One syllable: Met.
met
/mɛt/
Met is pronounced met (/mɛt/). It has one syllable (Met), with the stress on "Met". Met is the simple past tense of meet, meaning you came together with someone or encountered something. In everyday use, it often implies a completed action of meeting someone or something in the past. The verb carries neutral, factual tone and is common in conversation and writing alike.
verbMet is the simple past tense of meet, meaning you came together with someone or encountered something. In everyday use, it often implies a completed action of meeting someone or something in the past. The verb carries neutral, factual tone and is common in conversation and writing alike.
- You might lengthen the /ɛ/ vowel into a longer /e/ or merge into /eɪ/ as in 'bait' when excited or speaking quickly. Always aim for a short, lax /ɛ/ and a crisp final /t/. - Another mistake is allowing the /t/ to become a flap or a d-like sound in rapid speech, which changes the word’s crispness and can fool listeners. Keep the release clean and brief. - Some learners add extra movement after /t/ or voice the ending, producing /tɪ/ or /tə/ unintentionally. Practice with careful isolation and then in context to lock the stop.
"We met yesterday at the conference and exchanged contact information."
"She finally met her idol after the show."
"They met for coffee after the workshop to discuss the project."
Pronounce it as /mɛt/. The vowel is a short front lax [ɛ] as in “bet.” The lips are relaxed, the tongue sits mid-high front, and the jaw opens slightly. The /t/ is a crisp, unaspirated or lightly aspirated stop at the end. In connected speech, watch for flapping in American English, but /t/ in “met” generally retains a clear stop. Audio reference: imagine saying “bet” with a final crisp stop; you’ll produce the same /mɛt/ sound.
Common errors include elongating the vowel into a long /eː/ or misplacing the tongue to sound like /miːt/ and adding an extra sound after the /t/ like /d/ in rapid speech. To correct: keep the vowel short and lax /ɛ/, ensure the tongue stays mid-low in the front of the mouth, and snap the /t/ cleanly without adding an extra syllable. Practice with minimal pairs like met vs meet to ensure correct vowel length and stop closure.
In US English, /mɛt/ with a crisp /t/ is common, and the /t/ can be unreleased in rapid speech. In UK English, /mɛt/ remains close to /met/ with a clear, clipped /t/. Australian English mirrors US/UK but may show slightly rounded or centralized vowel quality depending on speaker. The rhotacized vs non-rhotacized distinction doesn’t apply here since /t/ is core and vowels stay tense. Overall, vowel height and tenseness are the main variations; the core /m/ and /t/ remain stable across accents.
The difficulty lies in producing a clean, short /ɛ/ vowel and a crisp final /t/ in fluent speech, especially when following a vowel-heavy context or rapid conversation. Learners often lengthen the vowel or blur the /t/ into a tap or release, which changes meaning or creates ambiguity. Focus on retaining a compact mouth opening for /ɛ/ and snap the /t/ as a distinct stop, using a quick, firm release to avoid a trailing air voice or vowel.
Met’s value is its simplicity and precision: a single short vowel followed by a clear stop makes it easy to distinguish from similar verb forms. The challenge is maintaining a sharp, unvoiced stopping gesture on /t/ in fluent speech, especially when adjacent sounds blend. You’ll want to keep your tongue near the alveolar ridge for the /t/ while the lips stay relaxed for the preceding /ɛ/. This helps maintain precise consonant-vowel timing for intelligibility.
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- US: Maintain a short /ɛ/ with moderate mouth opening; the /t/ is often unreleased in fast speech, so practice a crisp, brief closure before the next word. IPA: /mɛt/ - UK: Clear, clipped /t/ with similar vowel; avoid rounding the lips. IPA: /met/ - AU: Similar to US, watch for vowel quality where /ɛ/ may be slightly lower or tighter; maintain short vowel and a crisp /t/. IPA: /mɛt/ - Across all, keep the nucleus short and avoid prolonging the vowel beyond its natural length; the length difference can alter meaning in some contexts.
Met derives from the verb meet, tracing back to Middle English mete, from Old English gemētan, meaning to come together, find, or encounter. The Old English form mētan carried the sense of finding or arriving at a destination, and could also imply a meeting or an encounter. The root is related to proto-Germanic *mētaną, with cognates in Dutch ontmoeten and German treffen, all sharing the core idea of coming into contact. Over time, the past tense form met emerged as the strong verb past tense with vowel change (meet–met). By Early Modern English, met was well established as the past tense of meet, with usage expanding into figurative senses like “to come upon” or “to satisfy.” In contemporary usage, met is almost exclusively used in past contexts, with “meet” reserved for present and future references. Modern pronunciation settled into /mɛt/ in General American and most varieties, with minor allophonic variations before vowels or consonants that reflect adjacent sounds. The word’s simplicity belies a nuanced past in which the sense of coming together shaped social and transactional language across English-speaking regions.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Met" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Met" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Met"
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