the ~ thee

Native speaker here, asking for perceptions of other native speakers, especially those who have a basic knowledge of linguistics.

Of course, I know the rule about pronouncing 'the' as 'thee' before vowel sounds:  thee afternoon, thee apple, thee orange, thee hour.  However, how about when the first vowel sound of the word is 'eee'.  I would say the utopian concept, the usual suspects.  I believe this is standard.  Keep in mind that the first vowel sound of these words is eee rather than u.  [Keep in mind I'm using standard English spelling to represent the sounds rather than the International Phonetic Alphabet.]

The real question now:  do we actually say thee evening, thee even numbers, thee eventuality or do we say the before these words?  I've tried to evaluate my own speech patterns, and I think I use the.  Just wondering if I'm alone.  Thanks for any ideas.

Mister Micawber

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I've tried this on myself several times over the years and get very inconsistent results.  I certainly don't think it's a rule, just a tendency.  With your last three (the evening, etc), I seem to pause after 'the' (not 'thee') to effect the enunciation.

Interesting, and thanks for your reply.  I seem to insert a glottal stop if I try to say 'thee' before 'evening' rather than just slide from one word to the other.

Does anyone else want to chime in?

I say the yootopian and the yoosual (the "e" pronounced as "uh", just as before a consonant). The first sound of those words is nothing like eee for me.

I also say thee evening, thee even numbers etc. Maybe there's the faintest sense that the "ee" is not so much of an "ee" as in "the apple" and "the hour", but it's very marginal.