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by tetromino_ 1182 days ago
According to the dictionary (and matching my own non-native pronunciation), cactus is /ˈkæktʌs/, practice is /ˈpɹæktɪs/

The terminal /tʌs/ is not quite the same thing as /tɪs/; since they are both unstressed, the difference can be hard to notice in fast speech, but becomes clear when enunciating.

2 comments

Dictionaries often neglect common mergers like the weak vowel merger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Englis... where unstressed /ʌ/, /ə/ and /ɪ/ all end up being pronounced the same.
There are differing definitions of “rhyme” in popular usage. See: https://youtu.be/_kQBVneC30o

A lot of “does this rhyme with that?” depends on the context in terms of how strict the rhyming must be or not.