How do you pronounce...
By semicolonp
@semicolonp (518)
Philippines
April 17, 2009 10:05am CST
Prejudice? I'm the type of person who usually pronounce words depending on how they're spelled because it helps me remember the spelling. It's just a habit I've grown used to and when I encounter people telling me, "That's now how you pronounce that," I take an effort to remember how to pronounce them correctly, but still essentially rely on the "pronounced as spelled" habit I have.
While giving a report about prejudice and bigotry, I kept saying "pre-joo-dees" since I've grown used to that pronunciation but while he didn't necessarily correct me, a classmate who asked several questions kept pronouncing it "pre-joo-dais", which got me thinking I might be pronouncing it wrong.
So, how is PREJUDICE pronounced anyway? And what words do you continually say one way even if you know they're pronounced another?
2 people like this
9 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
17 Apr 09
The correct English (British) pronunciation is 'pre-dju-dis, where the 'e' is short as in 'men' and 'dju' is something between 'dew' and 'chew'. Some people pronounce the 'u' as a pure 'u' sound (rather shorter than 'oo' in 'soon') while many would have a definite 'y' sound in there - 'pred-yu-dis' - rather than the 'j' sound. The latter is considered more 'educated' or 'upper class' (and, perhaps, a little out-dated).
It should certainly not be pronounced to rhyme with 'nice'!
2 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
17 Apr 09
Also, why didn't I just say that the middle syllable sounds like 'jew'? Apparently because my mind avoids that word unless I am talking about that nation!
'Pre' is short, as in 'premature', 'prelude' and 'prelate'; not as in 'previous', 'pre-natal' or even as in 'pretty'!
@novafragment (6)
•
17 Apr 09
Apologies if this is hard to understand but everybody I've heard say it pronounces it as "preh-judd-iss". Hope this helps you.
@semicolonp (518)
• Philippines
17 Apr 09
I think that's how I pronounce it too. Essentially, the big difference between how I pronounced it and how my classmate pronounced it was that I said the "-dice" part using eeee/iii and he said it as AIIIEE as in the dice you roll when playing games.
I cannot, for all the world, read phonetics. I tried looking at the dictionary to see how it's pronounced but I just got confused. :p
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
18 Apr 09
pre-j-o-di-s. This is the way I pronounce it. Although it seems to me a weird pronunciation but I can't get another one for it.
Have you ever seen a world spelling competetion on ESPN. I don't know the exact time and date of this but last year I saw in June and it was an awesome competition. True that the competitors were kids but my God they had talent and can pronounce words which I would have never heard in my entire life!!!
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
17 Apr 09
I can't say how prejudice is pronounced but I pronounce it preh-juh-dus. I wasn't sure if your pre-joo-dais was the way I was pronouncing it or not. I have a very southern way of pronouncing things, so I'm sure that it's not the way it's usually pronounced. Then again, I don't think any way is wrong because if your used to it or grew up with a certain accent you shouldn't be forced to change it. Pronunciation of words shouldn't offend. I know it has me, but I think it's only because people have been insultive with the way I pronounce things.
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
17 Apr 09
I pronounce prejudice with the predj rhyming with wedge, it has a short e. The centre u sounds like the word you and the last dice rhymes with this with a short i. Certainly not the long i as in the word ice. predge-you-diss
That is strange that the vowels are shortened and changed from the root word of prejudge.
I think your pronunciation can change with geography as well. Some Indian accents and Caribbean dialects can be difficult for North Americans to understand as can some of the more broad English and Scottish accents.
I think dialects from native speakers seem to change the vowels and English as second language speakers tend to change the consonant sounds.
If you want to learn how to pronounce words correctly there are several dictionaries online that will speak the word for you. For example prejudice is here
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?prejud03.wav=prejudice
Turn up you speakers.
@dufresne (137)
• China
18 Apr 09
Language is just a tool for communication. The best way, in my opinion, is to listen to lecture or talk spoken by native English-speaking people, for no rigid rules there are about pronunciation. Always asking about this kind of matter is a waste of time. You just follow what you hear and i think that is the way.
