# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/141 "2008-10-11T21:54:27Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’ve heard it as ‘Ed-in-burrah’. I think I’ve only heard Scottish people pronounce it that way. Actually, after I heard that pronunciation, seeing as how it’s their country and all, I’ve been making an effort to pronounce it that way. But now when I say it, it’s somewhere in-between Ed-in-burro and Ed-in-burrah. > [@](#): > > ‘Route’ has two pronunciations: ‘root’ for things to do with direction and ways to get places, and ‘rowt’ to do with the power tool that cuts grooves in things. Hence, I pronounce ‘router’ as ‘roo-dur’ when it’s the piece of computer networking gear that directs packets of inbformation to different destinations, and ‘row-dur’ when it’s the power tool. I’m going for a degree in Network Technology. One networking piece of equipment is a router, which routs packets. We pronounce the words rowter and rowt. > [@Kal](#): > > There’s a variant pronunciation of the ‘tt’, which inserts a ‘kk’ in its place: Likkle, kekkle. My gob switches between all pronunciations, seemingly at random. I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of that before. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/142 "2008-10-11T21:54:42Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Probably the hospital one (which I think that was already mentioned). When ill, we’re in hospital while an American is in the hospital. It might be that but I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/143 "2008-10-11T21:57:17Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > This will certainly help > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiWs5\_vDYJc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiWs5_vDYJc) > > Or it would, if the sound level were not so poor. That’s my pet peeve about youtube. The sound levels vary too much. I’m in an office on a machine not part of the network, watching youtube. The volume’s too low so I turn it up. Next video starts playing with **really sudden loudness** Also I have to watch long things in PARTS and the picture resolution is way too low, and the site’s a bit awkward… ‘top rated’ isn’t even on the main page! I have to click several links to get ‘top rated’ and more to get ‘top rated this week’ I know I can do something about that last one, but I shouldn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/144 "2008-10-11T21:59:29Z")
That’s God’s way of telling you to stop slacking. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/145 "2008-10-11T23:06:19Z")
Seeing a thread about buoys in GQ reminded me. The American ‘boo he’, as opposed to the British ‘boy’. One that got me going ‘huh?’ a while back was a mention of Jock Stirrup on the Daily Show - [Video link.](http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=165516&title=Britain%27s-Fallen-Soldiers) The pronunciation of ‘stirrup’ there was just plain mad. The problems with Edinburgh are well known. My personal favourite mispronunciation remains ‘looga buh rooga’ for Loughborough. That’s in ‘lye sess ter shy err’, of course. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/146 "2008-10-11T23:34:31Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > You started it, with your saltwater tea and other abominations. :rolleyes: > > 😃 Yeah, maybe, but I like abominations; they at least beat being bored. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/147 "2008-10-12T00:15:41Z")
Eye-wrack and Eye-talian sound odd to a lot of us Americans too. And yet, when I watch Eastenders, they’re always going to Eye-bee-thah (Ibiza) for holidays. All is forgiven, as meeee-thane sounds positively sexy. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/148 "2008-10-12T02:59:58Z")
Now, now, don’t go starting any con-trav-esy. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/149 "2008-10-12T03:57:32Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > My American peeve: Write your representative, write the president and so on. > > To! whats wrong with this? im american so that might clear something up but to my knowledge i see nothing wrong in this sentance, and im a pretty educated person other notes: -HAHA to the person who said we live in america and not americer…“a champagne supernoveR in the skyyyy”… is my favorite musical line ever! -i studied in london for 3 months and never heard “ta” for thank you, but i would have seriously questioned it if i had, although “cheers” is one of the greatest ways to communicate EVER - i HATE is when people pronounce the ‘h’ in herb…im american and if you say “her-b” than i just (rather snob-ishly) just think youre uneducated - if anyone says “paree” or “italia” and does so in a non-joking/very nonchalant way than that drives me up the wall ok i’m off my high horse now ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/150 "2008-10-12T08:54:40Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > whats wrong with this? im american so that might clear something up > > but to my knowledge i see nothing wrong in this sentance, and im a pretty educated person. My British brain sees those sentences as being told to write down the words “Your representative” or “The president”, rather than being told to write to someone. Dropping the ‘to’ makes the sentence odd. It’s rare for ‘to’ to be dropped from a sentence in British English. Instead we often drop ‘the’. The hospital one has been mentioned, but others would be “put kettle on”, “I’m gonna pack shopping away”, “put telly on”, etc. ---
**Author:** ![jtsPimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jtsPimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtsPimp)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/151 "2008-10-12T10:37:36Z")
The most annoying experience “language” wise for me while I lived in the States (I’m from Northern Ireland), was when someone rided me for my pronounciation of the word “record”. I’ll say no more, you know what I mean! ---
**Author:** ![jtsPimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jtsPimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtsPimp)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/152 "2008-10-12T10:39:26Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > The justification for the “eye” pronuciation of Iraq and Iran is that there is a single consonant there, so it should be pronounced like Ireland. I’m no expert on English, but I’ve lived in Ireland for most of my life, and the only folk who pronounced Ireland like the way you’re indicating is the Americans. And sorry, but to us Irish folk, it just sounds plain wrong! ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/153 "2008-10-12T12:45:48Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > It’s rare for ‘to’ to be dropped from a sentence in British English. Instead we often drop ‘the’. The hospital one has been mentioned, but others would be “put kettle on”, “I’m gonna pack shopping away”, “put telly on”, etc. Who says “put kettle on”, outside Yorkshire? And even there, it’ s more “put 'kettle on”, the apostrophe representing a glottal stop in place of “the”. “He’s in hospital” is not a dropping of the word “the”, it’s a different usage entirely, meaning the state of being in a hospital in general, just like Americans’ say “he’s at college”. We do say “the hospital” if we’re referring to a particular hospital. “I drove past the hospital”, not “I drove past hospital”. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/154 "2008-10-12T12:52:46Z")
Woah, why did I put an apostrophe after “Americans”? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/155 "2008-10-12T12:54:12Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > whats wrong with this? im american so that might clear something up Quite a lot, really: [ul] [li]The first “w” should be “W”[/li][li]It needs an apostrophe before the “s” in “whats”[/li][li]“im” should be “I’m”[/li][li]“american” needs a capital “A”[/li][li]The sentence should end with a period.[/li][/ul] > [@](#): > > but to my knowledge i see nothing wrong in this sentance, and im a pretty educated person Capital B, capital I, “sentence”, “I’m”, end with a period. 12-year old text-speak isn’t popular here. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/156 "2008-10-12T13:47:35Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > Who says “put kettle on”, outside Yorkshire? Me and quite a few people up here in the sunny East Midlands. It’s not just a Yorkshire thing but a more general Northern (and/or common) usage. A glottal stop is optional. > [@](#): > > “He’s in hospital” is not a dropping of the word “the”, it’s a different usage entirely, meaning the state of being in a hospital in general, just like Americans’ say “he’s at college”. We do say “the hospital” if we’re referring to a particular hospital. “I drove past the hospital”, not “I drove past hospital”. I couldn’t be arsed to type that though and the lack of a ‘the’ is something Americans mention. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/157 "2008-10-12T14:19:30Z")
Re: hospital/the hospital. American usage of “jail” exactly matches the British usage of “hospital”. You go down to the jail to visit your cousin who is in jail. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/158 "2008-10-12T15:15:30Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Re: hospital/the hospital. American usage of “jail” exactly matches the British usage of “hospital”. You go down to the jail to visit your cousin who is in jail. Holy crap, it does. Have we done various British place names that are not, in fact, pronounced like they’re spelled? Southwark, Norwich, Leicester, Gloucester, etc. When it comes to names the British seem to have a fondness for smooshing the sounds together. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/159 "2008-10-12T15:23:14Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Holy crap, it does. > > Have we done various British place names that are not, in fact, pronounced like they’re spelled? Southwark, Norwich, Leicester, Gloucester, etc. When it comes to names the British seem to have a fondness for smooshing the sounds together. Featherstonehaugh, pronounced [del]Throatwarbler Mangrove[/del]…er, Fanshaw. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/160 "2008-10-12T16:41:18Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > Quite a lot, really: > [ul] > [li]The first “w” should be “W”[/li][li]It needs an apostrophe before the “s” in “whats”[/li][li]“im” should be “I’m”[/li][li]“american” needs a capital “A”[/li][li]The sentence should end with a period.[/li][/ul] > Capital B, capital I, “sentence”, “I’m”, end with a period. > > 12-year old text-speak isn’t popular here. Which is why female prisoners are only released every 28 days, because every sentence should end with a period. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182.md?page=9)