Everyone seems to say cache like “Ka-shay”. But dictionary.com says it’s pronounced like cash. Which is correct? Are they both correct? (my guess).
It’s French in origin, right? So shouldn’t ka-shay be more Frenchy?
Little help. Thanks.
No French expert, but yeah, I’ve always said “cash”.
Now, if it were written “caché”, the acute accent would change the pronunciation.
Yes, it’s ‘cash’.
‘Ka-shay’, or ‘ka-chez’ if you prefer, is incorrect.
Everyone who does this is wrong. 
I pronounce it cayshe, not cash. Didn’t realise I was saying it wrong all this time!
“Cash” is roughly how the French pronounce it. Trying to sound more French by randomly throwing in “ay” sounds is an interesting approach.
Another common mispronunciation is “caysh” [ETA - didn’t see sandra_nz’s post - that pronunciation does seem to be an antipodean thing]. I wonder why you never hear “caitch” or “cake”, though.
I say “caysh” which I think is how most people pronounce it here.
The “cashay” pronunciation is for the similarly spelled word “cachet”.
Bonjour mon amis!
Malheuresement, je parle Francais seulement un petit peu, mais je dit cache ‘cash’.
And so do the rest of us English chappies wot have had a few ‘annees’ of French ‘a l’ecole’.
Guanolad is right about cachet (=‘cash-ay’).
There is a joke (from the days of the Soviet invasion) whose punch line is, “Can you cache a Czech?” which should be a good mnemonic.
Another word that is usually mispronounced is “forte”. The Italian word used in music is correctly pronounced “for-tay”, but the French word for strength is “fort”.
There is a joke (from the days of the Soviet invasion) whose punch line is, “Can you cache a Czech?” which should be a good mnemonic.
Another word that is usually mispronounced is “forte”. The Italian word used in music is correctly pronounced “for-tay”, but the French word for strength is “fort”.
Mon Dieu, Hari … c’est deja vu!
I have always known it to be pronounced “cash.” But I did know one person who used to say: “cake” I could never tell if he was being facetious or if that is how he thought it was pronounced.
La pinaillerie:
‘Strength’, en français, c’est la force (ou la solidité). ‘Fort’ (ou ‘forte’) en anglais c’est strong.
I’ve never, ever heard any real person say “cashay,” although it was prevalent as hell in my military days (and drove me crazy as hell, too). (Okay, military people are real people too.)
“Cache”, meaning “stash”, a hidden or squirreled away store of supplies, is properly pronounced “cash” as it would be (more or less) in French.
On the other hand, there is another French loanword in English that is pronounced “Cash-ay”: cachet, most commonly meaning (in English) “mark of prestige”, “sellability”, “Q factor”. More archaically, it also refers to a physical stamp or imprint, a “maker’s mark”, from which the modern sense derives.
I think few people even use the word “cache” very much, unless you’re in Special Ops or are a survivalist planning for a post-apocalyptic disaster scenario.
What I think is that a lot of people are misspelling “cachet” as “cache” thinking it’s a Spanish word frequently used in English, like ole or hombre, since they hear “cash-ay” all the time and are more used to dealing with Spanish than French. Never mind that that would mean it should get pronounced “catch-ay” if that were the case; having seen the word “cache” in print and heard “cash-ay” verbally, once the two are linked I can see how it’s hard to unlink.
I have, however, seen people use “cache” when they mean “cachet”: “The brand is trying to give itself a certain cache.” :rolleyes:
In hopes of earning a certain amount of cash, no doubt.
Well, it’s debatable, and has been for many years. The French word isn’t “forte”, so why should we use the French pronunciation?
I can assure you that everyone in Cache, Oklahoma pronounces it “cash”.
I don’t hear it from the military. Where I often hear that mispronounciation is in IT, where cache is used for several different storage areas. Then again, I’m not sure IT people are real either.