# American English Pronunciation that bugs the bejeezus out of me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 9, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182 "2008-10-09T16:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/241 "2008-10-18T04:26:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Isn’t a British toilet the room, while an American toilet is the fixture in the room? The toilet isn’t necessarily in the bathroom; it can be a separate room with, well, just a toilet. In which case the room is also called the ‘toilet’. In Australian houses of the 1940’s era and thereabouts, the toilet is almost invariably an offshoot room of the laundry. The house I used to live in followed that layout, and all hand-washing was done at the laundry taps instead of wandering all the way around to the actual bathroom. (Which would have necessitated travelling through the kitchen.) Even in my current home (which is only about 15 years old) the toilet is 2 rooms separated from the bathroom, due to the weird shape of the block the house is built on. You’re spoiled for choice here, though, 'cos the bathroom and laundry are almost equidistant from our loo, so you can wash your hands wherever you fancy. 😉 So, are we posh or crazy? We have both toilet rooms AND bathrooms. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/242 "2008-10-18T11:03:45Z")
> [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > The toilet isn’t necessarily in the bathroom; it can be a separate room with, well, just a toilet. In which case the room is also called the ‘toilet’. Of course, real estate agents on both sides of the pond use confusing terms for these rooms. In the UK they call it a cloakroom, whether or not you hang your coats and cloaks there, and in the US it is a half bathroom, even though it contains zero baths. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/243 "2008-10-18T11:51:48Z")
> [@grey\_ideas](#): > > That’s a particular dialect or two in the UK, not everyone from the UK pronounces it like that. And you can put the ‘h’ back in ‘herb’ whilst we are talking about missing letters (assuming you are from the US and pronounce ‘herb’ as ‘erb’) > > And? Why should we care if you “get” it? > > So pretty much like almost all swearwords then? “Shit, Fuck, Cock, Cunt, Bollocks, Bugger…etc, etc”…that’s a whole heap of swearing for MPSIMS > > Really? And there I was thinking I knew my own language pretty well. > > As I noted above, pretty much like every other swear word out there. So what’s got you so wound up about “wanker” in particular? Or is this just a general anti swearing thing? > > Well, at least here I can agree with you 😉 As someone from the US, I agree with you entirely, and FWIW, I never had a problem with “wanker.” I don’t understand how anyone can not “get it,” swearing isn’t exactly a difficult concept to grasp in your own language, I could understand if you were having trouble grasping the intricacies of calling someone a “garden gnome” or telling them they “have a bird [implied: brain]” in German, but it’s not too hard to grasp new and exciting ways to insult people. Look how fast “douchebag” caught on, didn’t take fast for people to pick up on the hot new insult. (Also, “square” made even LESS sense than “wanker”). I get chastised by my friend to no end due to my pronunciation of “plague” though, I’ll be damned if I can’t tell HOW I’m pronouncing it badly, however. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/244 "2008-10-18T12:02:10Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Just saw [Von Ryan’s Express](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059885/) this morning with Sinatra and all of the British laddies in the movie were calling the Italians, “Eye-Ties”. How do you say it? (It was a good movie by the way.) Exactly like it’s spelt, but unless you want to sound like someone out of a _War Picture Library_ comic I wouldn’t go looking for opportunities to use the word in the first place. 😉 The American pronounciation that really annoys the smeg out of me is “Carbeen” in reference to a Carbine rifle (Pronounced something like “Carbyne” in the UK, NZ, and Australia). It’s up there with “Jagwar” instead of _Jag-you-ahr_, on the “That’s just wrong, dammit!” scale, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/245 "2008-10-18T12:05:59Z")
> [@grey\_ideas](#): > > I don’t head to the bathroom at all…I go to the toilet. > > Sorry, another one I never quite got from my time in the US. I thought us Brits were supposed to be the more uptight ones, but I guess certain puritanical traits carried over 😃 They did - you can see it in Americanisms like ‘tidbits’ for ‘titbits’ and a couple of others I can’t remember at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/246 "2008-10-18T12:09:03Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > British people queue. They might form a queue, start a queue, be in a queue or be they could be queueing. > > They don’t stand in or on line unless they’re trying to convey this information to an American. Because they’ve probably used the word queue to an American before and had to explain what it is. Then had to deal with the highly hilarious comments which often ensue from Americans about the British fondness for extraneous us in words. I’m a Brit, and I’ve never understood the point of that extra **ue** in queue. I bet it’s got something to do with those French! ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/247 "2008-10-18T12:16:44Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > I’m a Brit, and I’ve never understood the point of that extra **ue** in queue. I bet it’s got something to do with those French! It’s always made sense to me: the extra ue is waiting in the queue! ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/248 "2008-10-18T19:10:16Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > The American pronounciation that really annoys the smeg out of me is “Carbeen” in reference to a Carbine rifle (Pronounced something like “Carbyne” in the UK, NZ, and Australia). It’s up there with “Jagwar” instead of _Jag-you-ahr_, on the “That’s just wrong, dammit!” scale, IMHO. I would use “Carbyne”, personally - I’m not sure which American accent would say “Carbeen”. In the South, perhaps. You’re just plain wrong about jaguar, though, except when referring to the car company. The word comes from [a native South American language](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar#Etymology), and we kept approximately the same pronunciation, while you guys threw a random syllable into the middle of it. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/249 "2008-10-18T21:52:01Z")
> [@Risha](#): > > You’re just plain wrong about jaguar, though, except when referring to the car company… …and if you hear a Brit complain about the pronunciation, you can be 99.9% sure it’s to do with the car company. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/250 "2008-10-19T12:33:11Z")
My bugbear (and I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet) is “mass-oos” for masseuse. Merkins seem to have great difficulty with French (although they do manage it all right in placenames like Arkansas and Michigan). Regarding the Brit pronunciation of “schedule” - they’ve been saying it “shed-yule” for almost 1,000 years; it arrived with the Normans as “cédule”. ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/251 "2008-10-19T13:50:07Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > Merkins seem to have great difficulty with French (although they do manage it all right in placenames like Arkansas and Michigan). We certainly do, it seems to be a case-by-case basis. There’s a town near here called North Versailles. That’s VER-sails. ver-SIGH would get you punched in the head. I had a girl decribing a house to me talk about the FWA-ya. My response: “This is America, sweetie. For people in our income bracket that’s a FOY-er.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/252 "2008-10-19T17:39:48Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > My bugbear (and I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet) is “mass-oos” for masseuse. Merkins seem to have great difficulty with French (although they do manage it all right in placenames like Arkansas and Michigan). How should it be pronounced? Just because a word came into the English language from French doesn’t mean I have to pronounce it all snooty-nasal-Frenchified. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/253 "2008-10-19T18:25:31Z")
I should have come in here instead of starting a [skirmish](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=488129) in the pit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/254 "2008-10-19T20:02:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > How should it be pronounced? Er, start off saying “masseur” but replace the final R with a zed (yes, a zed). Unless you pronounce “masseur” as “mass-oo”, which I would think doubtful. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/255 "2008-10-19T20:06:25Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > Er, start off saying “masseur” but replace the final R with a zed (yes, a zed). Unless you pronounce “masseur” as “mass-oo”, which I would think doubtful. Your doubt is misplaced. Americans who say “muhsooze” for _masseuse_ are also likely to say “muhsoor” for _masseur_. In either case, thought, the more common term is “massage therapist.” Because the assumption is that a masseuse is a prostitute. Most people probably don’t even know what a masseur is, other than, possibly, another way of pronouncing “monsieur.” (And please don’t explain to me the correct pronunciation of “monsieur.” I know what it is. I’m just conveying to you facts on the ground.) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/256 "2008-10-19T21:07:43Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > “I am standing on line” is New York dialect. It’s been around a lot longer than computers. So has “sleeping over your house,” but that’s no reason to tolerate it unless you give your overnight guests lawn chairs fitted with helium balloons. I think “on line” is confusing now that “online” is in the language, and I hope it goes to oblivion, by way of Toity-Toid 'n Toid. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/257 "2008-10-20T08:31:04Z")
It isn’t FUZE, it’s FUSE ---
**Author:** ![Incref](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@Incref](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incref)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/258 "2008-10-20T12:09:26Z")
The way I have heard some Americans pronounce ‘roof’. I couldn’t work out what someone was talking about for a minute… RUFF? Rough? Ohhh, you mean ROOF. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/259 "2008-10-20T14:08:31Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think “on line” is confusing now that “online” is in the language How would you like a New Yorker to pick out all the logical inconsistencies in your dialect? Human language is not unambiguous. I’m surprised you aren’t used to that by now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182.md?page=12)