# Pronunciation of "Cache". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2007, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514 "2007-11-15T09:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/41 "2007-11-15T23:12:06Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] …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. [/QUOTE] FWIW, I thought that “cachet” meant “a stash of stuff”. So maybe that’s part of the confusion. I am familiar with “cache” (pronounced “cash”) from both the military and computer worlds. I’m not sure what I thought that the difference in “cache” and “cachet” were. I never really thought about it. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/42 "2007-11-15T23:19:43Z")
[QUOTE=BetsQ] Cache is also used in the term cachepot, which means a decorative pot that you put an aleady potted plant in, as I recall from my days of working at Crate & Barrel. Here’s an example: [http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=1502&f=3161](http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=1502&f=3161) IIRC, it was generally pronounced “cash pot.” [/QUOTE] Literally, “hide pot”, and I would pronounce it as “cash poh”, as the “t” isn’t pronounced in French. FWIW, I’d pronounce “cachet” more like “cash-eh” than “cash-ay”, which just sounds very exaggerated to me. The latter is closer to my pronunciation of the past participle of “to hide”, caché, but even then the accented e isn’t nearly as stressed as the “ay” sound usually is by non-francophone speakers. Perhaps writing it as “cash-ei” would be better… the é is more like the sound in “weigh” than it is like the sound in “say”. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/43 "2007-11-15T23:23:37Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] Literally, “hide pot”, and I would pronounce it as “cash poh”, as the “t” isn’t pronounced in French. FWIW, I’d pronounce “cachet” more like “cash-eh” than “cash-ay”, which just sounds very exaggerated to me. The latter is closer to my pronunciation of the past participle of “to hide”, caché, but even then the accented e isn’t nearly as stressed as the “ay” sound usually is by non-francophone speakers. Perhaps writing it as “cash-ei” would be better… the é is more like the sound in “weigh” than it is like the sound in “say”. [/QUOTE] “Weigh” and “say” have the same sound in my dialect. (Chicago - South Suburbs) ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/44 "2007-11-15T23:58:48Z")
[QUOTE=BetsQ] Cache is also used in the term cachepot, which means a decorative pot that you put an already potted plant in, as I recall from my days of working at Crate & Barrel. IIRC, it was generally pronounced “cash pot.” [/QUOTE] At my company, it’s pronounced “cash-poe”… except when I call them “catch-a-poots”. ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/45 "2007-11-16T00:05:44Z")
[QUOTE=glee] Mon Dieu, Hari … c’est deja vu! [/QUOTE] The first one was a prediction of his future post. ---
**Author:** ![the\_big\_balooka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@the\_big\_balooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_big_balooka)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/46 "2007-11-16T00:35:27Z")
When I called customer service to fix my cell phone, the person said “catchy” ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/47 "2007-11-16T01:01:06Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] FWIW, I’d pronounce “cachet” more like “cash-eh” than “cash-ay”, which just sounds very exaggerated to me. The latter is closer to my pronunciation of the past participle of “to hide”, caché, but even then the accented e isn’t nearly as stressed as the “ay” sound usually is by non-francophone speakers. Perhaps writing it as “cash-ei” would be better… the é is more like the sound in “weigh” than it is like the sound in “say”. [/QUOTE] It depends on the dialect. I guess I say “cachet” in a similar way to you ([kaʃɛ], basically, in the [International Phonetic Alphabet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet)), while I pronounce “caché” [kaʃe], but in some French dialects – I think it’s the case of Parisian dialects, for example – the last vowel in these two words tends to sound the same. In any case, you’re correct that the ‘é’ vowel doesn’t really sound like ‘ay’ anyway. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/48 "2007-11-16T02:00:04Z")
I think it’s pretty common in military usage. In fact I have never heard it mispronounced by anyone other than military. There is no point in trying to correct it, there’s a sense of mulish pride involved now. I wonder if it is useful, because even though it is mispronounced, it is not similar to any other word in common usage in a military context? There are a couple other words like that, they escape me right at the moment. Damnit, now that is going to bug me. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/49 "2007-11-16T16:58:25Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] “Weigh” and “say” have the same sound in my dialect. (Chicago - South Suburbs) [/QUOTE] Same here (NYS/Penna/Northeast). ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/50 "2007-11-16T17:01:45Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Same here (NYS/Penna/Northeast). [/QUOTE] Same here (southwest US). Where do they not? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/51 "2007-11-16T17:33:27Z")
[QUOTE=Epimetheus] Really? You are in IT and never hear the term Cache? Internet Cache, temporary Cache, memory cache in hard-drives, RAM and even motherboards and CPUs? But you’ve never heard that? I think even Networking has Caches in routers and switches. [/QUOTE] “I can’t get to any external sites. Is the network down?” “No, this site is fine for me” “You sure it’s not cached?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514.md?page=2)