# U.S. Dopers, are cot / caught pronounced the same to you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 23, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823 "2010-09-23T23:35:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Mr.Krebbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Krebbs)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/21 "2010-09-24T01:28:44Z")
> [@sitchensis](#):
>
> From Spokane Wa. All four rhyme to me
Weird. I’m with **Oakminster** and I’ve been living near Spokane for the past 13 years.
I spent much of my life in Illinois and there the difference in pronunciation is less distinct.
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### Author:  [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/22 "2010-09-24T01:28:50Z")
Central Indiana, been here my whole life. I pronounce them differently-- the ah/aw distinction noted above-- but I’m used to hearing others pronounce them the same.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/23 "2010-09-24T01:38:28Z")
> [@Wolverine](#):
>
> > [@hogarth](#):
> >
> > I’m not sure what the question is: “Are they pronounced the same?” (Yes, when I speak) or “Do they sound the same?” (Depends on who’s speaking)
>
> That’s why I created option 3 in the poll for you.
But that’s not applicable either; I know how to pronounce them differently, although I don’t.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/24 "2010-09-24T01:38:54Z")
Central Texas. “Cot” and “caught” are homonyms and “hot” rhymes. “Fought” has just a slightly longer vowel sound, though.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/25 "2010-09-24T01:56:18Z")
**NinetyWt** , here are [Vocal Samples Thread #1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=445112) and [Vocal Samples Thread #2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=467688). 🙂
> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Cot rhymes with hot.
>
> Caught rhymes with fought.
This is precisely true. All of those words have the same vowel for me. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/26 "2010-09-24T02:00:32Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#):
>
> But people here don’t sleep on cots. They sleep on pallets. 😉
Pallets? You mean [those wooden things used for shipping bulky goods](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallet)? 🙂
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/27 "2010-09-24T02:04:31Z")
Thanks Sunspace, those are always fun to listen to. 🙂
ETA: No, when you fix up a bed made of blankets & stuff for someone (usually a child) to sleep in the floor, it’s called a pallet. I don’t know why.
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### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/28 "2010-09-24T02:13:10Z")
> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Cot rhymes with hot.
>
> Caught rhymes with fought.
All four of those words rhyme with one another.
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### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/29 "2010-09-24T02:14:57Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> > [@ExTank](#):
> >
> > As it ever was, shall it ever be.
> >
> > Born/raised in southern Illinois (St. Louis Metro), with 15 years of Texas livin’ under my belt before moving back to the St. Louis area 7 years ago.
> >
> > Cot ~ hot.
> >
> > Caught ~ fought.
>
> Well, obviously! But, and I hate to break this to you, hot and fought also rhyme. Same sound in all four words.
Sorry, I should’ve been more clear (I assumed my meaning was plain from context): I chose #2 on the poll list. Definite separate “ah” and “aw” sounds.
Cot is like “h-ah-t” Like roBOT. NOT. POT. SHOT.
Caught is like “c-aw-t” Like CAW. SAW. LAW. :rolleyes: PSHAW!
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/30 "2010-09-24T02:17:19Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#):
>
> Thanks Sunspace, those are always fun to listen to. 🙂
> ETA: No, when you fix up a bed made of blankets & stuff for someone (usually a child) to sleep in the floor, it’s called a pallet. I don’t know why.
Okay, so it’s not a small folding or rollaway bed intended for temporary use, but something more ad-hoc? I’m not sure we in Southern Ontario have a special word for that, other than “a mattress and a pile of blankets and stuff on the floor”.
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### Author:  [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/31 "2010-09-24T02:22:01Z")
I pronounce all four of those words the same. I’m from Maryland (DC suburbs, not Bawlmer). I don’t know anybody around here who says them differently.
I took a Phonetics class last year and the professor tried to demonstrate the difference in some vowel sounds by using “bear” and “berry” or some such example. This being a Maryland university, none of us had any idea what he was talking about.
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### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/32 "2010-09-24T02:49:32Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#):
>
> Philadelphia-ish accent (I don’t have it as bad as others), very clear distinction between the two.
>
> I made another version of **Kyla** ’s [reading](http://www.mediafire.com/?0dppeobrm7x04pa) for anybody who doesn’t think they can hear the difference.
I know I said earlier that I couldn’t hear the difference, but with them next to each other like that, I definitely can. I don’t think I’d be able to mimic it, but I can hear it.
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/33 "2010-09-24T02:55:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Okay, so it’s not a small folding or rollaway bed intended for temporary use, but something more ad-hoc?
Right. Part of my poor attempt at humor was the inference that we Mississippians are so poor we can’t afford actual cots. 😛
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### Author:  [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/34 "2010-09-24T03:32:22Z")
> [@chizzuk](#):
>
> I pronounce all four of those words the same. I’m from Maryland (DC suburbs, not Bawlmer). I don’t know anybody around here who says them differently.
>
> I took a Phonetics class last year and the professor tried to demonstrate the difference in some vowel sounds by using “bear” and “berry” or some such example. This being a Maryland university, none of us had any idea what he was talking about.
Huh, that’s where I’m from (Montgomery County, 9th generation) and I pronounce cot & caught differently.
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/35 "2010-09-24T03:59:37Z")
SE Michigan. I hear and pronounce them differently, but I wouldn’t find it odd to hear someone pronounce them the same.
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### Author:  [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/36 "2010-09-24T04:03:04Z")
New Jersey here. Where the vowel combination in the word “caught” rhymes with “drawl” or “fault”. Someone here may intone “we pronounce those drahl and fahlt” but I’ve never heard anyone do so.
I have some extended family in New York who pronounce caught “cowaht”, which is actually pretty common in the city. I’ve even heard older people, again, New Yorkers, pronounce it “cort”. I’ve only heard upper mid-westerners pronounce it cot.
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/37 "2010-09-24T04:07:00Z")
I can’t even figure out how they would sound different. I’ll have to listen to the sound files.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/38 "2010-09-24T04:13:49Z")
Chicago suburbs - not pronounced the same.
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### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/39 "2010-09-24T04:37:34Z")
> [@Kyla](#):
>
> > [@Oakminster](#):
> >
> > Cot rhymes with hot.
> >
> > Caught rhymes with fought.
>
> All four of those words rhyme to me.
^This
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### Author:  [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-dopers-are-cot-caught-pronounced-the-same-to-you/554823/40 "2010-09-24T04:41:06Z")
Okay, because I love you guys so much, and because I am amazed so many of you can’t hear the difference between cot and caught, I recorded the different pronunciations for you. In fact I recorded four of the commonest ones.
- First is what I’ll call the upper Midwest version, which is a homonym of the word cot.
- Second is the mid-Atlantic version. This is how I say it.
- Third is the New York version.
- Fourth and last is the Appalachian version.
[Get the file here. It is in .wav format.](http://www.4shared.com/audio/pVZhkC98/Caught.html)
So now, what say you all?
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