# People with accents who say numbers wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 31, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960 "2004-05-31T21:22:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/21 "2004-06-01T05:52:01Z")
> [@Early Out](#): > > My college had a heavily-accented architecture professor who kept talking about “urban cows.” Most puzzling. It took everyone at least a lecture or two before they realized that he was talking about urban chaos. It really took two lectures to realize he wasn’t talking about cows? In an Architecture class? Was he showing a slid of a Reitveld next to a cow pasture or something? ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/22 "2004-06-01T05:58:34Z")
> [@Bad News Baboon](#): > > It really took two lectures to realize he wasn’t talking about cows? > In an Architecture class? Was he showing a slid of a Reitveld next to a cow pasture or something? I figure it took them two lectures to realize he was saying “CHAOS” specifically, as it was probably pretty obvious that he wasn’t saying “cows” but they couldn’t figure out what he WAS saying immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/23 "2004-06-01T06:04:16Z")
> [@racinchikki](#): > > I figure it took them two lectures to realize he was saying “CHAOS” specifically, as it was probably pretty obvious that he wasn’t saying “cows” but they couldn’t figure out what he WAS saying immediately. Haven taken architecture classes before, I am just surprised that that word was not understood, is all. ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/24 "2004-06-01T06:28:31Z")
> [@racinchikki](#): > > Around here, the “eh” and “ih” sounds are nearly identical. The locals can differentiate between them just fine, but to me they seriously sound like the exact same vowel. People ask me for a pin or a pen, and I can’t tell which one they said, so I have to say “for writing or for poking?” and they think I’m an idiot. And even after a year I’m not conditioned to the number 10 sounding like what you make helmets out of, so somebody says they need tin of something and I get all confused. If they want a pin for poking then you’re just fucked (that **does** feel good, \*\* Early Out\*\*.) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/25 "2004-06-01T06:52:07Z")
> [@racinchikki](#): > > Around here, the “eh” and “ih” sounds are nearly identical. The locals can differentiate between them just fine, but to me they seriously sound like the exact same vowel. People ask me for a pin or a pen, and I can’t tell which one they said, so I have to say “for writing or for poking?” and they think I’m an idiot. There’s an easy solution for this: “Sorry, I’m fresh out. Can I interest you in an extra-sharp pencil?” As for my experience, I quite agree with how frustrating it can be when people, especially in supermarket checkout lines, mispronounce numbers. For instance, when I get to the register with a gallon of milk, and I’m all set to hand over my two bucks, the clerk will often say something totally off the wall, like, “That’ll be four dollars and fifty-nine cents, please.” ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/26 "2004-06-01T07:07:50Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > Or if you say, “Pass the worsteshure sauce”, I’m gonna get that you want the Worchestershire sauce. I’m sorry to be so pedantic but it is actually ‘Worcestershire Sauce’ (pronounced wooster-shire). With regards to accents I am usually quite good but Glaswegian always gets me as does a thick Northern Irish accent. Glaswegians seem to pronounce the letter ‘G’ as ‘Jye’ which always takes a while to work out when I am taking work references from any of our Glasgow sites. My grandad was from Glasgow and at his funeral my dad made a speech which essentially said that he was a lovely bloke but nobody understood a bloody word he said. I thought it was very funny. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/27 "2004-06-01T07:15:54Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > As for my experience, I quite agree with how frustrating it can be when people, especially in supermarket checkout lines, mispronounce numbers. For instance, when I get to the register with a gallon of milk, and I’m all set to hand over my two bucks, the clerk will often say something totally off the wall, like, “That’ll be four dollars and fifty-nine cents, please.” I knew you were from California before I looked up. I mean, geez - are the cows staying at the Ritz Carlton now? Another thing I’ve noticed is that when I pay my 20 bucks at the gas station, the pump seems to shut off too early. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/28 "2004-06-01T07:19:53Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > What always cracks me up is when people tell me they need “a ink pen.” What other kind of pen is there? An epi-pen springs to mind. > [@Granuaile](#): > > “Welcome and thank you por plying Pilippine Airlines. We hab lebeled opp and are plying at an altitude op porty-pibe thousand peet.” That would make me burst out laughing. I would be just about herniating from the effort of not making a complete fool of myself. Anyway, a bit of wisdom: “I don’t have an accent. _You_ have an accent.” ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/29 "2004-06-01T07:23:02Z")
> [@WILLASS](#): > > I’m sorry to be so pedantic but it is actually ‘Worcestershire Sauce’ (pronounced wooster-shire). Yeah, that’s pretty pedantic, allright. Only the English could pronounce a word in a way that bears almost no resemblance to the way it’s spelled, and _then_ get picky about it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/30 "2004-06-01T07:34:01Z")
Yeah I know, I am sorry! I don’t understand why it said like it is either it is a bit silly isn’t it? I think I have caught pedantism from my girlfriend…is it a communicable disease? ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/31 "2004-06-01T07:54:10Z")
Oh, I was just kidding. You were right, of course. I know that’s the actual English pronounciation; it just seemed like such a great example of swallowing up syllables that I fudged on the fact that it’s technically _not_ a mispronounciation. Reminds me of an argument one of my relatives had with an English friend about how to pronounce the word “butter”. The English person said, "You Americans don’t pronounce it right; it has the letter ‘t’ in it. It’s not ‘budder’, it’s ‘buttah’. The American person said, “Yes, but it has an ‘r’ at the end.” ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/32 "2004-06-01T08:04:52Z")
“tu-TWEN-ty five” is quite alright with me. What infuriates me is when they ring it up and say absolutely _nothing_, just standing there waiting for me to pay, expecting me to just read the total from the screen of the cash register! Now, of course the screen is completely visible and by this time, yes, I do already know how much is owed, so I’d feel like I was being a dick to actually say, “Will, you please tell me how much it is?” so I usually just end up paying and pushing all my anger down deep inside where it gets bottled up. One day I’m afraid there will be no place left to stuff the anger and I will just explode! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/33 "2004-06-01T08:26:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Never heard that term in linguistics class. My prof always called that a fricative. In linguistics _surd_ = voiceless consonant. Not really in use anymore. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/34 "2004-06-01T08:28:32Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > What infuriates me is when they ring it up and say absolutely _nothing_, just standing there waiting for me to pay, expecting me to just read the total from the screen of the cash register! > > Now, of course the screen is completely visible and by this time, yes, I do already know how much is owed, so I’d feel like I was being a dick to actually say, “Will, you please tell me how much it is?” so I usually just end up paying and pushing all my anger down deep inside where it gets bottled up. Ha! That’s a good one. Here’s what I do, and it works really well: I just stand there as well and wait. Eventually, the cashier realizes that he/she hasn’t done his/her job correctly, and reads the total to me. And before anyone says this is really anal, let me point out that for some reason it seems to be common practice these days for cashiers to subtotal the purchase and just leave the subtotal on the screen. I don’t know if this is some kind of trick to allow them to still void the transaction in case a mistake is made, or what. It’s especially common at Starbucks, for some reason. It’s very odd - often they will tell me the total, and it’s different than what is showing at the register, because they haven’t added the tax yet (apparently they did it in their head). So I never assume that what’s showing on the register screen is the final total that I owe. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/35 "2004-06-01T10:19:58Z")
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a briefing by a telecommunications expert who is a native of China. I couldn’t understand why he kept referring to “a raw chicken”. Then I realized what he was actually saying: _“error checking”._ A restaurant-owner friend of mine had an employee who was here in the US on a temporary visa, which required her to travel back to the Phillipines after a specified duration here. When she came back, the INS questioned her about her plans – she stated that she was here temporarily. They produced a questionnaire she had answered on her last entry to the US (verbally, with an INS agent writing down her answers). They pointed out an answer she gave which contradicted her claim to have no intentions of staying permanently: “I have no intention to leave here”. What she had actually said was, “I have no intention to _live_ here”, but with her accent, she pronounced “live” as “leave”. Partly as a result of this, she was denied re-entry. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/36 "2004-06-01T11:44:00Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > An epi-pen springs to mind. To write with? ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/37 "2004-06-01T12:08:18Z")
> [@Granuaile](#): > > Oh, and my Irish husband pronounces “third” as “turd” and “thirty” as “turty.” so do I! It’s a Dublin thing, and there ain’t nothing wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/38 "2004-06-01T12:19:10Z")
> [@TwistofFate](#): > > so do I! It’s a Dublin thing, and there ain’t nothing wrong with it. Shouldn’t that be “t’ain’t nothing wrong with it”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/39 "2004-06-01T12:32:09Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > To write with? No, to poke with! ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960/40 "2004-06-01T12:36:56Z")
I’ve been on both sides of this confusion. I don’t know WHY but there certainly is a natural tendancy to enunciate the wrong bit. I recommend being explicit: “What was the hundreds digit?” or “Could you say that louder?” or “What did that mean?” and also making a momentary effort to think before repeating something to decide what the mishearer probably needs. I’m so bad at this, I need it explained to me like this… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-accents-who-say-numbers-wrong/247960.md?page=3)