# How do you pronounce pecan? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895 "2010-12-21T01:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/21 "2010-12-21T15:35:01Z")
I say p’kahn, because I know what a pee can is. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/22 "2010-12-21T15:36:49Z")
Raised in Indiana, where it’s puh-kahn. Living in North Carolina, where it’s pronounce PEE-can. Puh-kahn down here gets you pegged as an effete Yankee snob. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/23 "2010-12-21T15:56:37Z")
I honestly flip back and forth, because I’ve heard every option so many times that they’re apparantly all valid to whatever part of the brain delivers up whatever word I’m going to say next. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/24 "2010-12-21T16:21:34Z")
It has to be p’-can and not p’-khan. Otherwise p’can sandies would be called p’-khan sahndies which is all kinds of messed up. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/25 "2010-12-21T16:26:21Z")
I say “p’kahn”. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/26 "2010-12-21T17:40:55Z")
I am in Georgia, the leading pecan-producing state. Even here, people pronounce it in all sorts of ways. My family always used “p’-KAHN,” but I’ve heard native Georgians who pronounce it “PEE-can” and “p’-CAN.” Pronunciation seems to vary on a family-by-family basis. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/27 "2010-12-21T21:53:48Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > Puh-kahn down here gets you pegged as an effete Yankee snob. Everywhere I’ve been in the South it is puh-KAHN. Yankees like Mrs. Plant say, “PEE can” or “PEE kahn”. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/28 "2010-12-21T23:02:24Z")
None of the above. I generally say PEE-kahn. None of the above poll options, that is. I say it like one of the Yankees in **carnivorousplant’s** post. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/29 "2010-12-22T00:22:23Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > Raised in Indiana, where it’s puh-kahn. > > Living in North Carolina, where it’s pronounce PEE-can. Puh-kahn down here gets you pegged as an effete Yankee snob. I live one county over from North Carolina, in the Appalachian foothills of Tennessee, and I’ve never known anyone but me to bat an eye at any of the various pronunciations. I say puh-kahn and think pee-can and puh-can sound imbecilic. I hear all three regularly. ---
**Author:** ![bubba\_jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bubba\_jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba_jr)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/30 "2010-12-22T07:40:49Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > I am in Georgia, the leading pecan-producing state. Even here, people pronounce it in all sorts of ways. My family always used “p’-KAHN,” but I’ve heard native Georgians who pronounce it “PEE-can” and “p’-CAN.” Pronunciation seems to vary on a family-by-family basis. Hey, we kicked your butt a few years back. Bwahahahaha. > **[New Mexico tops in U.S. pecan production](https://trib.com/news/state-regional/article_f863f3e3-d2fd-5ea4-a015-d470598d3641.html)** > > ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - New Mexico's pecan farmers have reason to go nuts: For the first time, the state ranks as the No. 1 producer of pecans in the country, beating Then again you don’t have goat heads. Pee Cans from the desert. The girlfriend and I get into this all time, for her its a Pee Con. I’d be much more comfortable if she went totally french and called it a Pah Con(khan, for you Star Trek fans). But no, she’s got to be half redneck and call it a PEE con(khan). I still say its a Pee Can. That ‘E’ cannot be pronounced ‘ah’ and the ‘an’ should not be pronounced ‘on’. Therefore it is a Pee Can. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/31 "2010-12-22T08:33:46Z")
I say p’KAHN, but my Irish boyfriend says PEE-can. Funny because usually UK has snobbier pronunciation than the US. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/32 "2010-12-22T08:46:13Z")
I’ve heard them all and it’s one of those things where I just can’t figure out whether there is a “most common pronunciation,” so I read it as if it was Spanish since it happens to be an acceptable option: p’KAHN is what I think would come closest in the list given. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/33 "2010-12-22T09:37:11Z")
This Southerner says p’KAHN. And ‘pie’ is pronounced ‘pah’ as all right-thinking people know. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/34 "2010-12-22T13:17:18Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > Raised in Indiana, where it’s puh-kahn. > > Living in North Carolina, where it’s pronounce PEE-can. Puh-kahn down here gets you pegged as an effete Yankee snob. You must hang out with a bunch of transpanted northerners, because p’kahn is how native North Carolinians pronounce the word. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/35 "2010-12-22T17:21:13Z")
My evil dad told me of a man selling peanuts on a train. A passenger asked, “Do you have pee-cans?” “Down at the end of the car, on the left.” ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/36 "2010-12-22T18:03:26Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > You must hang out with a bunch of transpanted northerners, because p’kahn is how native North Carolinians pronounce the word. Maybe in Asheville. My Grandmother grew pecans and she called them pee-cans, case closed. And she lived in North carolina along with all my other relatives who called them pee-cans. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/37 "2010-12-22T18:24:16Z")
I say p’khan. Back home, we throw in some chocolate chips and other secret ingredients and call it Derby Pie. > [@NinetyWt](#): > > Often it’s more like b’khan than p’khan, 'round these parts. Funny: down here I hear more pee-can. I think it’s the Pauler Deen influence. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895/38 "2010-12-22T18:54:43Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Maybe in Asheville. My Grandmother grew pecans and she called them pee-cans, case closed. And she lived in North carolina along with all my other relatives who called them pee-cans. I’m not from anywhere near Asheville, though my grandmother is. While I’ll concede that some people in the state call them pee-cans, it isn’t the norm. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-pecan/564895.md?page=1)