I can say "denominator" just fine but when I put the "the" in front of it I have to stop and really enunciate

I think it's because "the" and "de" sound similar but aren't quite the same?

but yeah that sucks when you're a math major

That could be it. said ten years later since I hadn't seen you in a while and looked at your plurk page I have a hard time saying rural because the proximity of the R sounds