AIBU to think my son's name isn't that hard to pronounce?

[SailorByTheSea]

Or is this an acceptable pronunciation!?

We live in London, so 'fear' is 1 syllable (this is relevant!)

My son is called Theodore... You know, 3 syllables, 'The-uh-door'?

All he gets is 'fear-door' please tell me that this isn't an acceptable pronunciation? It makes me regret his name massively

My son is also called Theodore! We call him Theo for short as do most of his friends and family but his name is Theodore! He calls himself Theedoor or Theo but he is only 2.5.

I have just watched the video with the green background - I can hardly hear any difference between free & three and in real life most people I meet speak a lot faster than her sp the sound is even less pronounced.

Interesting thread. I think there are some names that have different perfectly acceptable pronunciations that are nothing to do with accent. I'm thinking of names like Irene (Eye reen or Eye reeny) Claudia (Cloudier or Clawdier), Helena (Helenuh or H'lane uh), Alicia (Alissier or Alleesha), Marie (M'rie, Marry or Mar ree), Ralph (Ralph or Rafe) to name just a few. Each variant will sound slightly different depending on the speaker's accent but they are distinct pronunciations.

I have preferred options for some but not for all of these names but it seems to me only polite to use the version preferred by the person in question, whether or not it is the version that I would naturally use. So I have a friend Naomi who I call Nay oh mee, with the emphasis on the second syllable because that is how she pronounces it, although my default pronunciation for that name is more like Nayer me, with the emphasis on the first syllable

What I wouldn't try to do is try to replicate someone's accent to try and say their name exactly the same way that they do. So I pronounce Jane and Dave in the way I always pronounce those names. This is probably because over 30 years later I still remember how much of a fool I felt when as a student I met a Nigerian who I called Habbat for several weeks, because that's how he pronounced his name, before I realised he was called Herbert.

I do, however, try to make the effort to say foreign names reasonably accurately. I used to know a Hungarian woman who had a young son called Zoltan. They lived in Somerset and she used to get very upset that his school friends all called him Zol'un.

For what it's worth, I say Theah Dore. I've never heard anyone say Thee oh Dore.

I'm sorry, I just died at "Habbat". 😂

Fifthtimelucky Habbat is hilarious! I bet you cringed so hard when you realised (bit like me last year making conversation with a man with a heavy Indian/Pakistani accent....me: "going anywhere nice for Xmas?" Him: "Yes, Dall-land" ... I was like "Dalland? I've not heard of that? My geography is rubbish tho!" .. later realised he obvs said Thailand )

Fifthtimelucky Agree completely.
Except I've never known a Habbat .

MaryzTue 05-Sep-17 01:02:25

Children are allowed to write as they speak. Teachers can't even gently suggest that children shouldn't say things like "I was sat" because that's no longer bad grammar it's local dialect.

This really shouldn't be happening. There is an explicit requirement for teachers to promote 'standard English' and Ofsted are usually pretty hot on it these days. Instances of teachers failing to correct exactly the kind of grammar mistake you've mentioned are reported to Heads by inspectors and can even find their way into inspection reports if there is a perception that teachers are regularly failing to model standard English and/or promote its use by pupils.

YYY Bananafish - I want to know the answers to all those questions too.

SomewhatDisgruntled - When I was working in a primary school, admittedly a few years ago now, the accepted practice was not to correct children but to model. So I wouldn't explicitly point out that 'I was sat' was wrong or nonstandard, but would try to model back a sentence with the correct grammar shortly afterwards, fitting it into the conversation as naturally as I could.

Obviously that's much easier to do in the Foundation Stage and early primary. It would be difficult to do without sounding horribly patronising at secondary level, but it's still better than having a teacher directly tell a student that the way spoke was wrong, I think.

There have been PP on this thread where posters from SE London have said they couldn't understand how three and free could be pronounced differently. So it's interesting whether this extends from non native speakers to native speakers who've grown up with a particular accent

Ah gotcha. I find it surprising too considering that they should have been exposed to many different accents from the telly and so on, and because since people nowadays read they'll notice a discrepancy between the written letter and what is said (unlike ye olden tymes when you'd spell what you actually said). Hopefully someone will return and help us out. :)

I'm from north London I say Theodore. 3 syllables. Not sure why people don't. Fs for Ths is one of my pet peeves.

From the east midlands originally. . Called my Dd a name which when shortened can end in a 'y' or 'ie' Locals where we're from say 'eh' at the end and where we are now they say 'ee' ... it's a regional thing. I don't care either way. I knew the case when I chose it and knew her original name would be shortened.

CancellyMcChequeface (great name!)

A colleague was reprimanded for this (not directly, but it was reported by an inspector to the Head) 3 years ago. He had failed to correct a pupil who'd said something very close to the example given above. In fact, he hadn't heard the boy say it, but admitted privately that he wasn't sure he always corrected every instance of similar msitakes. In my part of the world, misuse of past participles is very common.

I agree it can sound patronising to correct the way pupils speak, especially when regional speech patterns mean that you are essentially telling them that the way their families speak is also wrong. And, in all honesty, some of the staff they will come across in school speak that way too. I just approach it as a 'this is like writing an essay vs a text' issue. Fine to speak however you wish at home, but you need to know what is considered standard English and in the classroom you put on your game face and your formal speech and writing. English isn't my subject but the speaking assessments on the just-binned English GCSE really helped with this; taught pupils explicitly about register. No-one wants to criticise the way a young person speaks, but we do need to try to send them out into the world equipped to deal with a variety of situations and audiences.