# British/Canadian/American pronunciation of "shone" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166 "2006-01-22T23:22:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/1 "2006-01-22T23:22:36Z")
The other day on Jeopardy! Alex Trebec pronounced “shone” as “shawn” (sorta like Sean). I remarked on it to my British husband who said, “But that is how it is pronounced.” What??? So, dopers, how do you pronounce “shone”? Is my husband typical of other Brits? Or he just a crazy tyke\*? Do other Canadians say it like Alex? I’ll go first: American, from the South, and I say it like “shown.” \*tyke=person from Yorkshire, UK. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/2 "2006-01-22T23:25:43Z")
Short-O. To rhyme with ‘gone’. But then I suppose plenty of people from across the pond pronounce that as ‘gawn’, so you can’t win. (And ‘tyke’ can be a general derogatory term, as well as a name for Yorkshiremen…) ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/3 "2006-01-22T23:33:33Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > The other day on Jeopardy! Alex Trebec pronounced “shone” as “shawn” (sorta like Sean). Beforing opening this thread up, from the title of it, this is exactly how I was going to explain how I pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/4 "2006-01-22T23:36:09Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Short-O. To rhyme with ‘gone’. Here also. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/5 "2006-01-22T23:37:43Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Short-O. To rhyme with ‘gone’. But then I suppose plenty of people from across the pond pronounce that as ‘gawn’, so you can’t win. (And ‘tyke’ can be a general derogatory term, as well as a name for Yorkshiremen…) Well, yes, I do pronounce “gone” as “gawn.” How do you pronounce it? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/6 "2006-01-22T23:45:00Z")
[q]How do you pronounce it?[/q] Short-O, dammit! If you pronounce everything with a drawl, I can’t give a good rhyme, can I! 😛 OK, same as the first syllable of ‘Bonny’ ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/7 "2006-01-22T23:45:34Z")
Are you sure there as a “w” sound in there, or was it more like shahn? I’m prone to saying it shohn myself. There is no “w” sound when I say it, it’s a blunted “oh” sound. I realise that the other pronunciation is [correct](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/shone) too. The first way it is pronunced on that page is how I say it. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/8 "2006-01-22T23:49:24Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Well, yes, I do pronounce “gone” as “gawn.” How do you pronounce it? To rhyme with the man’s name _John_, or with the preposition _on_. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/9 "2006-01-22T23:52:02Z")
> [@Zabali\_Clawbane](#): > > I realise that the other pronunciation is [correct](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/shone) too. As always, it depends which dictionary you use. Cambridge tells me I’m right, and that ‘sharn’ is an American variant 😉 ---
**Author:** ![St\_Ides](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@St\_Ides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St_Ides)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/10 "2006-01-22T23:52:03Z")
Alex Trebek was at one time a Canadian (until 98 when he became an American citizen) so it’s no big surprise that he pronounces it “shawn”. Which means it’s also no big surprise (to me) that a Brit would pronounce it the same way… We just don’t have the accent, we have our own. But most of our slang and dialects are pretty much 50/50 American/British. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/11 "2006-01-22T23:58:18Z")
**Zabali\_Clawbane** , thanks so much for the link! I pronounce it the first way, and Alex and my husband the second. I don’t understand your comment about there being no “w,” though. Maybe I am crazy, but I hear a “w” in both pronunciations. When I say them, “John,” “on” and “gone” sound very similar. “Gone” does have more of a “aw” sound, though. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/12 "2006-01-23T00:21:34Z")
I’d pronounce it with a short o, like Shaun, not a long o like oh, and not sliding from one sound to another like ow (how do you describe that linguistically?). I’m originally from Ontario, and unless things have changed a lot since I left, it’s a short o back east too. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/13 "2006-01-23T00:22:46Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > As always, it depends which dictionary you use. Cambridge tells me I’m right, and that ‘sharn’ is an American variant 😉 Well, yeah, sort of. That is, if that actually sounds the same way I’ve heard people on BBC shows say “Erm” which to my ear is more “Ehm”. 😉 (I’ve heard some people say “shahn” around here instead of “shohn”.) **Brynda** , try saying it but blunting the “o” tone, so you don’t get the “w” finish when you say it. Maybe if I tell you to be more abrubt and not linger on the word that would help you to say it the way I do? (Heh, just be glad we’re not debating how to say dog. The way I say it is dohg, no “w” sound in there, just short and abrubt.) Listen very closely to that page again, in a quiet room and maybe you’ll catch what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/14 "2006-01-23T01:37:00Z")
I have always pronounced it with a long ‘o’, as in “shown”, as does everyone else I know. In fact, the only time I can recall hearing the other pronunciation is in the Pink Floyd song _Shine on You Crazy Diamond_ ("Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun…) > [@GorillaMan](#): > > (And ‘tyke’ can be a general derogatory term, as well as a name for Yorkshiremen…) Two new definitions for me on that one; aroung here it’s just slang for “child” ---
**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:** [January 23, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/15 "2006-01-23T01:50:02Z")
> [@Suburban Plankton](#): > > Two new definitions for me on that one; aroung here it’s just slang for “child” Then again, a common people divided by language and all that. I had a Scottish nun in grade school (here in PA) who got in a bit of trouble when she visited her family in Scotland after several years here and unthinkingly called her nephews “little buggers”. (Why, yes, I did have an unusually egalitarian relationship with the teachers at my grade school…) ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/16 "2006-01-23T09:26:22Z")
Wait, what _is_ shone? The past tense of shine? ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/17 "2006-01-23T11:26:07Z")
Yep. It shines, it was shining, it shone. When I say it it sounds like John, on, con, gone, and like the “on” in long. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/18 "2006-01-23T12:46:15Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > The other day on Jeopardy! Alex Trebec pronounced “shone” as “shawn” (sorta like Sean). > > American, from the South, and I say it like “shown.” Same basic location and heritage. Shone, shown, bone, phone, clone, roan, pone, zone – all rhyme Sean, John, con, Ron, Lon – all rhyme Just another example of why we can’t get along in this world. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/19 "2006-01-23T12:49:49Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Same basic location and heritage. > > Shone, shown, bone, phone, clone, roan, pone, zone – all rhyme > > Sean, John, con, Ron, Lon – all rhyme > > Just another example of why we can’t get along in this world. Shown, bone, phone, clone, all rhyme John, shone, con, all rhyme Sean doesn’t rhyme with any of these 😛 ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166/20 "2006-01-23T12:53:41Z")
Sean rhymes with pawn, prawn, lawn and brawn- at least it does if you’re Irish. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-canadian-american-pronunciation-of-shone/341166.md?page=2)