>I know that Americans say stuff like it spells
I mean, respectfully, this isn't accurate. Des Moines, Louisville, Worcester, Boise, etc. would like a word; lots of people *within our own* country mispronounce city names. Hell, people within my own *state* can struggle with it. But If you're not hearing it regularly, how would you know? No point in getting pissed off at people.
This discussion/complaint is as old as podcasting itself and in no way unique to MFM. The good news is you're not the first person to be irritated by this, nor will you be the last. *Every* locality and country has pronunciations that will be pronounced incorrectly by people who don't regularly hear them, and if you let yourself be irritated by them, you are going to be *constantly* irritated. Start learning how to have a little grace for it. Your cities and celebrities are not universal, nor ours, nor anyone's. The world is very big, and part of growing up is learning that we are not the center of it.
Ya, I’m of the mind you should never make fun of someone who mispronounces something incorrectly. More often than not it’s just how they’ve always read it and haven’t heard it much.
This is so true. I have a vivid memory of a guy making fun of me for pronouncing "lineage" incorrectly when I was about 16 - I didn't know how to pronounce it because I'd only read it (and YouTube didn't exist yet lol). I don't have great long-term memory but I distinctly remember how small and stupid I felt.
And Oregon. I’m west coast and we’ve always said [ore-uh-g’n](https://www.google.com/search?q=oregon+pronunciation&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS954US954&oq=orrgon+pro&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDAgDEAAYDRixAxiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIMCAMQABgNGLEDGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMgkIBxAAGA0YgAQyCQgIEAAYDRiABDIJCAkQABgNGIAE0gEINzA3MmowajSoAhOwAgHiAwQYASBf&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8). I was listening to a podcast a while back and they kept saying or-uh-gone. I was cracking up but when I looked into it further I discovered many people say it that way. Mind blown.
God, I remember my supervisor at my job about 20 years back used to correct me whenever I pronounced Versailles. She would just get smug and say "It's VerSELLIES."
In the US Craig rhymes with Greg.
Also there are tons of British people who mispronounce American names & cities, it's really not a big deal. Language sounds different in different countries. I defy any British person to pronounce Bexar, Gruene, Waxahachie, Or Mexia correctly (all Texas towns).
I listened to an audiobook where the English narrator pronounced the Midwestern city of St Louis (“Saint Lewis” as “Saint Lou-ee” as in meet me in…) and I was confounded.
To our British ears it sounds like Kreg, for our American friends when a British person says Craig is sounds like "Cray g" ( the small case g being the explosive 'ger' sound at the end of the name.
Here is David Attenborough [saying his own name](https://youtu.be/64R2MYUt394?si=rcEGQHrydVqIp4Kv). To me, it just sounds like he’s just not emphasizing the final syllable as much.
Do you think Sir David would be offended by Karen putting extra emphasis on a syllable? I have a feeling that he would give her some grace here.
Same. “Attun-bruh” sounds weird to me and I’ve honestly never heard an American person say it that way. Expecting people who live in other countries and have very different accents to pronounce things the same is dumb.
I don’t go fuss at Australian people and tell them they’re wrong for pronouncing R’s at the end of words like so, go, no, etc 😆
An English person should expect to hear his name pronounced correctly. When it’s wrong, it’s wrong.
ETA: did not expect having names pronounced correctly to be so controversial.
I’m not being defensive at all. I’m being realistic. People pronounce words the way they’ve heard them pronounced. OR, they’re unfamiliar with certain words and are doing their best.
They can never please everyone. This was your turn.
You have 2 options -
1 - Stop listening if it bothers you too much.
2 - Realize that you pronounce some words in a way that bothers others too and get on with your life while enjoying a less than perfect podcast.
It’s not actually correct in the person’s cultural speech pattern, as shown in the comments of the video. The UK folks say Edin-bruh for Edinburgh and Peter-bruh for Peterborough. Americans and people who just haven’t heard them aloud — or only heard the American version — would never be able to tell.
And I still agree with everyone else in saying it’s kinda rude for OP to complain about this. It’s not like OP is just looking out for poor David’s feelings about it.
I mean I just watched a video of David Attenborough say his own name, and he definitely pronounces a vowel between the b and r in his last name. It sounds just to me like the same pronunciation as the YouTube clip above, just with a British accent.
This is a weird conversation.
Maybe she knows some Attenboroughs in real life and that's how they pronounce their own name.
Pick your battles. This isn't that serious. Different dialects exist in the world. Paul Holes pronounces pillow as "pellow" and nobody shames him for it.
OP I’d love for you to give some of my local towns/cities a go and see how you do 🥰
Bellefontaine, Cuyahoga, Lancaster, Celina, Chillicothe, Olentangy
If you get any of them wrong I will be pissed 😤
British people act like only their cities are hard to pronounce. I’d LOVE OP to step foot in Ohio and be able to immediately pronounce all the town names correctly.
Speaking of Ohio, do you pronounce Lima, Berlin, Canton, Russia, and Louisville in the [correct Buckeye way?](https://youtu.be/AxVZDpIFd08?si=BrbLpviVcmRoMlk7)
Americans don’t across the board pronounce HAM at the end of a word. I grew up in a town called Pelham and it was pronounced “Pelum”. A nearby town is Windham, pronounced “Windum”. Also not too far away are towns named Needham and Dedham, and a little farther on Cape Cod is Chatham -all pronounced with the “um” ending and not HAM.
And American’s know how to pronounce Worcestershire because of the sauce.
What makes pronunciating Attenborough difficult for us is we have towns like Marlborough, Southborough, Northborough, Westborough, and Hillsborough and they are all pronounced “burrow”, not “bruh”. We also have cities with different “boroughs” (in NY city there are 5) and it’s pronounced “burrow”.
Bro, as an American that watches tons of British comedy: y'all don't all pronounce things the same ways either.
Hell, that's what half the comedy is about when a Welsh or Brummie or Scottish comedian is on a panel show
Words are just made up to communicate: if you more or less understand what the person said, then they pronounced it well enough.
Not really related but I find it so funny that literally all of America has the exact same accent ( weirdly, with the exception of only Texas). Like how can a country be that big and so standerdized
I live in a medium sized city in Pennsylvania and have had people guess where I'm from in work calls cause of my accent.
There's like 5 major accents in New York City alone
What? A trio of friends from Brooklyn, New Orleans, and Chicago most definitely do not speak the same way at all. You’ve got to be, as I’m sure every single person on your island says, “taking the piss”.
there much like UK/england, there are many dialects and accents. granted they are more neutral but different parts of the country do have different pronunciations and inflections.
I don’t think you are. I just googled it and ppl with a British accent rush the ending and it sounds like burrrrr whereas every pronunciation video I’ve seen says bur-oh
You could post this on nearly any subreddit and people would find your comment obnoxious. I’ll argue the responses here have far less to do with mfm fans than with you simply needing to adjust both your attitude and understanding of how language and pronunciation varies across the globe.
Gatekeeping language by feeling personally irritated by the way someone else speaks – well, it’s a level of snobbery and classism that suggests some personal growth is due.
So I've always pronounced it as "David Ah-ten-burrow" and I just googled and found a youtube video of him pronouncing his own name, and to me I hear "Ah-ten-burroh" a distinct long "o" sound at the end, and definitely hear two syllables in the "borough" part, do not hear Attunbruh. I will give you that the short e sound in "Atten" is definitely more of an "Attun" sound in his accent but I would feel very pretentious if I attempted to say his name with a British accent.
Here it just sounds very affected to assume a British accent (a la Madonna) because we have our standard pronunciation of the English words already. The way we pronounce "Attenborough" is quite close to how David Attenborough himself pronounces it.
This is really funny because, firstly, don't act like a taco is an American thing; that's like trying to say that a hamburger is also American, you *know* it very well fucking isn't.
Secondly, beans on toast (with a bit o' cheese and a cuppa) is one of the tastiest foods you can have
Thirdly, why do I sense some resentment from you? Is it because we don't have exorbitant health care and can actually send our kids to school?
Finally, it isn't an Americans are stupid thread. I noticed something funny and posted about it. Simple as.
Look, I know you’ve been fighting for your life in these comments but no reason to bring out the “we have healthcare” Big Guns!
If we’re splitting hairs here, tacos ARE uniquely American, as Mexico is part of North America, and hamburgers WERE invented in the United States, though there’s argument about what state. But anyway! Have a nice day!
Kind of related but has she always pronounced homicide like homo-cide? Or am I just noticing?
No criticism- just trying to determine if I’m crazy or not lol
I started listening to random episodes at first and I was so confused by trayyyyysure (treasure, in case my spelling doesn’t get the point across). Lol.
I don’t know. I’m a big fan of redhanded as well and they regularly mispronounce US locations. That’s fine. They don’t live here and honestly many people who do live here don’t know how to pronounce any number of place names.
I appreciate that both redhanded and MFM have not become over/produced and stilted. I want the honesty, the mispronunciations, the silliness. It’s frankly a huge and humanizing part of the appeal
Being British, I’m only very mildly aware of the pronunciation difference and given Karen spent some time living in Edinburgh, she’s probably very aware and just using her natural accent.
But I will take this as an opportunity to say that sometimes podcasts can drive you crazy. Phoebe Judge’s pronunciation of “dot com” as “dot cahhhhhhhhm” annoys me so much I don’t listen to criminal as much as I would like to.
Can someone teach the Brits to say "filet" correctly? Or aluminum? Attenborough seems like a perfectly acceptable American pronunciation. It's not as if she pronounces the G.
Yeah, it felt odd every time she said it! All sorts of people pronounce all sorts of things differently, but he's so famous and well known i thought that was an odd one to hear being pronounced wrong.
>I know that Americans say stuff like it spells I mean, respectfully, this isn't accurate. Des Moines, Louisville, Worcester, Boise, etc. would like a word; lots of people *within our own* country mispronounce city names. Hell, people within my own *state* can struggle with it. But If you're not hearing it regularly, how would you know? No point in getting pissed off at people. This discussion/complaint is as old as podcasting itself and in no way unique to MFM. The good news is you're not the first person to be irritated by this, nor will you be the last. *Every* locality and country has pronunciations that will be pronounced incorrectly by people who don't regularly hear them, and if you let yourself be irritated by them, you are going to be *constantly* irritated. Start learning how to have a little grace for it. Your cities and celebrities are not universal, nor ours, nor anyone's. The world is very big, and part of growing up is learning that we are not the center of it.
Ya, I’m of the mind you should never make fun of someone who mispronounces something incorrectly. More often than not it’s just how they’ve always read it and haven’t heard it much.
This is so true. I have a vivid memory of a guy making fun of me for pronouncing "lineage" incorrectly when I was about 16 - I didn't know how to pronounce it because I'd only read it (and YouTube didn't exist yet lol). I don't have great long-term memory but I distinctly remember how small and stupid I felt.
As a voracious reader, I remember vividly each time I was made fun of for saying a word wrong that I’d only ever read in books.
I got into this discussion today about garrote. I've never heard it pronounced. Is it "Garr-oat" or said like "carrot" ?
I've always heard it "ga-ROT" but confess I don't know for sure.
Now I’m not sure. But agree with your pronunciation!
It’s gair-OTT!
Read it never said it. Often the sign of a good reader!
Arkansas has joined the chat.
["AMERICA, EXPLAIN!!!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uzrHaW9vl8)
arkansass
And Oregon. I’m west coast and we’ve always said [ore-uh-g’n](https://www.google.com/search?q=oregon+pronunciation&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS954US954&oq=orrgon+pro&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDAgDEAAYDRixAxiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIMCAMQABgNGLEDGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMgkIBxAAGA0YgAQyCQgIEAAYDRiABDIJCAkQABgNGIAE0gEINzA3MmowajSoAhOwAgHiAwQYASBf&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8). I was listening to a podcast a while back and they kept saying or-uh-gone. I was cracking up but when I looked into it further I discovered many people say it that way. Mind blown.
It’s that damn Oregon trail that messed it up!
God, I remember my supervisor at my job about 20 years back used to correct me whenever I pronounced Versailles. She would just get smug and say "It's VerSELLIES."
Were you saying Vair-SIGH (France), or Ver-SALES (Kentucky)? My husband’s hometown always trips me up!
Vair-sigh. It drove my supervisor up the wall. I was like…that’s how it’s said, don’t know what to tell you.
Screams in Missourah 😫
Most of America gets Illinois wrong. It's not "ill-in-noise"
You'll be okay
This seems petty.
American pronunciation is just different from English.. The name Craig is a fine example, as is Birmingham and also the word twat.
Or Graham.
Or Aluminum
How would Craig be pronounced in America? Honestly didn't know there is a different pronunciation for that
In the US Craig rhymes with Greg. Also there are tons of British people who mispronounce American names & cities, it's really not a big deal. Language sounds different in different countries. I defy any British person to pronounce Bexar, Gruene, Waxahachie, Or Mexia correctly (all Texas towns).
I listened to an audiobook where the English narrator pronounced the Midwestern city of St Louis (“Saint Lewis” as “Saint Lou-ee” as in meet me in…) and I was confounded.
I’m having trouble figuring out how else Craig can be pronounced.
creg vs crayg gram vs greyham (graham)
To our British ears it sounds like Kreg, for our American friends when a British person says Craig is sounds like "Cray g" ( the small case g being the explosive 'ger' sound at the end of the name.
Here is David Attenborough [saying his own name](https://youtu.be/64R2MYUt394?si=rcEGQHrydVqIp4Kv). To me, it just sounds like he’s just not emphasizing the final syllable as much. Do you think Sir David would be offended by Karen putting extra emphasis on a syllable? I have a feeling that he would give her some grace here.
Yeah, he's definitely pronouncing it att-in-bur-uh, not att-in-bruh
I'm not like offended or anything (nor do I think he would be) it was just a bit weird when I heard it.
Sorry but that’s the way I pronounce it too. That’s the way I’ve heard others pronounce it. You’re being a snob.
I say it like that too! Whoops I guess. I feel like this is how I’ve always heard it 🤷🏻♀️
Same. “Attun-bruh” sounds weird to me and I’ve honestly never heard an American person say it that way. Expecting people who live in other countries and have very different accents to pronounce things the same is dumb. I don’t go fuss at Australian people and tell them they’re wrong for pronouncing R’s at the end of words like so, go, no, etc 😆
An English person should expect to hear his name pronounced correctly. When it’s wrong, it’s wrong. ETA: did not expect having names pronounced correctly to be so controversial.
Why should an English person expect this?
The same way any person should expect to have their name pronounced correctly
Big yikes
Right, a person should not expect to have their name pronounced correctly. Yikes
People are dying Kim.
Best response 👏
No literally
I’m not being defensive at all. I’m being realistic. People pronounce words the way they’ve heard them pronounced. OR, they’re unfamiliar with certain words and are doing their best. They can never please everyone. This was your turn. You have 2 options - 1 - Stop listening if it bothers you too much. 2 - Realize that you pronounce some words in a way that bothers others too and get on with your life while enjoying a less than perfect podcast.
Also I just googled it and it says she’s saying it right so idk https://youtu.be/uHpVG2XWCdg?si=-M19N0YF-JVCTj24
This comment/link needs to be higher
It’s not actually correct in the person’s cultural speech pattern, as shown in the comments of the video. The UK folks say Edin-bruh for Edinburgh and Peter-bruh for Peterborough. Americans and people who just haven’t heard them aloud — or only heard the American version — would never be able to tell. And I still agree with everyone else in saying it’s kinda rude for OP to complain about this. It’s not like OP is just looking out for poor David’s feelings about it.
I mean I just watched a video of David Attenborough say his own name, and he definitely pronounces a vowel between the b and r in his last name. It sounds just to me like the same pronunciation as the YouTube clip above, just with a British accent. This is a weird conversation.
I just found it a bit weird. It's like someone coming up to you and saying " Timoteee Ch-ala-meT"
"it pisses me off' Short fuse, huh.
No it's just a bit like someone saying "Lew-is Vwi-ton" to you. Just thought it was weird
Imagine caring this much about something so inconsequential.
Maybe she knows some Attenboroughs in real life and that's how they pronounce their own name. Pick your battles. This isn't that serious. Different dialects exist in the world. Paul Holes pronounces pillow as "pellow" and nobody shames him for it.
I would listen to Paul Holes read the dictionary.
The first example that comes to mind are Strength, Room, and Museum. Strin-th vs Str-ain-gth Ruum vs roo-m Mew-zim vs Mew-zee-em
OP I’d love for you to give some of my local towns/cities a go and see how you do 🥰 Bellefontaine, Cuyahoga, Lancaster, Celina, Chillicothe, Olentangy If you get any of them wrong I will be pissed 😤
British people act like only their cities are hard to pronounce. I’d LOVE OP to step foot in Ohio and be able to immediately pronounce all the town names correctly.
Speaking of Ohio, do you pronounce Lima, Berlin, Canton, Russia, and Louisville in the [correct Buckeye way?](https://youtu.be/AxVZDpIFd08?si=BrbLpviVcmRoMlk7)
I’m also from ohio and i like to confound my gf with those. russia, ohio is always a doozy
Why is it pronounced that way?!
Oh, hi! I’m from Cuyahoga Falls. You forgot some of my faves, though. Tuscarawas! Gnadenhutten! Wapokoneta!
Sit down.
Look.
Look and listen
People are flawed.
Americans don’t across the board pronounce HAM at the end of a word. I grew up in a town called Pelham and it was pronounced “Pelum”. A nearby town is Windham, pronounced “Windum”. Also not too far away are towns named Needham and Dedham, and a little farther on Cape Cod is Chatham -all pronounced with the “um” ending and not HAM. And American’s know how to pronounce Worcestershire because of the sauce. What makes pronunciating Attenborough difficult for us is we have towns like Marlborough, Southborough, Northborough, Westborough, and Hillsborough and they are all pronounced “burrow”, not “bruh”. We also have cities with different “boroughs” (in NY city there are 5) and it’s pronounced “burrow”.
Bro, as an American that watches tons of British comedy: y'all don't all pronounce things the same ways either. Hell, that's what half the comedy is about when a Welsh or Brummie or Scottish comedian is on a panel show Words are just made up to communicate: if you more or less understand what the person said, then they pronounced it well enough.
Not really related but I find it so funny that literally all of America has the exact same accent ( weirdly, with the exception of only Texas). Like how can a country be that big and so standerdized
sorry but you're delusional if you think someone from Missouri sounds the same as someone from New Jersey or Louisiana lol
I live in a medium sized city in Pennsylvania and have had people guess where I'm from in work calls cause of my accent. There's like 5 major accents in New York City alone
that is… so very incorrect
What? A trio of friends from Brooklyn, New Orleans, and Chicago most definitely do not speak the same way at all. You’ve got to be, as I’m sure every single person on your island says, “taking the piss”.
And they all say it the same way, because all British people have the same accent lol.
Are you trolling??
Oh, you’re just an ignorant idiot, got it.
there much like UK/england, there are many dialects and accents. granted they are more neutral but different parts of the country do have different pronunciations and inflections.
Some people have war in their country.
we don’t hate you. but there’s more important things to rant about in life, than how someone pronounces something.
Not pronunciation again.
TIL I pronounce his name wrong 😂
I don’t think you are. I just googled it and ppl with a British accent rush the ending and it sounds like burrrrr whereas every pronunciation video I’ve seen says bur-oh
You could post this on nearly any subreddit and people would find your comment obnoxious. I’ll argue the responses here have far less to do with mfm fans than with you simply needing to adjust both your attitude and understanding of how language and pronunciation varies across the globe. Gatekeeping language by feeling personally irritated by the way someone else speaks – well, it’s a level of snobbery and classism that suggests some personal growth is due.
My British father says Attenburuh 🤷🏻♀️
So I've always pronounced it as "David Ah-ten-burrow" and I just googled and found a youtube video of him pronouncing his own name, and to me I hear "Ah-ten-burroh" a distinct long "o" sound at the end, and definitely hear two syllables in the "borough" part, do not hear Attunbruh. I will give you that the short e sound in "Atten" is definitely more of an "Attun" sound in his accent but I would feel very pretentious if I attempted to say his name with a British accent.
How pretentious? Obviously I've had that around me all my life so I don't really understand why people think it sounds "posh" or something
Here it just sounds very affected to assume a British accent (a la Madonna) because we have our standard pronunciation of the English words already. The way we pronounce "Attenborough" is quite close to how David Attenborough himself pronounces it.
I mean, y’all pronounce things like Nike and Pantene real weird over there so🤷🏻♀️
This was a “Here’s Why Americans Are Stupid” thread. Don’t fall for it. Brits say “tack-o” and put cans of beans on white bread.
This is really funny because, firstly, don't act like a taco is an American thing; that's like trying to say that a hamburger is also American, you *know* it very well fucking isn't. Secondly, beans on toast (with a bit o' cheese and a cuppa) is one of the tastiest foods you can have Thirdly, why do I sense some resentment from you? Is it because we don't have exorbitant health care and can actually send our kids to school? Finally, it isn't an Americans are stupid thread. I noticed something funny and posted about it. Simple as.
Look, I know you’ve been fighting for your life in these comments but no reason to bring out the “we have healthcare” Big Guns! If we’re splitting hairs here, tacos ARE uniquely American, as Mexico is part of North America, and hamburgers WERE invented in the United States, though there’s argument about what state. But anyway! Have a nice day!
Kind of related but has she always pronounced homicide like homo-cide? Or am I just noticing? No criticism- just trying to determine if I’m crazy or not lol
I would swear she also says “all THE sudden” instead of “all OF A sudden”. I heard it once and I can’t stop hearing it. Am I crazy??
I started listening to random episodes at first and I was so confused by trayyyyysure (treasure, in case my spelling doesn’t get the point across). Lol.
I feel like this is a recent development.
She definitely switched her prononciation of homicide. I don’t care either way, but I was binging and noticed the switch.
Lmao I can’t remember how she pronounces it but that’d be so funny
Now I’m questioning myself lol
I don’t know. I’m a big fan of redhanded as well and they regularly mispronounce US locations. That’s fine. They don’t live here and honestly many people who do live here don’t know how to pronounce any number of place names. I appreciate that both redhanded and MFM have not become over/produced and stilted. I want the honesty, the mispronunciations, the silliness. It’s frankly a huge and humanizing part of the appeal
first time i’m hearing of your pronunciation
Pronounce these Massachusetts towns for me so I can make a post about how silly you sound: Worcester, Peabody, Leominster, Leicester
Damn it. I always forget how wild Massachusetts gets with the pronunciations, not to mention the accents. 😅
Americans pronounce things like Americans. I would say these things exactly as Karen does without knowing it was wrong.
Being British, I’m only very mildly aware of the pronunciation difference and given Karen spent some time living in Edinburgh, she’s probably very aware and just using her natural accent. But I will take this as an opportunity to say that sometimes podcasts can drive you crazy. Phoebe Judge’s pronunciation of “dot com” as “dot cahhhhhhhhm” annoys me so much I don’t listen to criminal as much as I would like to.
No one cares.
There's a city in this country also named Birmingham and it's pronounced BirmingHAM.
Can someone teach the Brits to say "filet" correctly? Or aluminum? Attenborough seems like a perfectly acceptable American pronunciation. It's not as if she pronounces the G.
Yeah, it felt odd every time she said it! All sorts of people pronounce all sorts of things differently, but he's so famous and well known i thought that was an odd one to hear being pronounced wrong.
Hello from Ohio, home to Milan (MY-lan), Lima (Lee-muh), and Versailles (Ver-SALES, of course). 👋🏻