Hypercorrectly pronouncing food

It’s incredibly irritating when people mispronounce dishes and products. But when things are pronounced too correctly, you also drive us up the wall. These words make our neck hairs stand on end.

Oregano

In Italian, you say orégano (stress on -re-). We know that perfectly well, but it’s still nicer if you simply say oregaano.

Cava and verdejo

In Spanish, a v becomes a soft b, but ordering a ‘caba’ is taking things a bit far… We find something strange about the grape verdejo. The j is correctly pronounced like an English h, but if you also pronounce the v like a b, you’re just being pretentious.

Quinoa

Opinions are divided in the editorial office: Emma is on team kee-no-ah, while Nadia has always said kee-nwa (yes, the way it’s meant to be said). What we do agree on is that we want to pronounce this word as little as possible.

Kaki

And once again: we know perfectly well that kaaki is a colour and ka-kí (stress on the final syllable) is the correct pronunciation of this exotic fruit, but they only do that in Japan. Let’s keep it that way.

Chorizo

This is a bit of a borderline case. At least in the editorial office, we agree that saying tjorizo is perfectly fine, but if you pronounce the z like a hissing s, you’re going a little too far. No, we’re not the easiest people.

Pho

After loudly proclaiming how to pronounce this correctly, we have to admit that we look away for a moment when a Dutch person goes all in on the ‘euh’ sound in a Vietnamese restaurant. Not to mention the looks from the Vietnamese staff themselves.

Paella

Pa-ejja. Yes, that is indeed how you say it, but it sounds so incredibly snobby that we simply shout pa-el-ja when the large, steaming pan is placed on the table.

Read also:

• These words are better pronounced correctly
• Emma’s food pet peeve #5: avocado abuse
• This is how you make foolproof gnocchi