Pronouncing foreign players' names

Most (if not, all) of the English commentators pronounce Jesus [Navas] as 'Hay-zus'. If an Englishman met a regular Spaniard called Jesus, he would still attempt to say it the way it is meant to be said (he-soos, for lack of a better phonetic spelling). Why is it that for the footballer, they refer to him as 'Hay-zus'. That isn't even close. Do your job ffs.

Edit: & it is the same commentator that will pronounce a name like Eliaquim Mangala in a perfect French accent, so perfect it is almost like they brought in a Frenchman just to say the name each time he gets the ball.

Edit: Also just noticed how old this thread is, but I didn't find another one and wasn't sure if it was thread-worthy.
 
Cantona'sCollar said:
Most (if not, all) of the English commentators pronounce Jesus [Navas] as 'Hay-zus'. If an Englishman met a regular Spaniard called Jesus, he would still attempt to say it the way it is meant to be said (he-soos, for lack of a better phonetic spelling). Why is it that for the footballer, they refer to him as 'Hay-zus'. That isn't even close. Do your job ffs.
Click to expand...

I don't know why they don't use the English way of saying Jesus. No Spanish person I've ever met has even attempted to say my name in the English way (my first name starts with a J but they always pronounce a H) and I've got no issue with it.
 
Cantona'sCollar said:
Most (if not, all) of the English commentators pronounce Jesus [Navas] as 'Hay-zus'. If an Englishman met a regular Spaniard called Jesus, he would still attempt to say it the way it is meant to be said (he-soos, for lack of a better phonetic spelling). Why is it that for the footballer, they refer to him as 'Hay-zus'. That isn't even close. Do your job ffs.

Edit: & it is the same commentator that will pronounce a name like Eliaquim Mangala in a perfect French accent, so perfect it is almost like they brought in a Frenchman just to say the name each time he gets the ball.
Click to expand...
It's not He-soos, he said hey Zeus, my name is Zeus.
 
Ask the player how he wants his name to be pronounced. Pronounce it like that.
 
Cold_Boy said:
Also how is meireles pronounced?

Most commentators say Meralesh or Mirelsh?
Click to expand...

His name is pronounced May-relsh

Alves is pronounced Alvesh

S at the end of Words are Always pronounced like SH

I had a portuguese co-worker who taught me :)
 
duffer said:
I don't know why they don't use the English way of saying Jesus. No Spanish person I've ever met has even attempted to say my name in the English way (my first name starts with a J but they always pronounce a H) and I've got no issue with it.
Click to expand...

Same situation with me. Strange.
 
lysglimt said:
His name is pronounced May-relsh

Alves is pronounced Alvesh

S at the end of Words are Always pronounced like SH

I had a portuguese co-worker who taught me :)
Click to expand...
Not necessarily with Brazilian Portuguese (although I believe people from Rio do it.)
 
Javier pronounced as 'Have-e-eh' drives me crazy. It's like the commentators are going from some strange, French accent aigu-type thing.
 
I often hear Turkish names butchered, although Özil is alright. People generally don't pronounce it correctly, but it's close enough.
 
Fener1907 said:
I often hear Turkish names butchered, although Özil is alright. People generally don't pronounce it correctly, but it's close enough.
Click to expand...
To be fair, Turkish names are hard to pronounce. How do you properly pronounce Gundogan?
 
I think Clive Tyldesley's pronunciation of Modric as Mod-er-reech for a while was the funniest attempt at authenticity that I've heard in a long while
 
Bellerín is a weird one. Commentators are generally pretty good at pronouncing the LL ligature correctly, but they refuse to do it for him. I don't think I've heard a single "Beyerín" on English TV.
 
jem said:
To be fair, Turkish names are hard to pronounce. How do you properly pronounce Gundogan?
Click to expand...

They are. It's Gündoğan and those characters make it a bit tricky. I'd just advise you to go with 'Goon-dough-an'. The ü is made by pursing your lips and kind of making that sound like you're intrigued by something (ooooo, but short), and the ğ might as well just be completely silent, because it's very subtle anyway and expecting a non-Turkish speaker to pronounce that is just absurd.
 
Lovely thread. I just love hearing such inconsistency when pronouncing footballers names, especially when in large groups whether at the game or in a pub. I am too very guilty of this however I am aware that I am way off the mark.
 
I didn't think I'd hear a worse butchering than Hoddle's 'Willian' yesterday until I heard him say De Bruyne tonight.

I'm positive he was calling Willian something like 'Willem'.
 
I kept pronouncing Erik Dier's surname Dee-air... Don't really know why, I knew he was English when he moved to Spurs :lol:
 
Is my hearing shot or do many/most commentators pronounce Daley Blind's name with a T as in Blint.

Not sure if it's actually the correct pronunciation or not but it gets on my tits.
 
Bojan being pronounced with the ʒ sound (the sound at the start of 'genre', for example) has been doing my head in lately. Danny Murphy and Ian Wright, I'm looking at you here.

Also been hearing Son Heung Min called either 'Sonn' or 'Sun' since he joined Spurs, when it should be 'Sohn'.

Neither are that big a deal, but if it was me getting paid handsomely to talk about footy, I'd do a quick check and find out the correct pronunciation.
 
Joachim Loew

"And there is Yogey Love, leading out the German team...."


Slaps have been thrown when I've heard that...And my previous aggression spans to rage quitting FIFA, so you know it's bad
 
stevoc said:
Is my hearing shot or do many/most commentators pronounce Daley Blind's name with a T as in Blint.

Not sure if it's actually the correct pronunciation or not but it gets on my tits.
Click to expand...

I think Blint is probably right but it's commentators consistently calling him "Danny" that bugs me.
 
I worked in Denmark for a bit a few years ago and one of the people in the Danish office said "In Danish Jonathan is pronounced jon-a-tan, so I'll call you that". My immediate thought was "if you do, then I'll call you cnut".
 
I watch a lot of matches with Spanish commentary, it's not just us Brits who struggle with names.

One of the commentators thinks Atch Lee Yo Ung plays has been playing right back for us. One of the co-commentators is English so he sorts them out when he's on - but the Spanish ones often end up correcting him on some of the more unusual regionalised Spanish names.

As a result I really have no faith in any pronunciation of player names. Even when the player is asked to pronounce or a teammate/manager says it, I'm typically English in that I can't always hear the sound. In any case I hadn't realised until a few weeks back that Chris is pronounced as Mike when followed by Smalling.
 
duffer said:
I don't know why they don't use the English way of saying Jesus. No Spanish person I've ever met has even attempted to say my name in the English way (my first name starts with a J but they always pronounce a H) and I've got no issue with it.
Click to expand...
:lol: So what's your name? Hames, Hohn, Hack, Hake, Him, Hude, Hedediah?
 
Having just moved to Europe, I am really struggling with the continental phonetics and pronunciation. And this thread comes up.

Why can't 'J' be just pronounced as 'Jay' of 'Je' and not "Hey" or "kha" and 'H' as 'ech' or 'Ach'? Just, you know, like, keep it simple...
 
ctp said:
Bellerín is a weird one. Commentators are generally pretty good at pronouncing the LL ligature correctly, but they refuse to do it for him. I don't think I've heard a single "Beyerín" on English TV.
Click to expand...

I doubt a single commentator bothered to pronounce David Villa correctly. Bellerin has no chance.
 
Call me pedantic but I think it should be part of a commentator's preparation to learn the pronounciation of player names.
 
jojojo said:
I watch a lot of matches with Spanish commentary, it's not just us Brits who struggle with names.

One of the commentators thinks Atch Lee Yo Ung plays has been playing right back for us. One of the co-commentators is English so he sorts them out when he's on - but the Spanish ones often end up correcting him on some of the more unusual regionalised Spanish names.

As a result I really have no faith in any pronunciation of player names. Even when the player is asked to pronounce or a teammate/manager says it, I'm typically English in that I can't always hear the sound. In any case I hadn't realised until a few weeks back that Chris is pronounced as Mike when followed by Smalling.
Click to expand...

I agree with you that it's not only the Brits who struggle. Spanish people are often just as bad with names, as they look at the word and pronounce it how it's written (phonetic language), and sometimes seem unable to change it even when corrected. It's universal.

An inability to pronounce certain sounds is inevitable, and every language seems to have its sounds that stump people from certain countries. They require a lot of practice when that's the case, so I'm not surprised commentators, even when trying, don't quite get it.
 
Cantona'sCollar said:
Most (if not, all) of the English commentators pronounce Jesus [Navas] as 'Hay-zus'. If an Englishman met a regular Spaniard called Jesus, he would still attempt to say it the way it is meant to be said (he-soos, for lack of a better phonetic spelling). Why is it that for the footballer, they refer to him as 'Hay-zus'. That isn't even close. Do your job ffs.
Click to expand...

You're one of those nobs that complains to ofcom aren't you
 
duffer said:
I don't know why they don't use the English way of saying Jesus. No Spanish person I've ever met has even attempted to say my name in the English way (my first name starts with a J but they always pronounce a H) and I've got no issue with it.
Click to expand...

Isn't that the truth brother. Spanish people mispronounce 2 letters out of my 5 letter name and I don't go walking round calling everyone a little spaniard. Grow up you clowns
 
coolredwine said:
Having just moved to Europe, I am really struggling with the continental phonetics and pronunciation. And this thread comes up.

Why can't 'J' be just pronounced as 'Jay' of 'Je' and not "Hey" or "kha" and 'H' as 'ech' or 'Ach'? Just, you know, like, keep it simple...
Click to expand...

Continental Europe? The fact that they don't speak english isn't a clue?:p
 
coolredwine said:
Having just moved to Europe, I am really struggling with the continental phonetics and pronunciation. And this thread comes up.

Why can't 'J' be just pronounced as 'Jay' of 'Je' and not "Hey" or "kha" and 'H' as 'ech' or 'Ach'? Just, you know, like, keep it simple...
Click to expand...

jajajaja, what a newb.
 
The funniest I heard was the English commentary in a FIFA game trying to pronounce Desailly, you can't get it right if you don't know it.
 
BBRBB said:
The funniest I heard was the English commentary in a FIFA game trying to pronounce Desailly, you can't get it right if you don't know it.
Click to expand...

Dhuhsayee. Yeah you can't guess that one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.