How do you pronounce kilometer?

[furryman]

For years in my mind I've pronounced it kill-o-meter, but I heard that the proper pronounciation was kil-om-eter. Recently though I've seen two different programs were they pronounced it kill-o-meter. What's the correct way to pronounce it?

Buy the new Freddy Kruger Kill-o-meter (TM). It'll hellp you keep track of how many people you kill!

[blondebear]

Klick?

[Inner Stickler]

For years in my mind I've pronounced it kill-o-meter, but I heard that the proper pronounciation was kil-om-eter. Recently though I've seen two different programs were they pronounced it kill-o-meter. What's the correct way to pronounce it?
Both pronunciations are correct.

[RickJay]

I usually pronouce it kih-LAW-meh-ter, as per the OP's second pronounciation.

However, that's a bad habit. The original, correct and consistent pronounciation is "KILL-oh-meet-er," consistent with the manner in which all other like metric units of measurement are pronounced - CENT-ih-meet-er, MILL-ill-ee-ter, and so on. I try to remind myself to say "KILL-oh-meet-er" but I'm frequently guilty of the wrong pronounciation.

I also keep pronouncing "during" as if it starts with a J, another nasty Canadian habit.

[Jragon]

Hmm, I say KEE-loh-meter, well it's ambiguous where I place the l sound (well really keelo in general when referring to kilo-) Is that just a difference in accent or am I way off here?

[PastAllReason]

I also keep pronouncing "during" as if it starts with a J, another nasty Canadian habit.
Huh? You say "juring" rather than "during"? Really? I don't know anyone who does that.

To the OP, I might say pronounce either way, though I do agree with RickJay's logic on pronouncing kill-o-metre.

[Sunspace]

Huh? You say "juring" rather than "during"? Really? I don't know anyone who does that.I say that too. The first syllable of 'during' sounds like that of 'jury'. It's the d +yu (palatilised 'u') sound smushed together. Ironically, Canadian English has tended to lose the palatilised 'u' sound in words like 'tune' and the pronuncuation of 'during' is a but of an anomaly.To the OP, I might say pronounce either way, though I do agree with RickJay's logic on pronouncing kill-o-metre.I say 'KILL-oh-meedur'. :) We used to say 'kil-OMM-ih-durr' but it was drilled into us at school that the prefix in kilometre was to be pronounced the same way as that in kilolitre, kilowatt, etc.

[PastAllReason]

I say that too. The first syllable of 'during' sounds like that of 'jury'. It's the d +yu (palatilised 'u') sound smushed together. Ironically, Canadian English has tended to lose the palatilised 'u' sound in words like 'tune' and the pronuncuation of 'during' is a but of an anomaly.
You Ontarians are weird. That is all.

[Rysto]

I also keep pronouncing "during" as if it starts with a J, another nasty Canadian habit.
How else would you pronounce it? Dur-ring?

Oh. Yeah, I guess that does work. :smack:

[Siam Sam]

I usually pronouce it kih-LAW-meh-ter, as per the OP's second pronounciation.
Me, too, ever since I started hanging around Brits and Aussies. Seems to be their pronunciation.

[John Mace]

Standard American pronunciation is kill-OM-eter or maybe kill-AH-meter, with the first "e" in meter being short, or even schwa.

[Cerowyn]

You Ontarians are weird. That is all.And yet the Americans keep hiring Ontarians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morley_Safer) as news (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jennings) broadcasters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Roberts_%28television_reporter%29).

Go figure. :)

[Raguleader]

"Half Mile" :D

[Kid_A]

One more for RickJay's pronunciations.

I never noticed 'juring' until now but I definitely do it.

[Siam Sam]

"Half Mile" :D
"0.62 mile"

[hekk]

I pronounce it "Kil-lah-mehder" This is probably very, very wrong.

[Raguleader]

"0.62 mile"

As we jokingly say in our Chinese class: 都可以 :D

[Jragon]

I pronounce it "Kil-lah-mehder" This is probably very, very wrong.
I see you live in Milwaukee, that's near a rather dense area of German and Dutch people isn't it? At least Sheboygan which isn't far from there where I lived as a kid had a huge Dutch population. That could explain it because saying it in my head it sounds a lot like that sort of accent.

[Polycarp]

Oddly, in the Thousand Islands area the American side says "kih-LAWM-ih-tur" while the Canadian side prefers "KILL-o-mee-tur"

[GameHat]

For years in my mind I've pronounced it kill-o-meter, but I heard that the proper pronounciation was kil-om-eter. Recently though I've seen two different programs were they pronounced it kill-o-meter. What's the correct way to pronounce it?

Buy the new Freddy Kruger Kill-o-meter (TM). It'll hellp you keep track of how many people you kill!

...depends entirely on where you are from.

I'm from the US, I pronounce it KEEL-ohm-it-tor

[puppygod]

Klick?

Sorry for hijacking, but it's not big enough matter to start new thread:

I always though that military "click" is 100 yard long, but checked this wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klick) and it claims it's kilometer - just like you said blondebear. But in the same article there is quote on the origin of click, where it claims that after all it is 100 yards. Now I'm confused. Which one it is, 100 yards or 1000 meters? What's straight dope on that?

[Staggerlee]

As we jokingly say in our Chinese class: 都可以 :D You owe me a new monitor! Oh, no, actually it's fine... ;)

[Martini Enfield]

For years in my mind I've pronounced it kill-o-meter, but I heard that the proper pronounciation was kil-om-eter. Recently though I've seen two different programs were they pronounced it kill-o-meter. What's the correct way to pronounce it?

Both ways of pronounciation are correct. However, the word is generally spelt "Kilometre", at least by everyone outside the US. ;) Still, we'll let that pass since it's good you're getting with the whole Metric thing, which is great (I still cannot get my head about the whole Fahrenheit scale or, more importantly, why people in the US still insist on using it when the Centigrade scale is clearly more logical, sensible, and therefore superior, IMHO). :)

[LSLGuy]

Sorry for hijacking, but it's not big enough matter to start new thread:

I always though that military "click" is 100 yard long, but checked this wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klick) and it claims it's kilometer - just like you said blondebear. But in the same article there is quote on the origin of click, where it claims that after all it is 100 yards. Now I'm confused. Which one it is, 100 yards or 1000 meters? What's straight dope on that?Modern (last 20 years) US Military "click" = 1 kilometer.

Back in WWII? Who knows?

[glee]

Both ways of pronounciation are correct. However, the word is generally spelt "Kilometre", at least by everyone outside the US. ;)

A kilometre is a thousand metres.

A kilometer would measure kilos (like a gas meter).

[Jamaika a jamaikaiaké]

I also keep pronouncing "during" as if it starts with a J, another nasty Canadian habit.

2 stories on this:

My first year in grad school, a bunch of us were driving around looking to do some grocery shopping. See, not all of us had cars, so one would drive the whole group to a store. Anyway, we were discussing the choice of store, Sam's Club was mentioned, and the New Zealander in the car said, "but if we go to Sam's Club, we have to pay JEWS" :eek:

We finally sorted out that he has 'Jews' and 'dues' as homophones.



When learning Hungarian for the first time:

The language book gives English examples for pronunciation of various letters

For example:
t - top, Tom
ty - tube

We (Americans) couldn't figure out why they had 2 letters (ty, gy, dz, dzs, sz, zs, cs, ly, ny are each considered one letter) for the same sound. It turns out the book was assuming the reader was British!

[Khadaji]

I pronounce it kill-OM-eter, but have heard it pronounced both ways.

[Raguleader]

A kilometre is a thousand metres.

A kilometer would measure kilos (like a gas meter).

OR it could be a thousand meters (that each measure something) :D

[The Them]

k'LOmter. I offer nothing rational as to why.