It is not a sodding 'Expresso'

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Oh this makes me irrationally angry.

No grazie means thank you, Grazia is the name Grace

Ciabatta according to my dad is see-a-batty-a. Fajitas according to the Mexican fast food place at Alton Towers are fadge-eaters.

I worked in a tea room at a tourist attraction once, I remember one oldish woman coming in with her oldish friends and asking for 'one of those, what do they call them, expressos' and when it arrived exclaiming that it looked very small and very strong, and didn't have the froth on the top.

There was also the person who complained that the 'crisp salad' didn't contain crisps....

Roffle at "crisp salad"

"there's no reason to go all guttural and pretentious" - absolutely, Romana.

I'd feel a bit daft asking for pie-yay-ya (not even sure if that's how you're meant to pronounce it).

I'm glad the varied pronounciations of chorizo have been brought up - Was "th" imposed by Franco or something (for "z" generally, not just sausages!), when he tried to make all Spain speak the same language? Or have I just made that up?

notagrannyyet I am convince that those weird pronounciations of English words were made up by pretentious upper class twats twits to trip up new money upstarts. Am I right? Anyone know?

But buying a coffee is much more complicated than it once was. There's so much choice. I'd be quite happy with a spoonfull of powder in a cup of hot water. Failing that I'll stick to tea or hot chocolate. And I don't want any of those over priced pastries and cakes either....I can make better myself at home!

Anglicising words is all very well. But since when was an 's' in English pronounced 'x'???? Therefore TDWP is not at all unreasonable to expect Espresso to be pronounced Espresso, not Expresso.

We don't go round saying Extimate, Axtound or Axpiration. So why Expresso for all of you that think that Expresso is the Anglicised version of Espresso???

Possibly Otter there are certainly plenty of that type in the area....Tally Ho!

Same with names...Norman St John Stevens is pronounced Sinjun or something like that. There are lots of posh names with funny spellings/pronunciation. Just to make that lot look clever!

Probably it's because lots of us can't READ or speak very well Mistlethrush.

Actually from a linguist's point of view, I think the wacky pronunciations of some English surnames, your example notagranny or Featherstonehaugh as Fanshaw for example, may come from the fact that these surnames are very old, and minor mispronounciations have built up over the centuries, until you end up with the almost entirely disconnected result we have now. I suppose it is a very subtle way of underlining how very ancient one's family is if one's surname is pronounced nothing like it is spelled.

Wrt Paris - I normally pronounce it Paris, but when referring to the airport outside of Paris that Ryanair fly to, I say Paree-Beauvais, because Paris-Beauvais sounds snooty and wrong to me.

I am blushing to think that the panino/biscotto thing has never dawned on me, and that I didn't know how to pronounce bruschetta until I read this thread.

I did know how to pronounce rioja and espresso, and that kweetch was quiche though - so that salvages a few shreds of dignity for me.

And when he was little and first heard the word, ds1 used to call cappucino 'caffer-teeny-war!'

"Espresso" relates, I think, to it being quick. Express if you like. Sooooo back in the 50s/60s when few ordinary mortals got to travel overseas, the owners of coffee shops called their glamourous and new-to-most hot drink "Expresso", thus anglicizing it and making it sound even more young and hep than it already was.

The fact that what they called "expresso" was actually cappuccino is by the by.

This is all theory btw, based on what my mum told me. But interesting imo.

I blame Cliff Richard

Otter - espresso means pressure. It is called espresso coffee because it involves forcing water, under pressure, through ground coffee.

but I think a lot of people assume it means quick and make the expresso mistake.

Hmm.. Place names are tricky.

In Enlish it is Paris. They call London Londres. Just because the English and French version of the city name are spelt the same doesn't mean it is the same word. However if I ruled the world then place names would BY LAW remain always in their language of origin.

However I do get annoyed with the way French people pronounce Schumacher and Aachen. They 'ch' is practically silent, with an almost imperceptible rolling 'r' sound to it. I always correct them, but I think I may be wrong to do so.

English speaking people seem unable to pronounce "Van Gogh" correctly either. From the English "Van Goff" to the American "Vaan Go".

It is, aksherly, Fan Hoch (Dutch G is pronounced in similar vein to Spanish j with a clearing of the throat sound ).

Ah - thanks WoTmania. I think I've kind of added weight to my own theory with my complete misunderstanding of Italian

Flyingcloud - do they say "shoo-mashay" then?

yy it's awful isn't it! It's more like GHock though, really.

I bet Brian Sewell says "Fan Hoch"

I say "Van Goff" - but then it's not a name I need to use often.

DisplacementActivity - yes, that's a better way to write it! Was sat here with Dutch DH trying to work out how to spell it phonetically

And yes, Otter, you are right, one doesn't have more than one or two occasions a year to use correct pronunciation of the famous one-eared Nederlands painter

Citroen is one that gets me. In French and German it sounds fine, but if you say it "properly" in English, it sounds really odd. So I end up saying Sitron. And Ren-oh, come to think of it. It feels odd.

Otherwise I think I would sound ridiculous!

I saw Delia Smith on a telly programme pronounce it "expresso"

Oh, and Porsche should have the e pronounced at the end, right?

But I'd sound a bit of a ponce doing that in the circles I move in!

I remember moving to Essex and pronouncing Theydon Bois as in the French for woods.

Cue hysterical laughter in the office.

Apparently, 'tis pronounced "Boys" .