# British Pronunciation of "My"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-my/5510>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 23, 1999, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-my/5510 "1999-12-23T05:59:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-my/5510/1 "1999-12-23T05:59:00Z")

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Watching “Are You Being Served” or “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” I hear the British pronounce the word “my” as either “my” or “me.” As in:

“…a daring and heroic rescue in MY own particular idiom!” (my emphasis)

```
 or

```

“…oh ME achin’ back!” (my emphasis)

Two questions:

1. Are there rules governing when to pronounce it as “me” or “my,” or is it just random? I’ll often hear the same speaker use both pronunciations, so I don’t think it’s a social class thing.

2. When written, is it spelled m-y, regardless of how it is to be pronounced?

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-my/5510/2 "1999-12-23T06:39:00Z")

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When you hear “me” they are saying “me.”

It is dialectual. Several British and some variants of Irish use “me” where Standard English calls for “my.” I suspect that Captain Peacock, for example, never uses that pronunciation while Miss Brahms uses it a lot.

(Think of Long John Silver saying “Come here, me lad.”)

It may actually be a difference in pronunciation rather than a difference in word usage, but it is generally spelled “me” in any case.

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Tom~

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**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-my/5510/3 "1999-12-23T11:53:00Z")

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“Me” is spelt “Me”, and in this case is just slang for “My”, nothing fancier than that.

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**Author:** ![galen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@galen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-my/5510/4 "1999-12-23T15:05:00Z")

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Shiver me timbers!

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The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. (Karl Marx, 1845)