why do the british armed forces pronounce it "leftenant" when there is no F in Lieutenant?

Question

solaran_x is wrong actually we english do spell it Lieutenant not leftenant.

Answer 1

A lieutenant is usually a rank who is a second in command.

It derives from the French words "lieu" meaning 'place' or 'position' and "tenant" meaning 'someone holding a position or tenancy'.

Therefore "lieutenant" means someone holding a position in place of his superior.

The French word 'lieu' comes from the old French 'luef' which gives rise to the pronunciation "LEF-tenant"

Americans (not the brighest people) just try to read it as it's written and mispronounce it as "LOO-tenant".

Answer 2

In what? Tug of war? A chess tournament? As far as war goes the US military's strategy is based around always having air and naval supremacy which gives their ground forces a decisive edge. There is a reason why the US is involved in most friendly fire incidents. Because they're the only country dropping bombs on a regular basis. The US provides air support for every country in Afghanistan and it was the same story in Iraq. When a British soldier calls for air support it is almost always the US that responds. The RAF doesn't really have the capability to provide air support. It has nothing to with training. The US has the money to fund a massive and fully capable air force The British don't. It's understandable why the average British soldier trains longer and harder than the average American soldier. When you look at military capability it's really not a fair fight. The Royal Air Force has only 100 Air Superiority fighters. The US has several thousand. The USN has 10 Carriers that are capable of holding 90 aircraft each and the Royal Navy has none. If you were to put them into a conventional war against each other it would not be a fair fight at all.

Answer 3

British Lieutenant

Answer 4

mainwoolly is *completely* wrong. I'm French, we pronounce it the same as Americans do - Lieutenant, just as it's spelled with no F in it. Nice try at being a troll there mainwoolly. It's the British that pronounce it wrong and say Leftenant. This is old but very much wrong, so I'm commenting.

Answer 5

It's unfortunate that this has to devolve into name calling Mainwoolly. If the f no longer exists within the word lieutenant, despite its origin word, it would not be pronounced with an f. I'm from New Orleans and our speech and pronunciation is heavily influenced by French. U.S. spellings and pronunciations are derived from Noah Webster who attempted to standardize English when no standards existed. It's not a question of American intelligence it's trying to right the wrongs of multiple standards that were in use in the Past. If you read up a little more on the English language, you would not have resorted to insults.

Answer 6

I agree with both variations and respect that every dialect from every country is specifically correct, regardless of the origin of any word. If it were a matter of who is speaking words correctly or not, the only one that is correct is the Latin version, thereby making the UK, French, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and United States versions incorrect. So, with that in mind, whether Lieutenant or Leftenant, either is correct for the respective nationalities from which they were derived.

Answer 7

The rank is pronounced 'leftenant' in the British Army and 'lieutenant' in the Royal Navy.

The reason for the difference in pronunciation becomes obvious when both services have a similar sounding officer rank.

This is how it was explained to me when I was in the Army 1957-1965. Don't think much has changed since.

English pronunciation - the correct American = lieutenant [loo-tenant] - the correct UK = leftenant [leff-tenant].

The Royal Navy say 'lieutenant'.
The British Army say 'leftenant'

Take your pick.

Answer 8

Lieutenant is taken from the french and becomes Leftenant by translation.

Answer 9

Leftenant

Answer 10

Hi,

I'm English and some of us pronounce it "lieutenant" (incorrectly - it's pronounced "leftenant" in the UK). It's from the French "lieu" + "tenant" (past participle of "tenir", meaning "to hold"), although the reason for the differing pronunciation is unknown.

Answer 11

In Uk we have 2nd Lieutenant in the army, f
Flight Lieutenant in the RAF and Sub Lieutenant in the Navy.

But in the US military they have the rank Shi* Lootenant.

Havent you noticed how, in Hollywood movies, when the officer orders the soldier to do some dangerous task the soldier replies: ' Aw, Shi* Lootenant'?