# How do you pronounce "Capital" "Capitol" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426 "2016-03-09T17:48:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/1 "2016-03-09T17:48:44Z")
In another thread one of the posters mentioned that a Jeopardy contestant said “Capital” rather than “Capitol”. I guess I would have lost too. I would pronounce both as Cap-it-ul. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/2 "2016-03-09T17:54:09Z")
I say them both exactly the same, with a schwa sound in the last syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/3 "2016-03-09T17:56:50Z")
I pronounce them the same way too. I thought everyone did. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/4 "2016-03-09T17:57:41Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > In another thread one of the posters mentioned that a Jeopardy contestant said “Capital” rather than “Capitol”. > I guess I would have lost too. I would pronounce both as Cap-it-ul. Link for reference? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/5 "2016-03-09T18:05:07Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I pronounce them the same way too. I thought everyone did. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/6 "2016-03-09T18:31:36Z")
Subtly different, at least to my ears the building has a shorter, lower pitched, more gruntlike final syllable, the city has a more open, higher vowel. But ISTM it would really depend a lot on regional dialect. (That’s when speaking English, of course. If I’m using Spanglish for effect then it’s obvious.) ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/7 "2016-03-09T18:53:05Z")
Yeah, furryman, I’d like to see a link for reference as well. On the TV show, the Final Jeopardy round is written instead of spoken - could that have been it? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/8 "2016-03-09T19:07:46Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Yeah, furryman, I’d like to see a link for reference as well. > > On the TV show, the Final Jeopardy round is written instead of spoken - could that have been it? But they don’t penalize you for bad spelling in final Jeopardy. As for the pronunciation of those two words, I say them exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/9 "2016-03-09T20:12:22Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But they don’t penalize you for bad spelling in final Jeopardy. I see a difference between what is clearly misspelling (e.g. automabile for automobile) and presenting a different word that has a different meaning. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/10 "2016-03-09T20:26:52Z")
Exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/11 "2016-03-09T20:30:49Z")
Also, if the post you’re talking about is [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19141394&postcount=12), it is not mentioned that the answer was spoken. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/12 "2016-03-09T20:38:14Z")
I tried quickly searching through the j-archive, but I wasn’t able to find a question/answer that matched. I tried looking for “What is the Capitol” and two final jeopardy questions showed up, but nothing that indicated a misspelling (the answers were completely wrong in both cases.) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/13 "2016-03-09T21:10:11Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yep. Nope. But IME, with these words as well as many others, people who do pronounce them the same often can’t hear the difference in others. Not sure which way the causality works there. ---
**Author:** ![Saro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Saro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/14 "2016-03-09T21:24:45Z")
I pronounce them differently. Capital has a ‘-tle’ sound (like in kettle or whatever), while capitol has a more pronounced ‘-uhl’ sound. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/15 "2016-03-09T21:31:29Z")
FWIW, both on [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) and [m-w.com](http://m-w.com), the pronunciations listed are the same. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) only lists one pronunciation for both, but [m-w.com](http://m-w.com) (Merriam-Webster) has both the two-syllable and three syllable versions. In all cases, the final vowel is a schwa. This, of course, does not reflect personal and regional variations, but they’re generally considered to be pronounced the same. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/16 "2016-03-09T21:33:15Z")
And just a reminder. . . it’s obvious from the link, if the recollection is accurate, that this was ‘Final Jeopardy’, which is written, and the pronunciation angle is irrelevant. Doesn’t mean that some people don’t pronounce them differently, but not relevant to ‘Final Jeopardy.’ ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/17 "2016-03-09T23:13:07Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > And just a reminder. . . it’s obvious from the link, if the recollection is accurate, that this was ‘Final Jeopardy’, which is written, and the pronunciation angle is irrelevant. > > Doesn’t mean that some people don’t pronounce them differently, but not relevant to ‘Final Jeopardy.’ Spelling only matters in Final Jeopardy if it **does** change the pronunciation. I would really like to see evidence that someone lost Final Jeopardy for spelling “capital” instead of “capitol.” ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/18 "2016-03-09T23:16:21Z")
In England they would be pronounced differently. Capital like _it’l_ and capitol like _toll_, though the difference might be pretty subtle. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/19 "2016-03-10T00:50:06Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Nope. But IME, with these words as well as many others, people who do pronounce them the same often can’t hear the difference in others. Not sure which way the causality works there. I don’t know which way the causality works but the phenomenon is real enough. For example, the standard plural for house is the irregular houzes, but where I grow up it was regular as houses. Now I use them interchangeably and do not notice the difference. On the other hand, in my native dialect, the modal “can” is pronounced differently from the ordinary noun (and verb) “can”. I hear the difference strongly, but most people do not. What is cause and what effect? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426/20 "2016-03-10T02:22:23Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > In England they would be pronounced differently. Capital like _it’l_ and capitol like _toll_, though the difference might be pretty subtle. That’s how i pronounce them as well. It may be because capitol is a foreign word for me - we have parliaments and legislatures in Canada, not capitols. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-capital-capitol/748426.md?page=2)