# Military guys mispronouncing "cache" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720 "2003-04-10T04:17:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/21 "2003-04-10T22:21:45Z")
The word is of French origin and that is the correct French pronunciation. Give the military some credit. They are the ones pronouncing the word correctly… . . or else! ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/22 "2003-04-10T22:35:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*The word is of French origin and that is the correct French pronunciation. Give the military some credit. They are the ones pronouncing the word correctly… . . or else! \*\* That’s not necessarily true. cache (like cachette) means “hiding place” ; pronounced ‘cash’ caché means “hidden” ; pronunced ‘cashay’ cacher means “to hide” ; pronounced ‘cashay’ Those pronunciations are approximate… it’s hard to make a good ‘é’, ‘er’, or ‘ez’ with English vowels. Reference: My own knowledge from growing up speaking French, and my Larousse dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/23 "2003-04-11T01:32:23Z")
For over ten years I was a civilian employee of the U. S. Army. One day some coworkers who were Army veterans and I got into a discussion of the distinctive dialect spoken in and around the army. One vet ventured that it was compounded of one third some deep Southern dialect, one third Cajun, and one third butt ignorance. In any case, there are a number of mispronunciations which are commonly heard in the United States, but which seem to be especially common among army types. Thus: “Cache” is pronounced “cash-ay”, probably out of confusion with “cachet”. “Forte”, meaning a personal strength, is pronounced “for-tay”, the same as the musical term. I recall this was a plot point in an episode of the situation comedy “Unhappily Ever After”; the eternally virginal daughter who prided herself on her intellectual achievements is aghast when she has her pronunciation corrected. “Psuedo” is pronounced “suede-o”. “Often” is pronounced " “off-ten”. “Quasi” is pronounced “quah-zee”. A thing which is denigrated or degraded is said to be “degrogated”; I once had a supervisor who, greatly concerned about the accuracy of our record keeping, could never complete a meeting without expressing his worry over “the degrogation of the database”. The adverb form of “supposed” is “supposably”. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/24 "2003-04-11T02:46:46Z")
And don’t forget - in military-speak, “depot” is pronounced depp-oh. ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/25 "2003-04-11T04:11:47Z")
The military works on phonetics a lot, because of radios. With radio distortion, things must be as clear as possible, sometimes sacrificing what is “good english”. For what it’s worth, I was taught to say “cash-ay” because “cash” can be misinterpreted to be “stash” which is a small amount, like a rifle or two. A “cash-ay” is larger than a stash, like a couple dozen rifles, something of significance. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/26 "2003-04-11T04:36:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slipster \* > \*\* > “Psuedo” is pronounced “suede-o”. > > “Often” is pronounced " “off-ten”. > > “Quasi” is pronounced “quah-zee”. \*\* Er… how _are_ those words pronounced? I know pseudo is more “soo-doh,” but I pronounce often “off-ten” and quasi “kwa-zee” ---
**Author:** ![typhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@typhoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typhoon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/27 "2003-04-11T04:58:06Z")
The “t” in “often” is silent, as it is in “subtle.” Dunno about those others, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kewk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ab992/32.png) [@Kewk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kewk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/28 "2003-04-11T07:28:58Z")
People I have heard mispronounce cache also promounce melee as me-lee rather then may-lay. ---
**Author:** ![GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f1d935/32.png) [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/29 "2003-04-11T07:36:19Z")
**TYPHOON** I hope you meant: “… as the “b” is in subtle.” ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/30 "2003-04-11T07:52:15Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by typhoon \* **The “t” in “often” is silent** [/qote]Depends on local dialect. I always pronounce the “t” in “often”, as do most of the people I know. > [@](#): > > **as it is in "subtle."** So do you pronounce “subtle” as “subble”, since the “t” is silent? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/31 "2003-04-11T07:53:16Z")
:smack: And the above post should be viewed as a warning to all those who submit without previewing. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/32 "2003-04-11T11:11:40Z")
[quote] ## quote: Originally posted by typhoon The “t” in “often” is silent[/qote]Depends on local dialect. I always pronounce the “t” in “often”, as do most of the people I know. > [@](#): > > ## as it is in “subtle.” > > So do you pronounce “subtle” as “subble”, since the “t” is silent? Naah, “subtle” is pronounced “sub- title”. ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/33 "2003-04-11T15:08:03Z")
I’m still waiting to see how the word (prefix?) “quasi-” is pronounced… I’m really familiar with that “reading pronounciation” thing, that’s what happens when you read a lot & you’re socially inept. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/34 "2003-04-11T15:10:14Z")
I couldn’t wait…Kwayz-eye? You gotta be kidding me! ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/35 "2003-04-11T16:10:10Z")
It tends to be kwayz-ee over here. ---
**Author:** ![mapsmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@mapsmith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mapsmith)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/36 "2003-04-13T09:52:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > \*\*Well, the military also pronounces Five as “fife”, and Nine as “Niner”. > > Sometimes pronunciations are changed to avoid confusion with other words, especially in terse radio communication. I suspect “Cache” is pronounced “Cash-AY” for that reason. \*\* OOH, Ooh, I can answer this one! Five is pronounce “Fife” if mentioned at all because in a countdown Five might be misconstrued as “FIRE” which could lead to disastrous results. and Niner is often used for the same reason. (Thank you Junkyard Warriors) ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/37 "2003-04-13T23:18:46Z")
There was a time (say, before the late 70s), when pretty much anyone in the U. S. who was regarded as well-spoken was likely to prounounce the “t” in “often” the same as the “t” in “listen”’ that is, they did not pronounce it at all: “off-en”. “Quasi” is prounced “Quah-zee” in the name Quasimodo. In Hugo’s novel Fr. Frollo found Quasimodo as a newborn infant abandoned on the steps of Notre Dame Cathedral on Low Sunday, the Sunday after Easter. The opening antiphon on Low Sunday–that is, the first words said in the Mass–is a passage from Psalms. It begins “Like infants just born into the world…” or, in Latin, “Quasi modo infanti…”. For whatever it is worth, back when I was in law school I was assured that attorneys who say “quah-zee contract” are figured to be in a league with the people who think Judge Taney and Lord Coke pronounced their names phonetically. (For some reason I just remembered the scene in an old Our Gang comedy where Alfalfa, acting in a melodrama, calls someone a “black guard”). The preferred pronunciation of “quasi” is “kway-zI”. That is, there is a long “a”, and the “i” is pronounced like the words “aye” and “eye”. I recall I also had a professor who had a fit whenever anyone pronounced “erred” as “urd”. (The preferred pronunciated is “aired”). A classmate of mine did that when making her oral argument at the end of her first year Legal Writing course. That professor was on the panel of judges. He began ranting at her, and she was never able to recover her concentration. While we’re at it, when did people stop pronouncing “flaccid” as “flaxid” and start saying “flassid”? ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720/38 "2003-04-14T13:38:20Z")
A couple more thoughts about Army Speak: The pupil of a mentor is known as a “mentee”. Each year at Christmas time the command where I worked held a holiday observance. It was invariably advertised as featuring two types of music: secular and non-secular. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-guys-mispronouncing-cache/167720.md?page=1)