# Pronunciation poll: 'En-ve-lope' or 'Ahn-ve-lope'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 31, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907 "2006-05-31T17:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/21 "2006-05-31T21:44:21Z")
Aren’t there three syllable in the word? It’s hard to explain, but what I say, and usually hear, sounds like this en-vel-lope. At least, it’s hard to decide which syllable the “l” goes with, since it’s sort of in both. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/22 "2006-05-31T23:46:24Z")
**On** -velope is probably the most common here. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/23 "2006-06-01T00:05:40Z")
I use both pronounciations with what letters go in, and en-velop for when something is surrounded. Northern Californian born and bred. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/24 "2006-06-01T00:23:39Z")
When being posh it is an orn-ve-lope, otherwise an en-ve-lope. That’s from a UK southerner. ---
**Author:** ![jastu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jastu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jastu)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/25 "2006-06-01T01:06:14Z")
I agree with **Cunctator** , also Australian and say on-velope. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/26 "2006-06-01T02:07:30Z")
Almost always AHN-ve-lope. Army brat raised predominantly in North Carolina, California and Texas. ---
**Author:** ![the\_chicken\_of\_exeter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_chicken\_of\_exeter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_chicken_of_exeter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/27 "2006-06-01T02:16:38Z")
definitely on-velope ---
**Author:** ![Aholibah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Aholibah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aholibah)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/28 "2006-06-01T02:35:01Z")
After practicing, I have to reverse my answer. For me, it’s “an ahnvelope” or “the ehnvelope.” But I’ll still say “the ahnvelope” sometimes, like if I’m thinking about the Oscars. So a quasi-reversal, semi-retraction, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Cockatiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cockatiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cockatiel)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/29 "2006-06-01T02:41:43Z")
**En** -velope for me and most of the people I know. I was born and live close to D.C. ---
**Author:** ![Israfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/87869e/32.png) [@Israfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Israfel)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/30 "2006-06-01T03:03:24Z")
Ahn-ve-lope. Born and in raised in Texas. En-ve-lope sounds really strange to me for some reason. I do say en-VEL-op though. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/31 "2006-06-01T05:52:06Z")
Ahn-velope or 'nvelope (no vowel). Envelop the verb also doesn’t begin with a vowel. Pacific Northwest - where sooner or later all vowels will become schwas ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/32 "2006-06-01T06:12:58Z")
AHM-vuh-lope. The first syllable ends with an “m”, and what I transcribed as “v” is actually a bilabial fricative, like a Greek or Spanish “b”. In casual speech, though, you’d think I said “AHN-vuh-lope.” The related verb I pronounce “m-VEH-lup”, with the first syllable just an “m”, and the same note about the “v”. Born and raised in Houston. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/33 "2006-06-01T10:45:14Z")
Strangely, I use en-velope when referring to one that’s letter or card size. Anything bigger is ahn-velope. I have no idea where that distinction came from. ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/34 "2006-06-01T13:13:35Z")
I say it both ways, but Ahn-ve-lope more frequently. I was born and raised here in West Virginia, but my parents are Australian. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/35 "2006-06-01T13:24:32Z")
My idiolect is odd, being somewhere in between Educated Australian and Received Standard English\*. Generally I say /en-/, but /on-/ does not sound wrong to me, and I suspect I say that sometimes too. Where the /on-/ comes, I’m not sure, but it may be French: the French pronunciation of “en” is not all that far from it – and of course, “envelope” came into English from French. * * * - Once, in Australia, after a person had heard me say just a few words, he asked me if I was from Leeds or Leicester. That was truly amazing, since I lived for 7 years as a child in Leeds, and my mother was born and grew up in Leicester. However, I myself can’t hear those specific influences in my speech. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/36 "2006-06-01T14:39:54Z")
Another Aussie, another on-velope. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/37 "2006-06-01T17:32:21Z")
Ahn-veh-lope, from the man who pronounces [this thing](http://www.radishworks.com/ModelLib/images/TL02TireIron.jpg) as a “tar arn.” ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/38 "2006-06-01T18:19:44Z")
Ahn-ve-lope - Georgia ---
**Author:** ![TheOnlySaneOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@TheOnlySaneOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOnlySaneOne)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/39 "2006-06-01T18:36:34Z")
AHN-vel-ope, currently living in Flint, MI. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907/40 "2006-06-01T18:57:49Z")
I say both, pretty much interchangeably. The only exception is the verb, which I pronounce ehn-VEHL-up. I think that most people would pronounce the verb this way regardless of their pronunciatio of the noun, because the stress is on a different syllable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-poll-en-ve-lope-or-ahn-ve-lope/358907.md?page=3)