# Erwin Schrödinger **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188 "2009-10-01T01:20:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/1 "2009-10-01T01:20:51Z")
What is the correct way to say this last name? I’ve been reading science on a layman’s level for many years and am embarassed to say that I don’t know how to pronounce it without sounding like a fool. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/2 "2009-10-01T01:34:16Z")
I usually just hear it as / **shroh** -ding-er/, but if you want to be strictly correct, the ö is pronounced as a sort of mixture of /eh/ and /oh/, like the French “dieu”. Of course, if you’re going to be that precise, you need to pronounce his first name /Er-vin/. (Is there an easy way to do IPA here?) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/3 "2009-10-01T01:42:04Z")
There are actually two ways to pronounce his name, but you won’t know which you’ve chosen until after you’ve said it. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/4 "2009-10-01T01:49:50Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > There are actually two ways to pronounce his name, but you won’t know which you’ve chosen until after you’ve said it. Well done! ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/5 "2009-10-01T01:53:51Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Well done! Yes! very nice. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/6 "2009-10-01T01:59:38Z")
I’m actually asking because this does come up in my little circles of couch potato philosopher friends. I’m left not knowing the corecct way to say Kim Bassinger. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/7 "2009-10-01T02:05:37Z")
I’ve always rhymed it with “slow zinger”, FWIW. Of course, I’ve never much been good at pronouncing anything. Er_v_in? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/8 "2009-10-01T02:17:53Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I’ve always rhymed it with “slow zinger”, FWIW. > > Of course, I’ve never much been good at pronouncing anything. > > Er_v_in? As **fachverwirrt** (_there’s_ a name for you!) posted above, you’re correct as far as most people would hear it. Only the extras he/she added would help you to a native German. _Ervin_ would be the German pronounciation of “Erwin”. A “w” is pronounced like a “v.” ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/9 "2009-10-01T02:20:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > There are actually two ways to pronounce his name, but you won’t know which you’ve chosen until after you’ve said it. It took me a second (well, actually it took until I read Polycarp’s reply and thought to look at it again) to get it. Clever. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/10 "2009-10-01T02:26:52Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > I’m actually asking because this does come up in my little circles of couch potato philosopher friends. I’m left not knowing the corecct way to say Kim Bassinger. 😃 In her appearance on _The Simpsons_ (which was alongside her then-husband Alec Baldwin), she corrects Homer by saying “Base-singer.” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/11 "2009-10-01T02:28:01Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > There are actually two ways to pronounce his name, but you won’t know which you’ve chosen until after you’ve said it. Not true! There is a defined way to pronounce it; it’s just that the card with the correct pronunciation is in your other pants, which are hidden somewhere in the back of your closet, out of reach. It’s unequal, I know, but that’s the way the old Bell rings. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/12 "2009-10-01T02:31:49Z")
The crux of my confusion is not the schro but the dinger. ding as in bell or dinge as in dicolored? ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/13 "2009-10-01T02:37:36Z")
Ding ding ding. Thanks eveyone. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/14 "2009-10-01T03:42:44Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Only the extras he/she added would help you to a native German. A native German? Don’t mind if I do! > [@](#): > > A “w” is pronounced like a “v.” Or, as a great uncle of mine used to lament when drunk, “All my wees come out like wubble-yous and my wubble-yous come out like wees!” ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/15 "2009-10-01T04:49:22Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > The crux of my confusion is not the schro but the dinger. ding as in bell or dinge as in dicolored? Ding as a bell - hard g. I can’t recall if there are even soft g’s in German. However, the final “-r” isn’t pronounced : “inguh”, not “ingurr” Or, for the fluent IPA types (weirdos !) : ˈʃrøːdɪŋɐ ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/16 "2009-10-01T05:34:02Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Ding as a bell - hard g. I can’t recall if there are even soft g’s in German. However, the final “-r” isn’t pronounced : “inguh”, not “ingurr” > Or, for the fluent IPA types (weirdos !) : ˈʃrøːdɪŋɐ Wow. You make it sound like he was from Long Island. 😃 And props out to Richard Feynman, Rock on Far rockaway! ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/17 "2009-10-01T06:10:49Z")
I’ve always pronounced it “Shrow-Ding-Err”. Hard-G. Then I finally heard some physicist on The Discovery Channel pronounce it with a soft-G. And my entire world-view was thrown into uncertainty. Alas, I lay in between two undefined states. Even now. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/18 "2009-10-01T06:23:36Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I’ve always pronounced it “Shrow-Ding-Err”. Hard-G. > > Then I finally heard some physicist on The Discovery Channel pronounce it with a soft-G. And my entire world-view was thrown into uncertainty. > > Alas, I lay in between two undefined states. Even now. Thank you Werner. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/19 "2009-10-01T09:05:43Z")
In German -ing is pronounced simular to -ing in English. (if you want to call that a hard-G I’m okay with that, but it is not what I call a hard G). ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188/20 "2009-10-01T22:03:46Z")
Not sure if it’s been made entirely clear, but -dinger sounds like _singer_, not _finger_ (except without the /r/). In German, at least. The Americanized pronunciation might have a light hard /g/. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erwin-schrodinger/512188.md?page=2)