Keeping socks in a draw

[CatCaretaker]

Where did draw as a misnomer for drawer come from? I never heard it until I joined Mumsnet (though I'm Irish so maybe it's not a thing here). Is it that a certain accent masks the 'er' in drawer? It drives me bonkers.

There's a trending thread right now, but the OP said draw instead of drawer, and all I want to do is reply correcting her (I won't obviously)! How has she reached this age (middle aged from context in the thread) with nobody having asked her why she is saying draw instead of drawer?

Not in mine, @ChompandaGrazia

That’s generous of you. That makes zero difference to my irritation levels on this one as it’s so widespread! And am I right in saying that in some English accents you would pronounce pour, pore and paw all the same, but doesn’t mean there’s an epidemic of people spelling them wrong! I feel like in the case of drawer it’s more at a campaign level, to change the language.

I'm trying to be understanding. I'll probably fail the next time I see it and be irritated again. I wonder what they think when they encounter drawer written down?

It’s a puzzle to me how ‘draws’ and ‘drawers’ have no discernible difference in pronunciation in some dialects. Where is the rrr?

It seems to have made its way in as acceptable spelling/ description of a singular drawer and no longer seen as a mistake. I genuinely do not understand why!

It’s not pronounced’draw’ where I come from. Draw has no R at the end but Drawer does.

Wait so you pronounce it draw-uh or draw-ruh? In my accent it’s the same - draw, drawer, four, pour all rhyme.

@nameobsessed
Draw-eR (with the r pronounced) rather than draw-uh or draw-ruh I would think.
You can hear it in most of the accents here
forvo.com/word/drawer/

Oh, I can’t say I’ve ever heard it pronounced like that! Thanks for the link. I say it most like the male British one but softer like ‘drawh’. Modern RP accent ish.

Anybody who's Scottish would pronounce it as drawers

I'm also Irish (nordie) so I saw draw-er.

I'm v good at impersonating accents though and so I can see that previous posters are right in that it's almost impossible/doesn't feel natural to pronounce the 'er' in a lot of English accents.

Weirdly I think it's because when I try to say it in an English accents I seem to move my jaw more to make the sound whereas with my normal accent or a different Irish one the jaw is more relaxed.

No I pronounce draw with no R at the end and Draw-er with an R as per the spelling. Sounds more like ‘Drawr’ but draw has no final R. I’m Scottish and apparently our pronunciation is some of the best in the uk.

I’m well educated and well read from the midlands. I cannot make draw and drawer sound any different or to obviously have W or R at the end. I’ve tried a lot in the last few minutes and when I think I’m saying drawer, it could still be draw so nope. Not happening. I know how to spell them.

What “ee”? or did you mean “er”??

Some people make mistakes & write things in error. Other people just don’t know, in the same way you don’t know a lot of things that others do. As a child I thought specific was percific. I just didn’t know.

If you don’t know, you simply don’t know. I was speaking to a senior lecturer yesterday and asking her all sorts of things that I didn’t know. I hope she wasn’t judging me.

No
draw, flaw, saw, paw, claw…

four, pour, sore, store, roar…

drawer…there is no rhyming word…though a way of explaining it is like saying drawer-her with no “h” sound

Trying to work out how pour and paw can sound different 😂

Drawer rhymes with paw, pour and poor in my southern accent.

Yes, I’d pronounce pore, pour, and paw all the same, plus poor. I’m in SE England.

But you’re right, people generally don’t mix up the spellings. Certainly not as often as people mix up draw and drawer.

But surely you don’t teach that in schools? I’m confused…

I appreciate that this is going to be hard over text, but what sound are you making at the end of saw vs sore? Is “saw” more towards “ar” at the end, but not exactly “ar”?

Rhotic accents (eg Irish, Scottish) always pronounce the r, so paw is going to sound different straightaway. Where I am (Ireland) the vowel sound is different in pour and poor too, though pour sounds the same as pore.

I do. Yesterday I absolutely couldn’t remember which way round the i and e go in their. Draw/er is the kind of thing I’d get wrong and then get confused about. Because to me they sound the same.

Drawer is obviously two syllables - do you pronounce porter as port or babysitter as babysit? Or mower as mow? Or skier as ski?

Draw-uh is the RP pronunciation. Or drawr-uh if you wrongly use an intrusive r.

I don't think it matters how it's pronounced - we don't write phonetically (or, at least, we shouldn't). Whenever I see 'draw' or any of the 'loose' instead of lose variants, I know that the person writing doesn't read books or, indeed, anything much that's not on the internet.