# How do you pronounce "coupon"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557 "2012-10-03T05:51:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/21 "2012-10-03T15:29:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > …in 2011? Five exceptionally long months. ---
**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 3, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/22 "2012-10-03T16:53:28Z")
> [@NIKI50](#): > > I don’t use them either, but I pronounce it the way I was taught to, Cue-pon. Maybe it comes from my weird mix of yooperisms in my speech. I’m a… lowper? But yeh, at least my family pronounces it cue-pon. Sorry for the spanish speaking folk. I didn’t think about “que” coming across as “kay”. ---
**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 3, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/23 "2012-10-03T16:57:42Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > [Did that one a mere 5 months ago.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=608329) Gah! Well then, I guess I’ll have to fire up the porcupine poll. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/24 "2012-10-03T17:41:53Z")
Coo-pon but grew up saying it the other way. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/25 "2012-10-03T17:57:20Z")
That long ago? :smack: Would have sworn I did that one this year. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/26 "2012-10-03T18:36:44Z")
Both ways. And the Ron White way, too. What can I say? I like having options. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/27 "2012-10-04T02:43:12Z")
On découpe les coupons. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/28 "2012-10-04T04:11:31Z")
Better make a poll for DATA: DAY-tah vs DAH-tah. ~VOW ---
**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:** [October 4, 2012, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/29 "2012-10-04T05:12:50Z")
I probably use both equally. I _think_ I grew up with Q-pon, but these days it seems I’m just as likely to say coo-pon. I did not vote. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/30 "2012-10-04T05:31:25Z")
I grew up hearing “cue- pon” or “cue-p’n,” but two things happened in high school: This one time, at band camp… Wait, no, that’s a different revelation… Actually, I took a couple of years of French, plus my journalism advisor had a real issue with the “cue” pronunciation. She explained her reasoning, and it clicked with me. So I’ve sounded .01% less redneck since 1986. (Just don’t ask me to pronounce “eight” more than once or twice in sequence. I once recorded an answering machine message for a number something like 888-898-8854. I sounded like Gomer freaking Pyle by the time I hit that final 8.) ---
**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 4, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/31 "2012-10-04T14:46:55Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Better make a poll for DATA: DAY-tah vs DAH-tah. > ~VOW Oh man, I would, but I’m learning these polls are really Hydras of unending nuance. Suffice it to say, I prefer DA-tuh [(ˈda-tə).](http://www.merriam-webster.com/audio.php?file=data0001&word=data&text=#) Saying it the other way, I feel like I’m imitating Picard. Tea. Earl Grey. HOT! ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/32 "2012-10-04T15:49:47Z")
coo-pon. Raised in central Pennsylvania, where I think “cue-pon” is more common, but somehow I seem to have escaped most of the central-PA vagaries of speech. For example I don’t warsh the dishes, and when I do something immediately I don’t do it “rate” away. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/33 "2012-10-04T15:51:58Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Better make a poll for DATA: DAY-tah vs DAH-tah. > ~VOW And then “the data shows” vs “the data show”… the latter is grammatically correct since the word is plural, but I always feel pretentious when I treat it as such. The former just sounds right even though I know it isn’t. ---
**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:** [October 4, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/34 "2012-10-04T20:59:21Z")
It’s always been DAY-tuh (well, more like DAY-duh, with an intervocalic flap. I’m typing from my phone, so too lazy to IPA.) to me, since the 80s and my BASIC programming days. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/35 "2012-10-04T21:14:20Z")
DAY-tuh is correct, it’s the plural of datum (DAY-tum). The other way sounds juvenile (momma! data!). ---
**Author:** ![Heckity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Heckity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckity)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/36 "2012-10-05T01:17:11Z")
Um, what? Datum is Daytum? I swear I missed a memo. I believe in my youth it was always dah-ta and dah-tum. Did it all change with databases becoming more prevalent? And more to the point, do I date (daht?) myself by saying dah-ta? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/37 "2012-10-05T02:58:39Z")
Growing up in West Texas, I said “coo-pon” as did most people in that area, and I still do. My California father also said “coo-pon.” But I remember my Arkansas mother always saing “que-pon.” ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557/38 "2012-10-05T03:46:53Z")
I say coo-pon, and cue-pon sayers drive me a bit crazy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-coupon/636557.md?page=1)