How to pronounce “pretends”(noun) in English

And this was done by a team of two German scientist from Max Planck Institute, where one of the experiments involve the experimenter trying to dry clotheson a clothesline, and drops accidentally one of the clothes pin, and pretends can't reach it.And the child, about 14 months old, looks, and then immediately gets up-- and even though the child may be playing, gets up and picks it up and give it to the person.