# Pronunciation of "twat" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195 "2012-11-26T20:23:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/41 "2012-11-28T13:03:00Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > But it depends on your own accent’s pronunciation of “can’t”, doesn’t it? > > To me (grew up in Warwickshire) they sound remarkably similar. No. 😕 That’s not how accents work. Does english not have separate r and l sounds because lots of japanese people, having one sound that’s kinda in between both, don’t hear the difference? Besides, one’s a long vowel and one’s short - you should be able to hear that specific difference once you know about it. I know we treat accents as a matter of opinion, but even the dictionary backs me up. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/42 "2012-11-28T13:43:38Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > No. 😕 That’s not how accents work. Does english not have separate r and l sounds because lots of japanese people, having one sound that’s kinda in between both, don’t hear the difference? > > Besides, one’s a long vowel and one’s short - you should be able to hear that specific difference once you know about it. I know we treat accents as a matter of opinion, but even the dictionary backs me up. Dictionary pronunciation guides are just that, guides. Normally they take one accent and run with it (for example, RP in English). In many British accents the way cunt is pronounced in the south east is remarkably similar to how they locally say “can’t” (hint: not every accent in the UK uses a long vowel in “can’t”). ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/43 "2012-11-28T13:52:27Z")
Example of how it isn’t just me: > **[Cunt | Television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt#Television)** > > Broadcast media is regulated for content, and media providers such as the BBC have guidelines which specify how "cunt" and similar words should be treated. In a survey of 2000 commissioned by the British Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Advertising Standards Authority, "cunt" was regarded as the most offensive word which could be heard, above "motherfucker" and "fuck". Nevertheless, there have been occasions when, particularly in a live broadca 1.The F... > [@](#): > > In the final episode of the BBC series Coupling, aired in 2004, an allusion is made when Steve is expelled from the delivery ward: “Nurse: She said you can’t. Steve: Yeah, trust me, the word wasn’t can’t!” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/44 "2012-11-28T14:17:04Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Cunt? Rhymes with “punt”. American. hot. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/45 "2012-11-28T14:19:51Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Dictionary pronunciation guides are just that, guides. Normally they take one accent and run with it (for example, RP in English). In many British accents the way cunt is pronounced in the south east is remarkably similar to how they locally say “can’t” (hint: not every accent in the UK uses a long vowel in “can’t”). The accents that don’t use a long vowel in can’t also use a completely different vowel for it and pronounce cunt differently. And I know the oed uses rp (not “normally,” but always); so does the area you’re claiming pronounces things the way you hear them, and estuary english definitely uses different sounds for can’t and cunt. Those are the accents you’re talking about. I can’t hear all the nuances in accents that I’m less familiar with, but that doesn’t mean those nuances don’t exist. It’s a bit weird, you claiming to know my accent better than me. Your tv show link backs me up, btw, not you. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/46 "2012-11-28T15:00:38Z")
Detroit area. I must have picked it up from Monty Python, because I’ve only ever pronounced it to rhyme with “hat.” ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/47 "2012-11-28T16:07:45Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > The accents that don’t use a long vowel in can’t also use a completely different vowel for it and pronounce cunt differently. > > And I know the oed uses rp (not “normally,” but always); so does the area you’re claiming pronounces things the way you hear them, and estuary english definitely uses different sounds for can’t and cunt. Those are the accents you’re talking about. How they say “cunt” sounds to me like how I’d pronounce “can’t”, not that how they say “cunt” and “can’t” is the same. > [@SciFiSam](#): > > I can’t hear all the nuances in accents that I’m less familiar with, but that doesn’t mean those nuances don’t exist. It’s a bit weird, you claiming to know my accent better than me. I don’t, but I know how your (well, someone from the south east) accent sounds to me better than you do. If anything you are instructing me on how I hear different words, which is very strange. > [@SciFiSam](#): > > Your tv show link backs me up, btw, not you. No it doesn’t. It is two people disagreeing with how with what word a person used. One person thought it sounded like “cunt” and the other thought it sounded like “can’t”. Much like someone from the south east’s “cunt” sounds like “can’t” to me. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/48 "2012-11-28T16:21:59Z")
I’m not disputing that you personally don’t hear a difference. Like I said, I don’t hear all the nuances of other dialects either. Nobody does. But there _is_ a difference in the pronunciation of those two words.You are telling me that, despite my own hearing of my own accent and a dictionary cite that uses my own accent, you are right and I am wrong. This is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/49 "2012-11-28T16:28:57Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I’m not disputing that you personally don’t hear a difference. Like I said, I don’t hear all the nuances of other dialects either. Nobody does. > > But there _is_ a difference in the pronunciation of those two words.You are telling me that, despite my own hearing of my own accent and a dictionary cite that uses my own accent, you are right and I am wrong. This is ridiculous. I am telling you that a south-eastener saying “cunt” sounds very similar to how I would say “can’t”. I am also telling you that this is a known phenomenon, using an example from a popular TV show. That is all. Fuck knows what you are going on about, telling me what I can and cannot hear. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/50 "2012-11-29T15:44:54Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I am telling you that a south-eastener saying “cunt” sounds very similar to how I would say “can’t”. I am also telling you that this is a known phenomenon, using an example from a popular TV show. > > That is all. Fuck knows what you are going on about, telling me what I can and cannot hear. But I’m not telling you what you can and can’t hear. I’ve said so many times. I mean, seriously, there are some sounds in foreign languages that english speakers find very difficult to differentiate - would you say that means that the sounds are actually not different? ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/51 "2012-11-30T01:03:51Z")
I learned the word growing up (in the US) as rhyming with “hot,” but it was always one of the more seldom-used curse words, and was virtually always used to refer to the female pudendum. As in (sorry for the high school lunch room language) “I was fingering her twat.” As an adult I’ve heard the word mostly from British TV shows, where it seems to rhyme with “hat” and is usually used figuratively to refer to a person as opposed to literally referring to a woman’s vulva. As in “That guys a total twat.” It seems much more popular over there than over here. I sometimes use the British form of the word to refer to a person (“Her boyfriends a real twat.”) but never use it to discuss a female’s nether regions. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/52 "2012-12-02T01:00:47Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > From each other. It’s not a Britishism, it’s firmly embedded in our lexicon too. I’d really like to hear some videos of people saying it this way. I’ve never heard of a word that is pronounced like “twot,” save for on [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) where they also use a word spelled “moran.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/53 "2012-12-02T01:50:08Z")
I’m from the US, and “twat” rhymes with “hot.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/54 "2012-12-02T03:05:21Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Yeah, in my area it rhymes with “hot” and is not much better than “cunt” as words go. Not something you’d call somebody openly. > > My sense of the way my Irish cousins use it is more like “twit” which is sillier. Insofar as anyone in Ireland uses the term, it seems to have fallen by the wayside for the most part, it is really fairly innocuous. My reference for this is Zig & Zag’s Christmas No. 1 from 1989 where Zig says of his brother “Zag’s still a twat.” Zig & Zag are/were children’s television puppets. It’s at 0.38 in this [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGaoUuYN8mY) clip. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/55 "2012-12-02T03:37:36Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’ve never heard of a word that is pronounced like “twot,” save for on [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) where they also use a word spelled “moran.” Get a brain! ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/56 "2012-12-03T09:33:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’d really like to hear some videos of people saying it this way. I’ve never heard of a word that is pronounced like “twot,” save for on [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) where they also use a word spelled “moran.” Post 34 in this very thread. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/57 "2012-12-03T09:42:42Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > But I’m not telling you what you can and can’t hear. I’ve said so many times. I mean, seriously, there are some sounds in foreign languages that english speakers find very difficult to differentiate - would you say that means that the sounds are actually not different? To me, no. They aren’t different. To me. How I hear them. That’s the whole fucking point. Anyway, I am referring to this: > [@SciFiSam](#): > > And I know the oed uses rp (not “normally,” but always); so does the area you’re claiming pronounces things the way you hear them, and estuary english definitely uses different sounds for can’t and cunt. Those are the accents you’re talking about. I _know_ I have never said otherwise. I’ll try and put it very simply as you are clearly struggling with a very basic concept: When someone from “dahn sarf” says “cunt”, to me it sounds like how I’d say “can’t”. Got that? You see, that’s how “sounds like” tends to work. When I say an American saying “Water” sounds like “wadder”, I am saying that the American pronunciation of “water” sounds like “wadder” to me, as in _it sounds like how I’d say wadder_, not that I think the American pronunciations of “water” and “wadder” are the same. I have never at any point tried to claim that “dahn sarf” the pronunciations of “cunt” and “can’t” are the same, that’s something either you think I said and am now ridiculously sticking to your guns over or a product of your imagination. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/58 "2012-12-03T15:18:31Z")
You posited south-east uk accents as rhyming cunt and can’t. I pointed out that they don’t rhyme. Why are you keeping on posting if all you have to say is that you, personally, don’t hear a difference? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/59 "2012-12-03T17:09:55Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > You posited south-east uk accents as rhyming cunt and can’t. I pointed out that they don’t rhyme. Why are you keeping on posting if all you have to say is that you, personally, don’t hear a difference? Sheesh. I can see why there is confusion. The problem is, I repeated exactly what I meant as clarification four times. Yet you still go on about how I think those in the south east rhyme the two words. You, however, seem to be intent on ignoring every single time I clarify my position. And I am bored enough at work to respond. However now I am off home. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/60 "2012-12-03T17:19:47Z")
Rhymes mostly with hot, but not quite. American. A particularly vulgar word to me that you wouldn’t use in polite or possibly even impolite company. Right up there with cunt, if not a peg or two less offensive (but only just). Never thought of it as a Britishism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195.md?page=4)