It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": Difference between revisions

Removing TAO and other nonsense. One of those "ACTUALLY"s is the most nonsense thing I've seen all year. (BAD JOKE!)
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(Removing TAO and other nonsense. One of those "ACTUALLY"s is the most nonsense thing I've seen all year. (BAD JOKE!))
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Contrast [[No Pronunciation Guide]]. See Also: [[Uranus Is Showing]].
{{examples}}
== AdvertisingAdvERtising ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMe3WDmxBEI One A&W rootbeer commercial] features a particularly clueless job candidate repeatedly referring to his interviewer as Mr. "Dumbass". Eventually, the interviewer states that his name (clearly visible on a nameplate as "Mr. DuMass") is actually pronounced "DOO-Mahss". Then he says behind the candidate's back, "What a dumbass."
* In one commercial for Glade scented candles, a woman tries to pass off her new candles as fancy foreign candles. She removes the label and attempts to throw it away, but struggles with the adhesive and it ends up sticking to her skirt in the vicinity of her rear end. After she responds to questioning about whether it was a Glade candle with, "No, it's, uh, French. [[Shaped Like Itself|From France.]]", one of her friends pulls the label off of her and sarcastically asks, "Haven't you ever heard of glah-DAY?"
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* In a Walmart StraightTalk commercial, a woman insists a certain vegetable is "absolutely pronounced ''ahn-deev''" because of her [[Mock Millionaire|supposed new riches]] after cutting her cell phone bill in half.
 
== AnimeAnIMe (E is silent) and MangaMangA ==
* In ''[[Haibane Renmei]]'', one character corrects the fact that Rakka refers to him as Hiyoko, pointing out it's "Hyohko", with exaggerated emphasis on the "oh" sound to make the pronunciation difference clear.
* In the first few chapters of the ''[[Sakura Wars]]'' manga, Sumire mispronounces Ogami's name every time she speaks to him. When he mispronounces her name as "tsumire" in response, she flies into a rage. (But she had cause; what woman would want to be called a meatball instead of a flower?)
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''; Edo's card "Destiny Hero Bloo-D" is pronounced "blue-dee", not "bloody", despite the monster having a blood-theme.
 
== ComicCoMIC Books ==
* Writer Christopher Priest added a recurring character named Dr. Vilain during his run on ''[[Steel]]''. The doctor wasn't really evil, just ruthless, and would constantly remind people. "It's French, it's pronounced 'will-HAYN'". Of course, it's not pronounced like that in French. For the record, "vilain" does exist in French, but an accurate translation would be something like "naughty", not exactly fitting for an evil alias.
* Make no mistake, Victor Fries' last name is pronounced "Freeze" (off-topic, but just like Charles Fries of Fries Entertainment).
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* Mi-Tse (villain from German comic ''[[Nick Knatterton]]'') is not pronounced "Mieze" (typical name for cats in Germany).
 
== Films -- AnimationAnimaTIOn ==
* [[Megamind]] seems to have this as something of a [[Verbal Tic]]. Most notably, he pronounces Metro City as "Metrocity" (rhymes with atrocity) and School as [[Bilingual Bonus|Shool]].
 
== Films -- Live ActionActiON ==
* ''[[Better Off Dead]]''. When Lane Meyer (John Cusack) invites the French foreign exchange student from across the street to dinner, his mother, seeking to impress, serves exotic dishes like "Frahnch fries" and salad with "Frahnch dressing". And to drink: Peru!
* Coincidentally in another Cusack film, [[Serendipity]], his character continues to pronounce mignon as "minion" despite a Frenchman's protests to the contrary.
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* Yet ''another'' Mel Brooks example: Count DeMonet DEE-Moe-NAY, not, The Money) in ''[[History of the World Part One]]''.
* Apparently, Mel Brooks ''really'' liked having fun with this one. Reversed in ''[[The Producers]]'': "Jacques Lepideux... Jacques Lepideux... Jack Lapidus?"
* An let's not forget Hedley Lamarr from ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''. People tend to leave off the l in his first name.
* Heather Horney in ''[[Wayne's World]] 2''. It's pronounced "hor-NAY", but Garth calls her "Miss Horny" even after hearing it pronounced correctly.
* In ''[[The Comedy Of Terrors]]'', the central characters had several exchanges along these lines:
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{{quote|'''Major Calloway''': That's Call''oway'', not "Callahan." I'm English, not Irish.}}
 
== LiteratureLi-TER-ature ==
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Hogfather]]'': [[Psycho for Hire]] Mr. Teatime keeps telling people that his name is pronounced "Te-ah-ti-meh". Fortunately, he only considers it ''slightly'' annoying when they get it wrong.
** Amusingly, many of the cast in Sky One's ''Hogfather'' miniseries find more than one way to pronounce Te-ah-ti-meh" each, including Marc Warren (Mr. Teatime himself).
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* Inverted by Chris Cwej in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] spin-off novels. His surname should be pronounced "Shvay", but because everyone pronounces it "Kwedge" he's decided to go along with it. In his first appearance, although his new partner Roz Forrester pronounces it ''correctly'', he corrects her.
* In ''Don Juan'' by [[Lord Byron]]: In order to rhyme with such phrases as "new one" and "true one", the name Don Juan has to be pronounced "don-DZHU-an". It ''was'' pronounced that way in England during Byron's time.
* Sneaking onto Imperial Center as a battered, partly cybernetic Imperial pilot, [[X Wing Series|Wedge Antilles]] goes by Colonel Antar Roat, and has to tell a customs official that it's pronounced Ro-at. The buzz of the voice modulator—cybernetic, remember? -- makes him all but unintelligible.
* In M.L.N. Hanover's ''Black Sun's Daughter'' series, the main character, Jayné, is used to people mispronouncing her name as "Jane" when it is actually supposed to be pronounced "Zha-nay" in the French manner.
* [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] had lots of fun with this. A particularly memorable example would be in ''Indiscretions of Archie'', when the title character explains that his surname, Moffam, is pronounced "Moom". To rhyme with Bloffingham.
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* [[Our Vampires Are Different|Thomas]] [[Horny Devils|Raith]] in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' goes by (as [[Snark Knight|Harry]] puts it) "toe-MOSS" while posing as a [[Camp Gay|gay]] [[Chatty Hairdresser|hairdresser]].
 
== LiveLivÉ-Action TV ==
* Mrs Bucket from ''[[Keeping Up Appearances]]'' insists that it's pronounced Boo-KAY.
** "The '''Bouquet''' residence! The lady of the house speaking!!"
*** Note that herHer husband always pronounces it Bucket when she's not around.
*** Well, the sisters are all named after flowers...
*** Apparently inspired by a real-life acquaintance of Roy Clarke who insisted their surname ("Bottom") was pronounced "Bo-TOME".
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* ''[[Married... with Children]]'': Kelly met the man who made her parents' couch. His name is "Mary" but he corrected her, insisting it's "Mar-AY". She then commented about being Bus-AY.
 
== MusicMusIc ==
* Sade is pronounced "shah-DAY", or /ʃɑːˈdeɪ/ in IPA. [[I Am Not Shazam|And it was only supposed to be the name of her band, not the singer herself.]] [[Sure Why Not|Although she did change her name to Sade.]]
** Made worse in (most of) North America, as the first Sade album featured the pronunciation guide "Pronounced SHAR-DAY," assuming a [[British Accents|British pronunciation]]. The result: many DJs and television hosts articulated the nonexistent "R" sound.
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* Kerli's name is pronounced "carely", not "curly".
 
== New MediaMedIa ==
* [[The Other Wiki]] has an [[wikipedia:List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations|article]] about names like these.
* Pretty much the entire point of [http://www.youtube.com/user/pronunciationbook Pronunciation Book]
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** This is fairly common in Japanese wrestling, and generally only done by heels.
 
== RecordedREcorded and Stand-up ComedyComÉdy ==
* Brian Regan has a comedy routine in which he has trouble remembering names, and he stresses the difficulty of making a mistake when somebody else's name is similar to another.
{{quote|"Oh, hey there, Carolyn."
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* Jimmy Carr had a joke where he mentioned how he read the word "chav" before actually hearing it, and thought it was pronounced "shav".
 
== TabletopTabLETop GamesGaMES ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has the bulette, whose name is "pronounced Boo-lay." If it were really a French word, that is exactly how it ''wouldn't'' be pronounced. Apparently, it's now back to being the "bullet", as the person who wrote the 2nd Edition caption was being pretentious. In his last [[Podcast]] before he left [[Wizards of the Coast]], Dave Noonan joked that he pronounces it "land shark."
** There are also the evil fish-men called the sahuagin, which is frequently pronounced "sa-HWA-gin" but is officially (according to the sourcebook ''The Sea Devils'') supposed to be "sa-HOO-a-gin".
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** Apparently it is Catachan is cat-a-can, no idea why.
 
== TheaterTheAter ==
* William Barfée ("it's Bar-FAY") from the musical ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]''.
** Well, Barfée in French would indeed be pronounced Bar-FAY.
* ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'': "My name is GAH-linda, with a GAH!" (and later, ""In honer of Dr. Dillmond, I officially change my name! From now on, I will be known as Glinda, with''out'' the GAH, because that's how he always pronounced it.")
* In ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore|HMS Pinafore]]'' the first name of the character Ralph Rackstraw is pronounced Rafe, as is usual in the UK. (The name is rhymed with "waif" in "A many years ago.")
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But only half the cock is used. }}
 
== VideoVidÉo GamesGaMES ==
* Derby [pronounced "DAR-bee"] in ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]''. Which is how you pronounce the horse race, the city, or half of the county Derbyshire (DAR-bee-shur) in England.
* Charmles in ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' refers to himself as "Sharm-LAY". He's the only one who does—everyone calls him "CHARM-ulz", or [[Prince Charmless|Charmless]] when he's not looking.
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* [[Galaga]] (GAL-a-ga), similarly to how you would pronounce "Gallagher" (the comedian best known for his "Sledge-O-Matic" routine)
* Because of Japanese double consonants, [[Tekken]] is pronounced "Tek-KEN", and not "TEK-ken".
* [[Metroid]]: It's not "Zeebs", or "Zeebees", or even "Zeebus", it's [[Metroid|"ZEH-behs"]].
* In ''[[Mega Man 8]]'', because there's [[No Pronunciation Guide]], the characters mistakenly calls Bass as the fish. Of course, [[Memetic Mutation|it's actually BASE.]]
* The villain of the third season of [[Telltale Games]] ''[[Sam and Max]]'' is an albino gorilla from space named General Skun-ka'pe (skoon-KAH-pay), so naturally our heroes call him "Skunk Ape". However, everyone understands who they mean, and no one corrects them.
* Not mentioned in the games themselves, but Pokémon is pronounced po-kay-mon. Not po-kee-mon, not po-kee-man, and not po-kay-man. See the little notes about the title at the bottom of the page? Yeah, the accent over the e makes all the difference. And for the love of Arceus, that's an o at the end of the word. Not an a.
** Don't forget poPo-kuh-mon, that'sis also a common mispronunciation of the franchise's name. In fact, North Americans tend to use the silly-sounding po-kee-mon more, while the Brits often say it as po-kuh-mon (although po-kuh-mon is also spoken quite a bit by Americans, including older American Pokémon fans). [[Flip-Flop of God|Too bad Game Freak/Nintendo/TPCi stopped caring about the pronunciation a while ago.]] In fact, duringDuring the development of [[Super Smash Bros Brawl]], Nintendo had the game's Japanese/English announcer Pat Cashman say Pokémon Trainer ''twice''; "Po-kay-mon Trainer" for Japan and "Po-kuh-mon Trainer" for the English release. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOaZrJPz96w Listen to this video at around 0:58 and 2:19 for comparison.]
** And then there are some of the Pokémon themselves whom people from the games and anime have trouble deciding pronunciation on. For example, Bonsly alternated on being called "bonz-lee" or "bonz-lie", before it seemed settled on the latter. Then there are other glaring mistakes, such as how the announcer in Stadium can call Ekans "Ee-kenz" when the mini-game featuring Ekans in Stadium 1 and the characters in the anime referred to it as "eh-kanz". ([[Wild Mass Guessing|Or perhaps there's an in-universe potayto-potahto dialect difference]].)
* ''[[Drakengard]]'' has several:
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** ''Tales'' also has every single character pronounce "La Esponja Grande" with "esponja" pronounced with a J sound (es-pon-JA). Not until the ''very end of the final episode'' does Elaine FINALLY say "Actually, it's pronounced 'es-pon-HA' with an 'H' sound at the end?"
** And of those who pronounce the word "Caribbean" as "''CA-ri-BEE-an''", only Morgan pronounces it as "''cuh-RIH-bee-an''".
** It should be noted that mostMost of the people who pronounce Guybrush's name wrong are doing it on purpose as a [[My Name Is Not Durwood|way of showing their disrespect for him]]. ''Rise of the Pirate God'' even lampshades it.
{{quote|'''Galeb:''' Don't worry, Carniferouswood--
'''Guybrush:''' Oh, come on, that doesn't even sound like "Threepwood." }}
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* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'''s prequel book ''[[Start of Darkness]]'', [[Big Bad]] Xykon repeatedly corrects people who spell his name "Zykon"... even in their speech balloons.
 
== Web OriginalOriGInal ==
* A running joke in the "Jack and Dean" videos involves Dean pronouncing [[Facebook]] "Fack-ee-book" for the sole purpose of annoying Jack.
 
== WesternWesTERN Animation ==
* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "To Hare Is Human", Wile E. Coyote introduces himself to [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] as "Wile E. Coy-OH-Tay".
* In ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'', god-of-where-three-roads-meet Trivia keeps having to tell people "Actually, it's 'try-VEE-ah'." Unfortunately this is a SLIGHT case of [[Did Not Do the Research]]—Trivia in actual mythology was female and a ROMAN goddess. Her name would have been pronounced something like "tree-wee-ah".
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{{quote|'''Pinkie Pie:''' Ooooh. They don't want to party. These ponies want to par-TAY!}}
 
== Real LifeLifÉ - PeoplePeOple ==
* Allegedly actress Jean Harlow was at dinner with Margot Asquith (wife of the UK Prime Minister at the time) and kept pronouncing her name with the "t". Eventually Asquith told her "No, Jean, the 'T' is silent, [[Stealth Insult|like in 'Harlow']]".
* In England, the surname Berkley is pronounced B'''ar'''kley.
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*** A [[wikipedia:Great Vowel Shift|Great Vowel Shift]] during the settlement of the New World, perhaps?
*** And "Berkshire" is pronounced "Bark-shire". But the abbreviated form "berk" (rhyming slang: berk = Berkshire Hunt = cunt; usage: insult) is still pronounced "berk", not "bark".
**** Actually, it's pronounced "Burk", like Americans pronounce "Derp" as "Durp".
**** The rhyming slang takes its name from the Berkeley Hunt. Which is, of course, pronounced "BARK-lee".
* Possible case: Nicholas Cage pronounces his son [[Superman|Kal-El's]] name as ka-LELL, despite the hyphen making the correct pronunciation perfectly obvious. More likely he simply pronounces it the same way as Brando did in Superman.
* Ralph ("Rafe") Fiennes ("Fines") definitely falls into this category.
** Also the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
** However, it should be noted that /ˈreɪf/ is the traditional English pronunciation, which was only relatively recently replaced with the typical German pronunciation /ˈrælf/ (which is of course what it looks like to modern English-speakers, which is why it falls under this trope).
*** Similar to Henry ("Harry", which is now an official alternate spelling) and Agnes ("ANN-iss")
* Scottish actor Gerard (JAYR-id) Butler played King Leonidas in ''[[300]]'', whereas [[Joisey]]-born Gerard (juh-RAWRD) Way is the lead singer of [[My Chemical Romance]].
* John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House. His last name is pronounced BAY-ner, not [[Unfortunate Names|"boner"]].
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* Actor [[Sports Night|Peter]] [[Six Feet Under|Krause]] pronounces his surname "KRAU-zuh," rather than the more-common-in-America single-syllable pronunciation.
 
== Real Life - PlacesPlacES (S is silent) ==
=== Australia===
* The Canberra suburb of Manuka is pronounced 'mahn-NAH-ka', not 'mah-NU-ka' like the plant.
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=== Canada ===
* Newfoundland is not, in fact, New-Found-Land, it's Newfin-LAND.
** That's it. Oh, and itIt's not to be pronounced as "New Finland" either. Many a tourist have made that mistake.
** To add to the confusion, Leif Ericsson discovered "Vinland" (Wineland), which is thought to be the southern tip of Newfoundland.
** Though some people pronounce it more like Newfun-land.
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* Depending on where you are in the U.K own seems to turn into aarn. For example Town turns into Taarn, Down turns into Daarn and Brown turns to Braarn while 'own' turns into 'who-wen'. Similarly round turns into Raarned and found turns into Faarned. This is mostly faarned raarned the Yorkshire area or more specifically the Barnsley area. The pronunciations can make it very confusing to people not familiar with the area. The other wiki covers more of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_dialect_and_accent
* UK place names again: Edinburgh, Middlesbrough and Loughborough are in wildly different parts of the country (Scotland, North Yorkshire and Leicestershire respectively) and all pronounce the section of their names after the B as Borough despite the different spelling. Even weirder is the town of Brough which doesn't pronounce it like the similarly spelt Middlesbrough, but pronounces it as Bruff.
** Arguably, the end of all of these is pronounced as "brə" with a schwa, rather than as "bərə" although it depends on where you reside. Loughborough (Luf-brə) uses the Brough pronunciation above in it's first half as well.
 
=== USA ===
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** Another strange variation: Norfolk, Nebraska is frequently pronounced NOR-fork
 
== Real Life - OtherOthER ==
* "Tahr-ZHAY" (Target), normally as a humorous jab at the store.
** Some people think that the company is French, despite Target being [[Did Not Do the Research|headquartered in Minneapolis]].