British English vs American English

[Dave A]

On New Years Eve, some British chick was hosting the events on Fox (part of News Corp that owns Sky News), and one of the partners of the show was Chevrolet. During some segments, they would talk about Chevy models, and her way of pronouncing Chevy drove me crazy!

Everyone I know pronounecs the "ch" as a "sh".

 

[TheCracker]

Everyone I know pronounecs the "ch" as a "sh".

Yes, i've never heard any English person pronounce it "ch" either. Since they've never really been sold (until fairly recently) in the UK, we pick up how the name is pronounced from American film and TV.

 

[YSSMAN]

Hmmm. I'm not sure what the deal was with her then... It was driving me crazy that night, like nobody had managed to correct her wile she was live on-air. I mean, she was surrounded by millions of Americans, many of which presumably drive Chevrolets, so I'm sure someone would have said something eventually...

But, I'm being picky, aren't I?

 

[Tornado]

Yeah, I always butt heads with my chemistry teacher when he says cesium. Also, I've heard homage with the H, but I say 'o.

My chemistry teacher pronounces it the English way.

Hyundai: I've always wanted to pronounce it "hyoon-dye," but everyone I've spoken to about it said it was "hun-day." Before writing this post, though, I found the same Wikipedia article that Sage quoted, so I suppose it's sort of a mixture of the two. "Hyuhn-day?"

I've always pronounced it "hun-dye."

Homage (hom) v. Homage (om)?

Why would one not make the "h" silent? That would be like pronouncing the word "honor" as "hon-er" instead of "on-er"

Jaguar: "Jag-wahr"

No. Just no. "Jag-u-er." At least you didn't say "Jag-wire."

Porsche? Porsh-a.
Audi? "Ow-dee"
Peugeot? I alternate between "Pay-oooh-jo" and "Poh-jo" (both with soft J's)
Opel? "O-pell"
Volvo? "Vole-voh"

She kept on pronouncing it like it was Chev-ee (think Chevy Chase), not Sheve-ee like most folks pronounce it in America. Small difference, I know, but I really started to wear on me...

Sheve-ee? With two long E's? I've never heard it pronounced that way before.


Also, that damn Dalton movie still makes me not sure how to spell "licence" correctly. I always spell it "licence," though I've seen it spelled "license" as well.

 

[Mrs. Famine]

Herb. I pronounce it 'hurb' but I once had to work with an American when I was a Materials Controller and he used to say 'Garlic and Urb'. Which annoyed me

 

[Dave A]

Sheve-ee? With two long E's? I've never heard it pronounced that way before.

E is prnounced "ee", pronouncing Shev-ee is correct. I'm not 100% sure on this, so anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't pronouncing it Chev-e be the same as, or similar to proouncing it chev-eh.

 

[Tornado]

E is prnounced "ee", pronouncing Chev-ee is correct. I'm not 100% sure on this, so anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't pronouncing it Chev-e be the same as, or similar to proouncing it chev-eh.

It would. But the way YSSMAN spelled it it sounded like "Sheev-ey," unless it was a typographical error.

 

[Wolfe]

No. Just no. "Jag-u-er." At least you didn't say "Jag-wire."

I've never understood either of those pronunciations. "Jag" = Jag. "ua" = ooah = wah. "r" = r. Jag-wahr.

Unless you can convince me that the car company is named after someone or something other than the animal (for which the pronunciations "jăg'wär'" and "jăg'yū-är'" are equally accurate), I'll continue with "Jag-wahr."

Besides, the word is Spanish/Portuguese, and would be pronounced in a way similar to mine in either of those languages.

 

[Dave A]

The company is named after the animal it's not an actual name, so you are correct, the pronunciation in American is indeed Jag-Wahr. It just sounds funny to English people, as I'm sure the English does to Americans.

 

[Thiele]

Shev-y
Shev-Roe-Lay

 

[Dave A]

Shev-y is pronounced shev-wahy, are you sure that's how you pronounce it.

 

[Thiele]

I pronounce it Shev-ee.

 

[Keef]

Shev-y is pronounced shev-wahy, are you sure that's how you pronounce it.

WTF? There's no "w" in Shev-y. But that's not the right way to spell the pronounciation in layman's terms.

Shev-ee. That's how you say it.

Also, like I said earlier, Porsche isn't pronounced "Porsh-a" or "Porsh-uh" exactly, but the last e makes a sound which is a mixture of "-eh" and "-uh". It's a difficult sound, but Germans manage it just fine.

Audi is "Ow-dee" in German, not "Awe-dee", as many people mispronounce it.

 

[YSSMAN]

It would. But the way YSSMAN spelled it it sounded like "Sheev-ey," unless it was a typographical error.

The best way I can explain it was her calling a Chevy (the car) a Chevy (like Chevy Chase). Too much emphasis on the "C" sound. More of a "Cha" than a "Che" sound.

---

And about those crazy Germans: They don't have any silent letters, and some of their letters sound a bit different than that of the English language (despite the fact we share similar roots).

...Although I only took German classes for a year, it certainly helps you recognize different words as German and pronounce them in the correct way.

 

[Tornado]

The best way I can explain it was her calling a Chevy (the car) a Chevy (like Chevy Chase). Too much emphasis on the "C" sound. More of a "Cha" than a "Che" sound.

But how do you pronounce Chevy Chase? I've always said "Shev-e" for both, so if that is what you are talking about...

 

[Danny]

Peugeot? I alternate between "Pay-oooh-jo" and "Poh-jo" (both with soft J's)
Opel? "O-pell"
Volvo? "Vole-voh"

Peugeot- Per (or Purr) Jo (soft j)
Opel- Oh-Pull
Volvo- Voll-voh

Some more...
Hommell- 'Ommell.
Espirit- Espree
1007- Mille-Sept
Miata- Emm Ex Five
Renault- Renn-Oh
Alfa Romeo- Al-fah Roh-ay-oh (I've lost count of the number of people I've head pronounce the Romeo as in Romeo and Juliet.)

 

[Thiele]

Homell - Hom-ell
Esprit - Ess-prit
Miata - Em-ex-five
Renault - Ren-noh (used to pronounce it Ren-Alt)
Alfa Romeo - Al-fah-roe-may-oh (used to pronounce it Roe-mee-oh)

 

[Dave A]

WTF? There's no "w" in Shev-y. But that's not the right way to spell the pronounciation in layman's terms.

If you read the post before mine you'd know what I was getting at, y is pronounced wahy. So saying something is pronounced Shev-y is the same as saying it's pronounce Shev-wahy. The same as saying it's pronounced Shev-e being the the same as Shev-eh. I know it is Shev-ee, with two ee's as I said earlier.

 

[Omnis]

Why would one not make the "h" silent? That would be like pronouncing the word "honor" as "hon-er" instead of "on-er"

Yeah, but I swear I've heard "h"omage and "h"erb and etc.

No. Just no. "Jag-u-er." At least you didn't say "Jag-wire."

Porsche? Porsh-a.
Audi? "Ow-dee"
Peugeot? I alternate between "Pay-oooh-jo" and "Poh-jo" (both with soft J's)
Opel? "O-pell"
Volvo? "Vole-voh"

Ohpell? Pohjo? What?

OH-Pel
poo-joh. peugeot is tough because you have to say it with the french "u".

 

[Dave A]

Homell - Hom-ell
Esprit - Ess-prit
Miata - Em-ex-five
Renault - Ren-noh (used to pronounce it Ren-Alt)
Alfa Romeo - Al-fah-roe-may-oh (used to pronounce it Roe-mee-oh)

I prononce most of thoes the same or similar exceot for the Esprit, I pronounce that Eh-spree.

 

[Omnis]

Alfa Romeo - Al-fah-roe-may-oh (used to pronounce it Roe-mee-oh)

Yeah, because Alfa Romeo is Ohioan.

 

[YSSMAN]

Peugeot- Per (or Purr) Jo (soft j)
Opel- Oh-Pull
Volvo- Voll-voh

Some more...
Hommell- 'Ommell.
Espirit- Espree
1007- Mille-Sept
Miata- Emm Ex Five
Renault- Renn-Oh
Alfa Romeo- Al-fah Roh-ay-oh (I've lost count of the number of people I've head pronounce the Romeo as in Romeo and Juliet.)

Given the mid-west accent, I guess mine is slightly different...

Opel: O-pel (hold out the "O")
Volvo: There are two versions here; Val-vo and Voll-vo
Hommell: We pronounce it how its spelled...
Espirit: Es-pree, guess its the same for most folks
1007: One thousand and seven?
Miata: Most "average" folks call it by name, I call it an MX-5.
Renault: Two versions here; Ren-alt and Ren-oh
Alfa Romeo: Al-fa ro-may-oh (As always, it depends on your knowledge of foreign languages and how they pronounce various letters)
Peugeot: Poo-joe (sometimes I call it a Poo-got just for fun)

A few extras...

Citroen: Sit-tro-en
Seat: Sea-yat (lots of people just call it seat, like a "have a seat.")
Skoda: Is there any special way to pronounce it other than Sko-da?
Bugatti: Boo-ga-ti
Prius: Pre-us (not Pry-us like Clarkson pronounces it)
Acura: I've heard two; Ah-koo-ra, and then how it is spelled (the last being the "correct" one)

 

[Sage]

Val-vo? The hell?

 

[Famine]

Peugeot- Per (or Purr) Jo (soft j)

Quite (almost) right. What's all this "poo-jo" nonsense?

It's "per-zho" (the "j" sounds like a "g", but isn't hard like a "g" - it's tough to represent).

Seat: Sea-yat (lots of people just call it seat, like a "have a seat.")
Skoda: Is there any special way to pronounce it other than Sko-da?

Yes, there is. It's Sh-ko-da. And Seat is "Say-at".

 

[YSSMAN]

Val-vo? The hell?

...Its that mid-west accent. We love our nasally vowels!

 

[Sureboss]

Quite (almost) right. What's all this "poo-jo" nonsense?

It's "per-zho" (the "j" sounds like a "g", but isn't hard like a "g" - it's tough to represent).



Yes, there is. It's Sh-ko-da. And Seat is "Shay-at".

Pronouncing cars the Sean Connery way 👍

 

[GT4_Rule]

Peugeot - Pee-yoo-gee-ot
Bugatti - Boo-gah-tti
Seat - simplely seet...
Chevy - Shuh-vee
Prius - Pry-us

 

[Famine]

Pronouncing cars the Sean Connery way 👍

Skoda has a wibbly S:

Ergo Škoda, ergo Sh-ko-da.

 

[Sureboss]

You obviously didn't see my nifty edit to the say-at then.

Sean Connery doing car ads would be uber cool.

 

[a917fan]

Skoda has a wibbly S:

Ergo Škoda, ergo Sh-ko-da.

Team Skoda