Pronunciations have grabbed attention once more. Recently, Country Life magazine highlighted that one hallmark of ‘the perfect gentleman’—aside from mastering the art of shirt ironing, steering clear of tank tops, and avoiding hair gel—is correctly pronouncing ‘Moët’ when enjoying champagne.
Let’s be truthful: how many of us have been giving that name a fully French twist? Surprisingly, that’s incorrect. The brand’s Dutch roots dictate that it should be pronounced with a hard T, like ‘Mo-ETT’.
Compiling a list of our most frequent pronunciation puzzles might prove helpful. It’s important to note that despite our quest for linguistic certainty, language continuously evolves.
Nevertheless, I’m certain that some entries on this list might truly irritate you. Or, as some might humorously mispronounce, ‘really make you go nucular’.
Nike
When it comes to the pronunciation of a major sportswear brand, it seems as dynamic as the athletes who don its apparel.
The chairman of the company has clarified that it should be pronounced with two syllables, emphasizing the first one as ‘NY-kee’, aligning with the Greek goddess of victory that the name honors.
The correct pronunciation for the sportswear giant is ‘Ny-kee’. FILE PHOTO: The Nike swoosh logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York, New York, U.S., March 19, 2019
Ginsters
The popular pasty-maker has nothing to do with gin: give this one a hard ‘g’.
Porsche
Let’s just say the Germans would pronounce this sports car manufacturer with ‘Paw-shuh’, not ‘Pawsh’.
Bruschetta
ITS ‘ch’ is as hard as the bread, making it ‘brus-KETTA’.
The Italians pronounce it ‘brus-KETTA’
Pronunciation
Oh, the irony. This one is regularly pronounced as ‘pro-NOUNCE-iation’ instead of the correct ‘pro-NUNCE-iation’.
Chipotle
This word for a hot chilli sauce used in Mexican cooking is pronounced with a final flourish: ‘chuh-POT-lay’. Its name is a borrowing from the Aztec language of Nahuatl.
Quinoa
Another exotic ingredient in many cupboards, this is pronounced ‘KEEN-waa’.
The pronunciation for the South American super-food is ‘Keen-waa’
Epitome
A further borrowing from Greek, this word for the perfect example of something ends with ‘me’ rather than ‘tome’.
Zebra
The Mail’s sketch writer Quentin Letts says this should never be pronounced ‘zeebra, unless you are Inspector Clouseau in a lingerie shop’.
Loewe
This luxury Spanish fashion house has a German name thanks to its founder resulting in a strange mish mash of pronunciation: ‘low-WEY-vey’.
As the brand itself says: ‘Easy when you know how’.
Espresso
Its ‘espresso’ not ‘expresso’
When ordering one of these, best ask for an ‘espresso’, from the Italian for coffee that’s ‘pressed out’.
It is not an ‘expresso’, however quickly you might want it.
Equally, if you want to sound like a true barista, ‘latte’ should be pronounced with a hard ‘a’ and not as a ‘lartay’.
Nuclear
This is, of course, pronounced as ‘NYOO-klee-uh’ and never ‘NYOO-ku-lar’, despite the best efforts of Homer Simpson.
Hyperbole
Many of us who have only ever seen this word written down will assume it’s the livelier sibling of the ‘superbowl’.
In fact, as a Greek word, meaning an exaggeration, ‘hyperbole’ is pronounced ‘hi-PER-buh-lee’.
Probably
Thanks to a process known as ‘haplology’, in which we omit a sound or syllable within a word, ‘probably’ regularly becomes ‘probly’.
The same goes for ‘libry’ for ‘library’, and ‘secretary’, which is squashed to ‘secretry’.
Lieutenant
Strangely, the British English pronunciation of this seems to have arisen from the mistaken reading of the ‘u’ in ‘lieu’ as a ‘v’, meaning that the sound given to it in the US – ‘LOO-tenant’ – is closer to its roots.
But ‘LEF-tenant’ remains the standard pronunciation here.
Privacy
Speaking of US English, the American pronunciation of ‘privacy’ as ‘PRY-vasy’ is now sufficiently settled in British English that the dictionary offers this version alongside the more traditional ‘PRIV-uh-see’.
Prescription
From the Latin for ‘writing before’, this should be ‘PRE-scription’ rather than ‘PER-scription’.
Lingerie
We’ve long associated the French with naughtiness. Perhaps this is why we give ‘lingerie’ a Del-boy twang at the end.
To be properly French we need to go with ‘LAN-zhuh-ree’, not ‘LAN-zhuh-ray’.
Lingerie is pronounced ‘LAN-zhuh-ree’
Arctic
There is a ‘c’ in the middle of the Arctic, which takes its name from the Greek artikos, ‘bear’, a reference to the constellation the Great Bear in the northern sky.
Schedule
This starts with ‘shed’ and not ‘sked’ in British English.
Kilometre
British English also favours ‘KILL-oh-meter’ here, to produce two distinct sounds. US English will give you a very definite ‘kill-OMM-eter’.
Route
This is sounded as ‘root’, not ‘rout’, at least in British English, where the latter means something else entirely, namely a decisive defeat.
Skeleton
Children and a fair few adults love to call what was once known as our ‘bone-locker’ a ‘skellington’.
It’s the result of what linguists know as the ‘intrusive n’, which has become formalised in such words as ‘passenger’ and ‘messenger’, originally borrowings from French but with an anglicised ‘n’ added.
Athletic
Similarly, there is no ‘-er’ in the midst of this word, which is often mispronounced as ‘atherletic’.
Veterinary
Who can blame us for gliding over this beast of a word as quickly as possible? We can blame its spelling on the Romans, for whom veterinae meant ‘cattle’.
The standard pronunciation is ‘VET-er-inary’, but the dictionary also allows for the swallowed version of VET-inary’.
Scone
Scone – Does it rhyme with ‘gone’, or with ‘cone’? The answer is both, depending on where you are in the country
Never has there been a bloodier battleground in language than the correct pronunciation of this staple of British teas.
Does it rhyme with ‘gone’, or with ‘cone’?
The answer is both, depending upon where you happen to be in the country. Its sound is entirely regional, and the dictionary diplomatically allows for either.
Actually, is that ‘ee-ther’ or is it ‘eye-ther’? Perhaps we should end matters there.
