# Pronunciation question: "Robot" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897 "2026-07-24T17:58:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/41 "2026-07-25T14:34:25Z")
You might be confused because, while Asimov did not coin the word “robot” (it was widely used in its modern, mechanical sense when he started writing), he did coin the word “robotics”, meaning the field of technology of robots. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/42 "2026-07-25T14:58:12Z")
Indeed, by the time Asimov started robots were a clichéd element in SF. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/43 "2026-07-25T17:01:03Z")
That sounds about right. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/44 "2026-07-25T17:25:50Z")
Čapek (the pronunciation of his name has varied over time as well, with something like Chop-ek replacing Sha-pek) provided a necessary epithet for the created artificial humanoid being. In the earlier clockwork days they were called automatons but that changed to mechanical men by the 20th century. (Asimov’s company was U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men.) Robot was so short and snappy that it went instantly into use not just for humanoid machines but any machine that performed rapid mechanical work seemingly on its own. Most of the early mentions of robot had little to no description of how they were formed. In _R.U.R._ they basically just come out of the oven fully formed, with no greater depth of information than in _Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine_. The mechanical aspect was sealed in the public mind in 1927 when Westinghouse introduced Televox, a robot controlled by send sound down telephone wires. A huge national publicity campaign followed, swamping any thought of a European art play. Many other robots got publicity in national and international tours from then through the 1930s. Those are the robots Asimov grew up with. His name doesn’t appear in my book _Robots in American Popular Culture_ until page 95. He is a dominating figure today, but he wasn’t back then. I’m not sure there’s anything about robots that he invented except the word robotics. Somebody even wrote down three laws of robotics before John Campbell invented them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/45 "2026-07-25T17:33:31Z")
Well, Asimov also coined the term “positronic”, but that’s mostly only associated with robots in Asimov’s own works (and for Data on Star Trek). Cite that he wasn’t the (or a) creator of the Three Laws, though? I had understood that they arose from a conversation between him and someone else, so he wouldn’t get sole credit, but he would still get shared credit. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/46 "2026-07-25T17:49:06Z")
Asimov gave credit to John Campbell; John Campbell said the laws were implicit in the stories that Asimov wrote before the laws were written down. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/47 "2026-07-25T18:02:07Z")
I cover it in my Gnome Press bibliography in the [I, Robot](https://gnomepress.com/i-robot/) entry. > Asimov had dropped robots as a subject after the initial rejection, but the story’s publication got him thinking again. In late 1940 he wrote two puzzle tales starring the U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men troubleshooters Donovan and Powell, “Reason” and “Liar,” both of which were snatched up by Campbell. Always looking to build stories on top of stories to make series that kept readers coming back, Campbell noticed that “Strange Playfellow” had included a line about the First Law of Robotics, which makes it impossible for a robot to harm a human being. He told Asimov that implied three laws, since repeated infinitely often. > > - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. > - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. > - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. > > Asimov codified these in his fourth robot story, “Runaround,” appearing in the April 1942 _Astounding_. Note that the contents of _I, Robot_ shifts this story up to second, right after “Robbie,” making it appear as if the Three Laws had been intended all along. The entire timeline is further scrambled to group the Donovan and Powell stories followed by the Susan Calvin stories and ending with the Stephen Byerly stories, more proof that _I, Robot_ is a collection of short stories rather than a novel. > > (As a sidenote, Asimov got scooped as the inventor of three laws of robotics. Buried deep in the June 1941 issue of _Fantastic Adventures_ lay “Sidney, the Screwloose Robot,” by William P. McGivern. These should-be immortal lines are spoken to Sidney: “You must be industrious, you must be efficient, you must be useful. Those are the three laws that are to govern your behavior.”) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/48 "2026-07-25T18:04:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > (As a sidenote, Asimov got scooped as the inventor of three laws of robotics. Buried deep in the June 1941 issue of _Fantastic Adventures_ lay “Sidney, the Screwloose Robot,” by William P. McGivern. These should-be immortal lines are spoken to Sidney: “You must be industrious, you must be efficient, you must be useful. Those are the three laws that are to govern your behavior.”) Cool! I did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/49 "2026-07-25T18:22:22Z")
I forgot I had a whole separate article on [Sydney](https://www.flyingcarsandfoodpills.com/the-first-three-law-of-robotics) on a different site. And if anybody doubts my assignment of them to Campbell, I quoted Asimov from his _In Memory Yet Green_ autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/50 "2026-07-25T18:39:47Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I can’t imagine _anyone_ pronounces the second vowel as [o], which would make “robot” sound like “rowboat”. > **[I, Rowboat](https://theonion.com/i-rowboat-1819583491/)** > > I am a Rowboat of the sort referred to as the Thompson Watercraft nine-foot Vacationer model. Among my kind, I am called TW-VAC-9J5-1581. To my human masters, I am simply called "the rowboat." ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/51 "2026-07-25T20:47:52Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > That’s how Wiktionary lists the Czech pronunciation, presumably how Čapek pronounced it when he coined the term unless Czech pronunciation has changed substantially in the last 100 years. > > I’m seeing /o/ listed for some south Asian English accents. This is all true; the Wiktionary even has a sound clip. I would assume some Scottish accents as well. The point was, _some_ English-speaking people. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/52 "2026-07-25T20:52:27Z")
My mother spoke all the Slavic languages to some degree, but she was actually a dialectologist of Czech, and it was her best language, albeit her first language was Slovak. She also had near-native fluency in Russian. My mother could do “Henry Higgins” in Czech-- tell you where you grew up, where you were from originally, where you lived now, and whenand when you pareng She wrote articles in Czech and Slovak, and lectured in both languages, could translate from one to the other, from either to English, English to either, as well as from Russian into either Czech or Slovak (or English, for that matter). I can tell you a several things: 1) every word in Czech is stressed on the first syllable; 2) č is pronounced “ch,” as in the English word _ch_ur_ch_. Sh, as in _sh_oe is š; 3) Czech has only three diphthongs, one of which is not the vowel in “boat”-- it’s “ou” and pretty much sounds like the ou in fl_ou_r and m_ou_se. (The other two diphthongs are used solely in loan words.) So, 4) the second vowel in “robot” is exactly like the first one, but people who are native speakers of English do not hear them the same. The same way we seem familiar patterns in what we see, and see Jesus in burnt toast, we listen for patterns. 1. The Czech pronunciation of “robot” is ## ['rɔbɔt] if you don’t speak IPA, digest version is this: first syllable stress; trilled r; vowel like a pure long O, as in knot or top; b pretty much like one in the US, knot/top again; a hard T, in other words, fully aspirated, unlike plosives in US English. while “rowboat” in English (Northern US, the only one I can speak to) is ## [ˈɹoʊˌboʊt̚] stressed first syllable; untrilled upsides R; dipthong “aohw”; minor stress that prevents the second vowel from being a schwa; b that we have in common; another dipthong “aohw”; and finally, a T the is not plosive. The tongue gets in position, but doesn’t complete the plosion, so it is called a “soft” T. BUT People look for patterns. Foreign accents happen because you are not exactly saying the word in the new language. You are saying the closest approximation you an hear in your native language. To a American, “rowboat” and “robot” are close enough. And since Czech does not have a word like “robot,” other than robot, it will be understood in context. Or to use another example-- ventriloquists use a lot of word approximations, but if you are following the dialogue just fine, your brain hears what it expects to hear, and the performance is a two-way street. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/53 "2026-07-25T21:26:25Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > ## ['rɔbɔt] > > if you don’t speak IPA, digest version is this: first syllable stress; trilled r; vowel like a pure long O, as in knot or top; This explanation is confusing to me. First, /ɔ/ does not appear in the words knot or top, at least in my dialect (Midwestern American). Those words have the COT vowel /ɒ/ or /ɑ/, while /ɔ/ is the CAUGHT vowel that appears in naughty and taught. And neither of those vowels is what I understand to be the “long O”, which is the /oʊ/ that appears in tote and goat. So is the first syllable in the Czech pronunciation like “raw” or like “rot” or like “row”? Based on the IPA you gave, I would expect “raw”. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/54 "2026-07-25T21:27:28Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > My mother is from Manchester, and curiously also pronounced it ro-boe. My grandfather (born 1906 in Ireland) also pronounced the word without the final t, to rhyme with hobo. Thanks for reminding me - I hadn’t thought of that for nearly 50 years. It would be interesting to know the story of this silent-t pronunciation that seems to have existed in Britain and Ireland at some point in the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/55 "2026-07-25T21:38:13Z")
Maybe from some misguided idea that the word was French? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/56 "2026-07-25T21:41:04Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > So is the first syllable in the Czech pronunciation like “raw” or like “rot” or like “row”? Based on the IPA you gave, I would expect “raw”. Yes, based on your description of how the sounds in cot and caught are realised in your accent. In my accent, it would correspond to the vowel in “rot”. From [Czech phonology - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_phonology) _The phonemes_ _/o/_ _and_ _/oː/_ _are sometimes transcribed_ _/ɔ/_ _and_ _/ɔː/__. This transcription describes the pronunciation in Central Bohemia and Prague, which is more open. The standard pronunciation is something between_ _[o(ː)]_ _and_ _[ɔ(ː)]__, i.e. mid back vowel._ So based on this, the phonetic transcription **['rɔbɔt]** is characteristic of Prague pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/57 "2026-07-25T21:45:33Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Maybe from some misguided idea that the word was French? Not necessarily misguided - that is how the word is pronounced in French, and it could be that the French word was introduced by means of some cultural influence in a particular region and time, to spreakers who were not previously familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/58 "2026-07-25T21:49:32Z")
And even in American English, “robo” is still found in compounds. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/59 "2026-07-25T23:22:26Z")
Murray from the Goldbergs says “robut”, I think there was an episode where he and Adam go back and forth pronouncing. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OAqGYVxqKC8/hqdefault.jpg "Adam Forces Murray to Build a Robot - The Goldbergs") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAqGYVxqKC8) Brian ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897/60 "2026-07-26T00:04:23Z")
Cory Doctorow wrote a satiric piece of Asimoviana as a story titled “I, Rowboat”, published in - I’m not kidding - _Flurb: A Webzine of Astonishing Tales_. The title, but nothing else, was a twist on a very good serious story of his called “I, Robot” that was nominated for a Hugo. Runners-up include Joel David Neff’s “AI, Robot,” Sue Lange’s “We, Robots,” and Konstantine Paradias’ “Oi, Robot.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-robot/1031897.md?page=4)