release help.
No silent letters in standard pronunciation. All letters in 'attends' contribute to the sound: the first syllable has an unstressed schwa /ə/, the second has /t/ followed by /e/ and the /n/ which links to the final /z/. Some rapid speech may blur /t/ and /d/ or reduce the /t/ slightly, but there is no silent letter in the normal form.
🗣️ Voice search tip: These questions are optimized for voice search. Try asking your voice assistant any of these questions about "attends"!
- Shadowing: listen to a native speaker saying 'attends' in context; imitate exactly the rhythm, stress, and intonation in short phrases, then speed up. - Minimal pairs: practice with: attends vs a-tends? Wait: pairs: attend /əˈtend/; attended; attention; attempt; instead, caution that 'attends' vs 'attends to' requires stress alignment on the root. - Rhythm: practice a 3-beat phrase: I attendS meetings; Day-to-day: she AT-tends to...; emphasize the second syllable and the final z. - Stress practice: phrase-level stress in sentences with 'attends' varying emphasis; record to check if you place stress on second syllable. - Recording: record yourself reading sentences, compare to native samples, adjust vowel quality and t-release. - Speed progression: start slow (double-check phones), then normal, then fast while maintaining voicing and boundary clarity. - Context sentences: 'She attends classes on Mondays.', 'He attends to his duties promptly.', 'The club attends to new members every quarter.'
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