# How do \[i\]you\[/i\] pronounce this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2002, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262 "2002-05-10T11:40:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/21 "2002-05-10T18:38:30Z")
Born in CA and then moved to WA - as far as I can tell the only change in pronunciation was the word “almond.” But yes, marry, Mary, merry, berry, and Barry all rhyme. Bury sounds slightly different. Very, very, very (another word which rhymes with all of the above, btw) slightly and if I wanted to, I’d make it rhyme without a second thought. ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/22 "2002-05-10T19:55:22Z")
They all rhyme to me. But what do I know? I was born and raised in California. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/23 "2002-05-10T20:31:17Z")
To me, Mary, merry, and marry sound just about identical. Occasionally ‘merry’ will have a ‘meery’ sound instead, but not all the time. Wary and weary are completely different. Wary is “ware-y” and wearing is “weer-y”. I’m from Detroit, and have (even to fellow Detroit-area people) an odd combination of accents. Some people have sworn that I’m actually from Ontario (southern), and other pronunciations that I use confuse others. Oooh, and something about _my_ vocabulary just stunned me while reading a post here: Faucet, spigot, or tap: the actual thing is a faucet, but tap water comes out of the faucet. What sense does that make? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/24 "2002-05-10T22:04:29Z")
I’m with those who distinguish between these sounds, based on “r-coloring,” but then I’ve had a few years of speech training. [ul][li]“Marry” = “ma” with a flat “a,” like “mac,” plus “ree.”[/li][li]“Merry” = “me” with a flat “e,” like “men,” plus “ree.”[/li][li]“Mary” = a blended sound, “mare,” plus “ree.”[/ul][/li]I also distinguish between the four "ah"s – [ul][li]“Hot” = short, and dark, but not as dark as[/li][li]“All” = darker and longer (in British, it’s _very_ dark, like “awl”)[/li][li]“Father” = long and gentle[/li][li]“Bath,” “can’t” = midway between flat a (“hat”) and the “ah” in “father”[/ul][/li]But like I said, I’ve had a lot of speech training. The effect of my differentiating between the various sounds above is that people who listen to me all think I come from somewhere else, but they can’t quite pin it down. They just know I sound slightly different than they do. ---
**Author:** ![fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ba0ec/32.png) [@fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fish_in_the_sky)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/25 "2002-05-11T00:10:54Z")
Born and raised in Wisconsin; it had never even occured to me before today that they **could** be pronounced differently. The following words all rhyme, as far as I’m concerned: Mary, marry, merry, Harry, hairy, carry, Kerry, airy, fairy, Barry, bury, berry, Jerry, Larry, Gary, Perry, tary, very, vary, wary, scary, cherry, dairy, prairie, nary. ---
**Author:** ![Tsubaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Tsubaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tsubaki)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/26 "2002-05-11T01:30:15Z")
What cracks me up is when I hear you Merkins say “squirrel” or “mirror”. These words have TWO syllables, you know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/27 "2002-05-11T02:57:36Z")
I, uh, take it that you can’t use vB tags in titles. Oh well. Thanks for all the replies. I now understand how the words could be pronounced differently, yet when I say them, even trying to get the different sounds, I still hear the same word. Maybe my mouth doesn’t work right. Thanks for the bit about r-coloring, **Jomo**. Interesting stuff. **Cervaise** , I am amazed that you pronounce the ah’s differently. The first three all sound the same to me. Oh, and a faucet is inside (kitchen sink) while a spigot is outside (where you fill up the hose). Don’t ask me why. ---
**Author:** ![shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/28 "2002-05-11T03:27:23Z")
Marry, Mary, and Merry are complete homophones around these parts. Weary and Wary are nothing alike, and I do pronounce the “wh” in _where_ more distinctly than the nonexistent H in _wear_. Not a pail - a bucket. Not a teeter-totter - a see-saw. Faucet, tap,and spigot are interchangeable, but mostly only older people use the term spigot. _Diaper_, much like _soda_, is often replaced by a brand name. For example, “Do you have a pamper?” Besides the regular euphemisms for _fanny_ such as ass, butt, rear end, etc., there is also one that I have no idea how to spell. I think it’s _hind end_, but it comes out as _high nin_. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/29 "2002-05-11T08:02:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zweisamkeit \* > \*\*Oooh, and something about _my_ vocabulary just stunned me while reading a post here: > > Faucet, spigot, or tap: the actual thing is a faucet, but tap water comes out of the faucet. What sense does that make? 😕 \*\* None, I suppose, but that’s the way I’ve always said it. BTW, I grew up in Detroit, and I pronounce merry, marry, and Mary the same way, except when they occur in song lyrics (in which case slightly different pronunciations have been drummed into my head by choral directors, though they feel entirely too affected in everyday speech. Incidentally, my high school choir director had us pronounce Mary as something like “May-ry”) And I’ve never heard anyone pronounce “squirrel” as a monosyllable. “Mirror,” maybe, but I think that as pronounced by most people it does have two syllables, although the second one is pretty weak. (Same goes for “fire.”) At least, that’s how I say it… ---
**Author:** ![derTintenfisch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@derTintenfisch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/derTintenfisch)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/30 "2002-05-11T09:29:35Z")
Northeasterner (upstate New York) here - Mary, merry, marry are all the same for me, but I do use the two different sounds in _cot_ ([a]) and _caught_ ([er, the backwards c]) which I’ve been told is an Eastern (non-Californian) thing. - A bucket is a plastic and a pail is metal. - It’s a see-saw. - Spigot is outside - inside it’s a tap I guess, but faucet doesn’t sound really strange either. ---
**Author:** ![Tsubaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Tsubaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tsubaki)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262/31 "2002-05-11T09:59:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Katisha \* > \*\*And I’ve never heard anyone pronounce “squirrel” as a monosyllable. “Mirror,” maybe, but I think that as pronounced by most people it does have two syllables, although the second one is pretty weak. (Same goes for “fire.”) At least, that’s how I say it… \*\* All the Merkins I’ve met have said squirrel as if it was spelt “squirl”. Obviously that doesn’t extrapolate to the entire Merkin population, but its a quirk I’ve never seen in Australia. My Canadian friend says it that way, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-you-i-pronounce-this/108262.md?page=1)