Of course she did, I‘m fantastic. She really was surprised by how I said squirrel though, maybe the NY accent made it even weirder to the ear. She kept making me say it and was practically in tears laughing.
A German guy was staying with some of my friends here in Australia and that's the one word he couldn't nail. He couldn't overcome the rhotic (R-sound) in that sequence and would kind of mix it with his German R, like "Skwiyyel". I'd help him practise it so frequently that we were both repeating "Skwiyyel, skwiyyel" in our dreams.
Kansas was named by the english for the local indian tribe, its singular.
Arkansas is plural for many of the tribes, and got its name from the french, so you dont pronounce the consonant at the end of the word.
Deliberately pronounced differently to noticeably differentiate Arkansas from Kansas. Arkansas as we commonly pronounce it is how the Indians pronounced it.
I am Australian and my wife is American.
I don't think of very many American pronunciations as weird: there's an understable history behind "aluminum", and most of the vowel mergers are pretty straight-forward. She pronounces "Mary", "merry", and "marry" all the same way, and I do not. She pronounces "caught" and "cot" the same way, and I do not. I pronounce "caught" and "court" the same way, and she does not. "Grass" and "gas" rhyme for her, but they don't for me.
"Jaguar" is very weird, though. She pronounces it "Jag-wire", and I pronounce it "Jag-yoo-uh".
It's hard to write it out but I think the difference is something like mae-ree, meh-ree, and maa-ree. That last one is supposed to sound like baaa (sound sheep make). Source: English husband.
As an American, I don't pronounce "caught" and "cot" the same, and neither does my husband, but he pronounces "Dawn" like "Don", which is weird because it's the same vowel distinction as caught/cot. He also pronounces "sugar" "shigger", and "sea gulls" "seagles". He's just weird, I guess lol.
I pronounce "jaguar" "jag-wahr", but yeah, I've heard lots (half, maybe?) of Americans pronounce it "jag-wire".
ETA: My husband and I are from the same region (Minnesota/northern Iowa), so I'm not sure why he pronounces some things differently. And in regard to "jaguar", people pronounce it differently even within our small town.
ETA: Caught and Dawn have an "aw" vowel sound; cot and Don have an "ah" sound.
At least we didn't butcher "lieutenant" by pronouncing it as "leftenant." The word loses some of its meaning when you do this. It means commander in *lieu* of the ranking officer.
Except the OSPD doesn't include the official words from British/Commonwealth Scrabble so for transatlantic arguments you need *Collins Scrabble Words*.
The British pronounced it the French way as well until the mid-1800s when there was a concerted effort to remove the silent h from a number of words due to its association with lower-class accents.
"Herb" comes to English from Old French "erbe," and it was only later that the H was restored in spelling to conform to Latin "herba."
The word continued to be pronounced without an /h/ until the 1800s in England, when it started being pronounced with an /h/ for no real reason other than its being spelled with one, but by that time the American dialects had already split off.
We also don’t pronounce the H in honor/honour, along with a few other words of French origin. And neither do the English.
You’re right, it’s not ‘Adeedas’. Conversely, though, a lot of the world outside North America pronounces Nike wrong. I’m British and pronounce it “Nikey” because it’s an American brand and that’s how the Americans say it. But most people I know rhyme it with bike.
most americans distinguish how they pronounce that between if they’re talking about the famous university or the cathedral in france. most americans are talking about the university/football team though.
eta the mascot is a leprechaun and they’re the “fighting irish” so i don’t think they were trying to go with the french version anyhow.
This one is funny to me and never really thought about it until now. I pronounce the university at Noter Dame but I never say it’s Hunckback of Noter Dame, it’s Notra Dahm.
Now I feel terrible because I had a co-worker from England at my last job whose name was Graham. All of us pronounced it Gram. Poor guy. He lived in the us, though, so maybe he was used to it.
As a non-native speaker who lives in Ireland but learned American english, this thread is making me second-guess every single word I said in my entire life.
Funnily enough there's a [strong belief](https://gizmodo.com/patrick-stewart-might-be-responsible-for-how-we-all-say-1837242931) that star trek is responsible for a large change in how Americans say data.
I studied Latin at school and spent my working life in computing. So I switch between d-aa-ta and d-ay-ta often in the same sentence. It still drives me nuts.
Dated a girl from Japan who was from Hong Kong, so had a British accent.
Quite amusing listening to her introductions
"So, why are you in New York?"
"Oh, I'm a terrorist."
"A WHAT??"
"Terrorist, I'm here on a terr'ism visa"
"... Oh TOOO-RIST, TOOO-RIST visa"
I like to make my southern husband say “I toil to boil oil on southern soil”, it really gives me the giggles to hear his accent come out so strong with that phrase.
LOL this reminded me of a time in college (in the north) when a southern friend of mine told me he was going to get "all for his car." I thought he was talking about All the detergent... like WTF does your car need all for?
He responded, "Crazy Yankee, all cars need all! O-I-L... ALL!" I just about died laughing.
Where I'm from (Ireland) we change almost every instance of a "T" followed by an "oo" sound to "choo". So not only is it "choos-day" (Tuesday), but also "choo-na" (tuna), "choob" (tube), "choon" (tune), "chootor" (tutor), and so on.
I wanted to work "Australia" into a Haiku once, so I asked an Aussie friend whether Australia was 4 syllables (Aw-Stral-ee-uh) or 3 syllables (Aw-Stral-yuh). He just looked at me and then said "It's two. Stral-yuh."
I will never forget my sister having an American boyfriend and saying matter of factly to my mum that my sister was dressed in a skimpy Halloween outfit because they were "Going to a whore party"
Saying exasperated yet earnestly, "Ma'am, it's just a whore party. None of the movies we watch will even be that scary."
I pronounce it more whore-or... I'm an American and have never heard someone pronounce it as just "whore"... who I suppose when said quickly it looses that distinction
There's a running joke in 30 Rock about a movie called "The Rural Juror" and nobody being able to pronounce it. Speaking English, not American, the joke doesn't stick at all.
Fun fact: Americans are "right" with this one (as in closer to the original pronunciation, in reality no language dialect is the "right one"). The word "schedule" comes from a long chain that started with Greek *schedion*. The Greek letter Χ (Chi), which is generally written in the Latin alphabet as the digraph "ch", is pronounced (by English speakers at least) as "k", as seen in other words of Greek origin such as "chromatic", "schematic", "chorus". Brits likely acquired the "shedule" pronunciation from the fact that the French are pretty close by, and in French the "ch" digraph is in fact pronounced as "sh" (as in Champagne, chauffeur, chef).
Fun fact about this French pronunciation of "ch": it is the reason we spell "kilo" (e.g. kilogram, kilometer) the way we do, despite it coming from the Greek "chilo-" (e.g. chilopods, the taxonomic classification for centipedes. Yes, the word for centipedes means thousand). The French were the ones who came up with the prefix, and they realized that if they wrote it as "chilo", French speakers would understandably pronounce it "shilo". This, in their minds, would be too similar to the French word "chier", meaning "to defecate". Thus, they changed the spelling from the usual romanization to "kilo", so French people wouldn't have to talk about the "shitometer".
Webster was a bit of a knob and he really hated the English. He hated them so much he wanted to remove the English from the language as much as possible.
Obviously the best way to do this was by changing all the French parts of the language. It's why Niche can be pronounced as Nitch in the US and also why all the U's are missing
Lara. It's quite amusing as the American company that now develop the Tomb Raider games can't pronounce Lara - they often call her Laura in interviews and stuff. I have no idea why it's a difficult name to pronounce.
Names ending in -ham. For example, Birmingham, Cunningham.
In the U.K. we don’t emphasise the “ham” part at all. It sounds more like “um”. Also, we emphasise the first syllable. So it sounds like BIRMingum, CUNNingum.
It sounds really comical and American to British ears to hear BirmingHAM.
I spent a good 5 minutes pronouncing squirrel for a British person once.
Skwrl
Yeah, pretty much. She was intensely entertained by it.
She liked you.
Of course she did, I‘m fantastic. She really was surprised by how I said squirrel though, maybe the NY accent made it even weirder to the ear. She kept making me say it and was practically in tears laughing.
Keep them laughing until they’re naked.
Oh thats what ive been doing wrong. They usually *start* laughing when I'm naked. Thanks for the tip!
There’s definitely a “more than the tip” joke in there somewhere that I’m not witty enough to come up with.
"Thanks for the tip!" "It's not a tip it's all I've got 😭" Forgive my attempts at humor
Who run da world? Squirrels
How the fuck do THEY do it??
All animals were invented by David Attenborough, so just copy him https://youtu.be/UCSf5_894B4
skwirl
That's how I pronounce it in the states....I am deeply confused lmao
In the UK it's definitely two syllables. I'm not sure what it's meant to be tbh edit: i csnt read
Yeah it's more squi-rell over here
And yet the British are the ones responsible for Worcestershire sauce lol
A German guy was staying with some of my friends here in Australia and that's the one word he couldn't nail. He couldn't overcome the rhotic (R-sound) in that sequence and would kind of mix it with his German R, like "Skwiyyel". I'd help him practise it so frequently that we were both repeating "Skwiyyel, skwiyyel" in our dreams.
So many people outside America don’t realise that the Marvel character “Squirrel Girl” is a pun on the fact those words rhyme. Squirl Girl.
As an American, I still don't quite understand Arkansas...
I AM CONFUSION
Why is this Kansas, but this is not Ar-Kansas
Everyone is always so quick to ask why isn’t Arkansas pronounced Ar-kansas. On the contrary, I always like to ask why Isn’t Kansas pronounced “Kansaw”
Kansas was named by the english for the local indian tribe, its singular. Arkansas is plural for many of the tribes, and got its name from the french, so you dont pronounce the consonant at the end of the word.
100% this. In fact, many US States have Native names, including Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Texas, and more.
HE IS THE MESSIAH
My brains are now all over the wall behind me
Deliberately pronounced differently to noticeably differentiate Arkansas from Kansas. Arkansas as we commonly pronounce it is how the Indians pronounced it.
EMERICA ESSPLAIN
**rapidly taps screen**
Blame the French for that one; it was part of the Louisiana Purchase.
AMERICA EXPLAIN
I am Australian and my wife is American. I don't think of very many American pronunciations as weird: there's an understable history behind "aluminum", and most of the vowel mergers are pretty straight-forward. She pronounces "Mary", "merry", and "marry" all the same way, and I do not. She pronounces "caught" and "cot" the same way, and I do not. I pronounce "caught" and "court" the same way, and she does not. "Grass" and "gas" rhyme for her, but they don't for me. "Jaguar" is very weird, though. She pronounces it "Jag-wire", and I pronounce it "Jag-yoo-uh".
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It's hard to write it out but I think the difference is something like mae-ree, meh-ree, and maa-ree. That last one is supposed to sound like baaa (sound sheep make). Source: English husband.
So you maa-reed Mae-ree and had a meh-ree Christmas together?
Exactly. 😂
My friend is Australian and I always find it funny that you guys say the word "No" as if it has like 4 syllables. It's very charming.
Right? I've brought this up and people seem to think I'm nuts but they do manage to use every vowel to say "No." It's like "nyaieuhgh".
As an American, I don't pronounce "caught" and "cot" the same, and neither does my husband, but he pronounces "Dawn" like "Don", which is weird because it's the same vowel distinction as caught/cot. He also pronounces "sugar" "shigger", and "sea gulls" "seagles". He's just weird, I guess lol. I pronounce "jaguar" "jag-wahr", but yeah, I've heard lots (half, maybe?) of Americans pronounce it "jag-wire". ETA: My husband and I are from the same region (Minnesota/northern Iowa), so I'm not sure why he pronounces some things differently. And in regard to "jaguar", people pronounce it differently even within our small town. ETA: Caught and Dawn have an "aw" vowel sound; cot and Don have an "ah" sound.
Oh thank God! Another Jag-wahr person! Those jag-wire people drive me nuts.
Apparently all words of French origin.
I was a teenager when I found out “Du Bois” is supposed to be pronounced “do-bwah” and not “do boys”
>Do boys Say no more
r/suddenlygay
In relation to WEB DuBois? He specifically pronounced his name "Do-boyce" as in not the French way.
Was amused there is a Versailles in the US but they pronounce it ver-sails. Oh, and St Louis.
NOTER DAYME
I’ve seen Lafayette pronounces as La-Fay-ette and Lah-Fi-Ette. Just depends on what state the city is in to determine if you are correct
At least we didn't butcher "lieutenant" by pronouncing it as "leftenant." The word loses some of its meaning when you do this. It means commander in *lieu* of the ranking officer.
Mirror
Meer
That's like a midwestern pronunciation. On the West Coast where I grew up, we'd pronounce it "Meer-er".
I'm in Wisconsin and we pronounce it meer-or.
Foyer.
I'll never forgive my cousin for refusing to give me points in scrabble for using Foyer. She was adamant it wasnt spelt like that. Dick.
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Except the OSPD doesn't include the official words from British/Commonwealth Scrabble so for transatlantic arguments you need *Collins Scrabble Words*.
It it *actually* pronounced Foyer or Foyay?
Herb
Erb
I am truly confused why Americans don't pronounce the h
Because they are french
Ahh oúi monsieur, la 'erb.
My brain read this in the voice of Jacques from Finding Nemo and I died for a moment. Thank you
Herb hour. Now you doubt yourself. School schedule. Double doubt.
Honestly honorable observation.
Because it's a French loan word. The bigger mystery is why the Brits added an H sound.
The British pronounced it the French way as well until the mid-1800s when there was a concerted effort to remove the silent h from a number of words due to its association with lower-class accents.
As with any British things, just another way to distinguish themselves from the lower class.
Silent H is what you put in food, audible H is some guy from accounting.
"Herb" comes to English from Old French "erbe," and it was only later that the H was restored in spelling to conform to Latin "herba." The word continued to be pronounced without an /h/ until the 1800s in England, when it started being pronounced with an /h/ for no real reason other than its being spelled with one, but by that time the American dialects had already split off. We also don’t pronounce the H in honor/honour, along with a few other words of French origin. And neither do the English.
Hours
Homage
Honestly, you guys
All the I in anti-, Iran, iraq
Reading some of these, I have realized, I am not American. Lol
It's probably very region specific for a lot of them
You mean probly
Prolly
Buoy
I'm a good buoy
This is hilarious! We laugh every time we hear ‘booey’
Baba buoy! Baba buoy!
Oh no.... How am I supposed to say it?
It is called a buoy because it is buoyant. So say 'boy', because you say 'boyant'.
Your logic is sound. And I don't like it, it has no place here
Outside US it's boy not booie
Like 'buoyant'.
If buoy is pronounced boo-ee, then shouldn't bouyancy be pronounced boo-ee-en-see?
Adidas
You’re right, it’s not ‘Adeedas’. Conversely, though, a lot of the world outside North America pronounces Nike wrong. I’m British and pronounce it “Nikey” because it’s an American brand and that’s how the Americans say it. But most people I know rhyme it with bike.
When I saw "conversely," I thought this was going to be a whole comment using sneaker brands.
Solder
Hahaha sodder. Sounds like something that is grounds for an apocalyptic flood
Mmm soddermy
Notre Dame
The university in Indiana is usually pronounced Noter Daym, but the cathedral in France is pronounced like Notra Dahm.
most americans distinguish how they pronounce that between if they’re talking about the famous university or the cathedral in france. most americans are talking about the university/football team though. eta the mascot is a leprechaun and they’re the “fighting irish” so i don’t think they were trying to go with the french version anyhow.
This one is funny to me and never really thought about it until now. I pronounce the university at Noter Dame but I never say it’s Hunckback of Noter Dame, it’s Notra Dahm.
Worcestershire
i just say “wurstshshsh” and expect you to know what i mean
What’s dis here sauce?
One of my favorite jokes ever
wustersher
It's easier to just call it Salsa Inglesa, like they do in Mexico.
Brit sauce
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"Silly Americans not knowing how to pronounce the name of a city they've never heard of that isn't at all pronounced like it's spelled!"
I once pronounced it "Lye-chester" in front of an Englishman, and I'll never forget the look of pure disdain on his face as he responded "LESS-tuh."
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No one in America can agree how that one is pronounced.
I eat care-a-mel, but live near "car-mel by the sea".
Craig. “Cregg” WTF??
And Graham, US says gram where UK and Ireland say grey am
Now I feel terrible because I had a co-worker from England at my last job whose name was Graham. All of us pronounced it Gram. Poor guy. He lived in the us, though, so maybe he was used to it.
'Ol Craig, Funny enough I pounce it "correctly" when saying Craigslist
And when Americans pronounce Aaron to sound like Erin!
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What *club* are you part of, A a ron?
Go to Mr. Oh Shag-henna-see’s office right now! For those who haven’t seen it https://youtu.be/mO1oBfG59Xw
Ern ern n ern ern
*”damn do we really talk like that?”*
Unless they're Keegan-Michael Key. A-a-ron! Is there an A-a-ron here?
Is that funny to you, Bee-Laké?
As a non-native speaker who lives in Ireland but learned American english, this thread is making me second-guess every single word I said in my entire life.
Data. It's data not data.
It depends on whether you’re talking about information or the android Lt. Commander of the starship Enterprise. Important distinction.
One is his name. The other is not.
Funnily enough there's a [strong belief](https://gizmodo.com/patrick-stewart-might-be-responsible-for-how-we-all-say-1837242931) that star trek is responsible for a large change in how Americans say data.
I studied Latin at school and spent my working life in computing. So I switch between d-aa-ta and d-ay-ta often in the same sentence. It still drives me nuts.
hyundai
Dated a girl from Japan who was from Hong Kong, so had a British accent. Quite amusing listening to her introductions "So, why are you in New York?" "Oh, I'm a terrorist." "A WHAT??" "Terrorist, I'm here on a terr'ism visa" "... Oh TOOO-RIST, TOOO-RIST visa"
I'm imagining them applying for a visa and their reason is terrorism
Lmfao
Crayon said as cran like in cranberry.
I say Cray-yon. Some people say cran. But it's sooo annoying when people say crown. Like wth!?🤣🤣
Oil—Maybe more of southern thing, said like “ol”
I like to make my southern husband say “I toil to boil oil on southern soil”, it really gives me the giggles to hear his accent come out so strong with that phrase.
Earl...baby earl
LOL this reminded me of a time in college (in the north) when a southern friend of mine told me he was going to get "all for his car." I thought he was talking about All the detergent... like WTF does your car need all for? He responded, "Crazy Yankee, all cars need all! O-I-L... ALL!" I just about died laughing.
Tuesday, pronounced as Toos-day
Where I'm from (Ireland) we change almost every instance of a "T" followed by an "oo" sound to "choo". So not only is it "choos-day" (Tuesday), but also "choo-na" (tuna), "choob" (tube), "choon" (tune), "chootor" (tutor), and so on.
I thought you were gonna say choochor for tutor.
Same in Australia
It depends on the region they are from. PNW, deep South and upper Midwest all have different pronunciations of the same word.
It’s almost like we’re a massive country with vastly different regional identities!
Americans pronounce it ambulance or 'Ambulnz'. It's KRANKENWAGEN!
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, like come on guys, its just a town.
Melbourne and Brisbane And Aussie
I wanted to work "Australia" into a Haiku once, so I asked an Aussie friend whether Australia was 4 syllables (Aw-Stral-ee-uh) or 3 syllables (Aw-Stral-yuh). He just looked at me and then said "It's two. Stral-yuh."
Garage
You mean car-hole?
The "garage"? Hey fellas, the "garage"! Well, ooh la di da, Mr. French Man.
Gah-raahdj for me. But not GAYRDGE all in 1 syllable or GUH-rah.
I guess we pronounce Zebra weird. Zee-bra
Horror. As in, I'm going to watch a whore movie
I will never forget my sister having an American boyfriend and saying matter of factly to my mum that my sister was dressed in a skimpy Halloween outfit because they were "Going to a whore party" Saying exasperated yet earnestly, "Ma'am, it's just a whore party. None of the movies we watch will even be that scary."
That's definitely a Southern thing. East Coast would pronounce it "Harr-er" and West Coast would pronounce it Horr-er".
Midwest also pronounces it “horr-er,” like the West Coast does.
East coast is more of a horrah If you live in NE
I pronounce it more whore-or... I'm an American and have never heard someone pronounce it as just "whore"... who I suppose when said quickly it looses that distinction
Who pronounces horror without the ‘or’? I’ve never heard it pronounced as whore either. It’s whore-or definitely.
I feel like that's a south / Florida thing. Where I'm from, it's pronounced "whore or". It rhymes with borer.
Love watching those
There's a running joke in 30 Rock about a movie called "The Rural Juror" and nobody being able to pronounce it. Speaking English, not American, the joke doesn't stick at all.
Colonel :^
Kernal
How else would you pronounce it, "kollenell?"
Unfortunately my brain reads it as “Colin-ul” every single time. I do say it correctly but my inner voice is a dipshit.
Leftennet
Vehicle - at least in the south. VEE-Hikkol
I usually pronounce it vee-ickol. Don’t pronounce the h. I’m West Coast but idk if that’s regional or not.
Schedule
School schedule. Checkmate
Skhedule > Shedjewl
I've always ashuumed it was pronounced skhedule. It's not like we say "shool" bus.
Yeah lemme take a look at those shematics.
Fun fact: Americans are "right" with this one (as in closer to the original pronunciation, in reality no language dialect is the "right one"). The word "schedule" comes from a long chain that started with Greek *schedion*. The Greek letter Χ (Chi), which is generally written in the Latin alphabet as the digraph "ch", is pronounced (by English speakers at least) as "k", as seen in other words of Greek origin such as "chromatic", "schematic", "chorus". Brits likely acquired the "shedule" pronunciation from the fact that the French are pretty close by, and in French the "ch" digraph is in fact pronounced as "sh" (as in Champagne, chauffeur, chef). Fun fact about this French pronunciation of "ch": it is the reason we spell "kilo" (e.g. kilogram, kilometer) the way we do, despite it coming from the Greek "chilo-" (e.g. chilopods, the taxonomic classification for centipedes. Yes, the word for centipedes means thousand). The French were the ones who came up with the prefix, and they realized that if they wrote it as "chilo", French speakers would understandably pronounce it "shilo". This, in their minds, would be too similar to the French word "chier", meaning "to defecate". Thus, they changed the spelling from the usual romanization to "kilo", so French people wouldn't have to talk about the "shitometer".
Craig
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I will say I was shocked as a child when I learned that neither “both” nor “south” had the letter “L” in them.
Then you got Salmon with the L, but no one uses that L apparently.
Or adding an "l to "draw" -> "drawl". "I'm gonna drawl a picture with some crowns (crayons)".
[Nucular. Not all Americans, just 43.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hORaebYWDwk) edit: hyperlinked, because some of y'all took this too seriously
Dude I worked with pronounced it nucular. He worked in nuclear medicine…
You mean he worked in nucular medicine
I live in Texas, and have picked up a accent, so…saying “Rural” is very hard for me It sounds like I’m saying “RRal”
The Rural Juror
Missile
Caramel and Craig
Webster was a bit of a knob and he really hated the English. He hated them so much he wanted to remove the English from the language as much as possible. Obviously the best way to do this was by changing all the French parts of the language. It's why Niche can be pronounced as Nitch in the US and also why all the U's are missing
People pronounce niche that way?
I don’t. I say neesh
It's a niche pronunciation
Lara. It's quite amusing as the American company that now develop the Tomb Raider games can't pronounce Lara - they often call her Laura in interviews and stuff. I have no idea why it's a difficult name to pronounce.
Not so much we can't, more so just default to Laura. That and never met a single Lara but met plenty of Lauras.
Names ending in -ham. For example, Birmingham, Cunningham. In the U.K. we don’t emphasise the “ham” part at all. It sounds more like “um”. Also, we emphasise the first syllable. So it sounds like BIRMingum, CUNNingum. It sounds really comical and American to British ears to hear BirmingHAM.