Celtic_Angel

just a quick question


"been"................as in where the heck have you been?


how would you pronounce it....bean or bin??

CPW

I'd pronounce it, more or less, 'bean'. But then, I haven't been living in the USA.

HunterGreen

Bin here.

ScousePete

Interesting question. You know you have been (or bin) in the US too long when both sound right and at the same time sound a little wrong. Help me...

James Box

as in Mr. Bean

ElsieTheMaid

Both ways, I say "how 'ave you bin", but then I would say "have you been there?"

ElsieTheMaid

Actually, the more I reflect on it, it probably depends who I'm talking to and if I'm using my "phone voice"

Celtic_Angel

ARGH!! you guys are no help!!

I'm sure it's "bean" my 2nd grader had homework , only by a process of elimination was it determined that been was "gasp" in the bin pronouncation catergory!!!

I honestly was so convinced it must be an error in the book that i wrote a note for my daughters teacher , then my son reminded me that we'd been though all this a year before when he had the homework and yes it was "bin" i mean bean come on mom?

suddenly i'm thinking is it bin, have i bin...er...bean...argh been saying it wrong this whole time is bean maybe british?

i have totally been here way too long i actually forget what's british and what's U.S to the point where i'd though i'd been wrong all these years calling a ladybug a Ladybird
i thought i's just become a bad speller when i found myself writing centre instead of center

Please help i've been going crazy ever since i lost my collins dictionary

HunterGreen

Well in this light, if it helps you at all maybe I should say that I don't speak British, only American, and like I said - I pronounce it 'bin'. Never knew it could be pronounced 'bean'.

And it is nice to know that my daughter's T-shirt is not wrong and the bug is actually called Ladybird as well... I've been cursing the makers for the longest time because they didn't know it was a ladybug....



Elaine

ukemigrant

Tell me, do you pronounce speed as spid too? I mean come on how hard can it be folks? Seed as sid? Weed as wid? Sheen as shin? Why would been be any different? I'm not aware of 'ee' ever being pronounced as 'i' except as a lazy dialect change like -in' instead of -ing.

HunterGreen

We pronounce creek as crik. That okay with you?

Englishmum

Here's something for you Huntergreen!

http://www.finnie.org/dialect/

(I don't pronounce crayon like any of the options posted there....I say cray-on.)

tony_2003

It's bean for me.
Bought a subway sandwich the other day and was stumped when the guy was asking me if I wanted some oregano on it...I had no friggin clue what he was trying to say...luckily the missus was there to translate.
I pronounce it or-egg-ano he was saying o-ray-gan-o. It looks fairly simple that you'd think i'd be able to guess what he meant, but said really fast it sounds weird...that and he mumbled a lot.
Am I wrong here?

Wintersong

I think that's another candidate for the US vs UK words list

The UK pronunciation is (I believe) "oh-RIG-ahn-o". Well, that's how I say it anyway.

Celtic_Angel

Thank you!!!

so it's not just me then? surrounded by all these American's i thought i was going friggin' nuts!!

oh and don't get me started on Herbs- why do they drop the "h"
and baa sil v's bay sil now which one is the British version? lol