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this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2025
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You pronounce the word correctly for whatever language the word is from. That’s the objectively correct way. Is this a serious question?
There are times in which pronouncing the wrong way can save you a lot of hassle.
In many poor countries speaking proper English is a dead giveaway that you have money, so you can obviously see why that is undesirable. Even when that is not the case English is so deep in every other language that people use English words as they see fit without knowing the language at all, so one has to pronounce it like they do for them to understand.
Last case is to "avoid correcting someone" because one does not want to make the other person feel bad, or simply want to avoid the "how is it pronounced" situation.
Do you speak multiple languages?
Yes, I speak English and Spanish
Definitely serious. Loanwords fall all across the spectrum regarding how much they’re integrated from their source language into the “local” language and most folks don’t know or care about word etymologies enough to even consider it. If you’re not native there’s a good chance you’re mispronouncing loanwords even when you’re trying to use their native pronunciation.
Loanwords are a different story. I would argue those are part of both languages at that point. Burrito is an English word and a Spanish word. As I see it, anyway.
Do you pronounce borrowed French words the way they should be correctly pronounced in everyday settings?
Like this video: https://youtu.be/fKGoVefhtMQ
If I can. My sentiments do not apply to “loan words”. Those are a different category in my opinion. And there are some French words I struggle with, tbh.
It's not objectively correct.
If you do this between English and Japanese, Japanese people will not understand the way you pronounced the English word.
If you ask a Japanese person if they own a "computer" they will not understand. You have to call it a "con-puuu-ta" or even "pa-so-con" which is personal computer.
McDonald's... Nope. "ma ku do nal do" or even just "makku" depending on the region.
In Thai it’s just ‘com’.
If you’re ready for the bill at a restaurant it’s ’check bin’ which for some reason is ‘check’ and ‘bill’ combined. When I first learned this people were confused why I didn’t already know it, “but it’s English?!”
These wrong loanwords are always so weird! German has a ton of those, e.g. "trainer" is a coach, and "handy" is a cellphone. Add all the false friends because of the similar origins of German and English (even the latin-derived words often have completely different meanings) and it becomes a huge mess to untangle when you're learning English as a native German speaker or vice versa.
“Trainer” probably would work just fine in US English but I can see what it wouldn’t with British English. Of course that only makes things more complicated…
“Handy” definitely does not work in U.S. English especially using it as a noun