“Rumor has it” that we’ve all been saying Adele’s name wrong this entire time. That’s right: According to a recent report from Babbel, Americans just can’t seem to pronounce Adele correctly.
The Captioning Group, which captions and subtitles events for television, and the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters release an annual list of words that the media, politicians and other famous figures most commonly mispronounced throughout the year. The report is commissioned by online language learning company Babbel, and this year, the list contains everything from singers like Adele to cities in Ukraine.
So how do you say Adele? Well, most of us say “ah-DELL,” but it’s actually “uh-DALE.” In a live stream interview for “Happy Hour with Adele,” Adele applauded a London fan who pronounced her name “perfectly.” Watch the moment on TikTok below, and see if you notice the subtle pronunciation difference:
@etalkctv Have you been pronouncing it Un-del or Ah-del? During a Q&A with fans, #Adele ⬠original sound – etalk
This isn’t the only U.K. name that we have been mangling in the States. The American media also apparently pronounces “Edinburgh” wrong. The capital of Scotland was mentioned often in the news this year as Queen Elizabeth II’s body made its way to Holyroodhouse after her death in Balmoral prior to being interred in Windsor. But while the media called it “Ed-in-burg,” it is actually “Ed-in-Bruh” or “Ed-in-Buh-Ruh.”
This helpful YouTube video from Eurocentres Worldwide which reveals the correct way to say Edinburgh, as well as the secret nickname that people from the U.K. use for the city:
We have also been mispronouncing Domhnall Gleeson’s name wrong — he is the actor best known for playing Bill Weasley in the “Harry Potter” series, as well as starring in the 2022 miniseries “The Patient.” His name is pronounced “DOH-null.” And as for his brother Brian (known for his roles in shows like “Peaky Blinders”), his name is pronounced “BREE-an,” not “BRY-an.”
Here are the brothers teasing Seth Myers on “Late Night with Seth Myers” for butchering their Irish names:
Other mispronounced names in 2022? Zaporizhzhia, a city in Ukraine that is home to Europe’s largest nuclear station, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station. It is pronounced z”ah-POH-reezha,” not the wide swath of varying mispronunciations that American tongues have come up with.
And the report says we also often butcher Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s name. The Samoan football player pronounces his last name as “TUNG-o-vai-LOH-uh.”
Watch him pronounce his name below:
Another popularly mispronounced phrase is a drink name that morphed into a huge social media trend. Negroni sbagliato, properly pronounced “ne-GRO-nee spah-lee-AH-toh,”— with prosecco — became a meme after actress Emma D’Arcy revealed it was her favorite drink on a YouTube interview with Olivia Cooke for HBO Max. Here’s the moment that launched a thousand TikTok videos:
You can read more about Babbel’s full list of most mispronounced words of 2022 here.
By Bridget Sharkey, for Newsy.
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