why cant americans pronounce Iraq or Stuart or Colin or garage properly?

Answer 1

Oh dear. Please enlighten us on the proper way to speak, oh great and powerful Grammar Policeman. How ever will I function not knowing how to pronounce Iraq, Colin,or Stuart, or heaven forbid Garage properly.

I mean the gods of grammar could strike me down for daring to speak with an accent or in a dialect that varies even the slightest what you, oh wizened one, decree to be the one and only way to pronounce a word.

Get over yourself and misguided sense of being right simply because you happen to have been born in a different country.

Answer 2

I'm confused by the question. I know that Iraq is often pronounced by Americans as I'-rack', but then again I suppose the "proper" pronunciation is er-rock'.

I've heard Colin pronounced as co'-lin (with a long o like Colin Powell pronounces it) and call'-lin (like I'll be callin' you on the phone some day) as others do,

...but for the life of me I can't think of any other pronuciation of Stuart, other than "Stew'-ert". Maybe I'm making the point of the asker, since I'm an American. What am I missing?

Answer 3

umm... what do you consider "proper?"

I guess you should pronounce Irag the way an Iraqi would pronounce it, and Colin and Stuart are Scottish names, so you would have to pronounce them the way Scots do.

A word that Americans tend to mess up more is "nuclear" which is routinely mis-pronounced "nuke-u-lar. That really grates! Or what about library pronounced li-berry, or Feb-u-ary instead of Febru-ary. hahahah!

Answer 4

Please enlighten us by giving the proper pronunciation. Spell phonetically so that we may correct our error.

Answer 5

if you say so.............