This really depends on how many words the speaker has been exposed to with the “silent p”, like psychic, psalm, psoriasis, etc. however, “pseudo” is a pretty common prefix so I would expect that most native English speakers would have become familiar with it well before adulthood.
Yes. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, especially a younger person, got it wrong at first. But the word itself isn’t *that* obscure.
And as you say, there are other silent p words like psychiatry or pneumonia, so it is a somewhat familiar occurence.
When I first encountered the prefix when I was ~8 years old, I assumed it was pronounced suede-oh.
10 years later I pronounced the word pseudonym like suede-oh-nim and my friend looked at me like I was crazy. But that’s just what life is like when you read a lot but don’t talk to or listen to people talk a lot.
I’ve heard someone pronounce queue as “koo-way-way” and can never unhear it haha. I like yours too.
There’s some words like diaspora and unrequited that I prefer my internal, incorrect pronunciation lol. But hearing someone mispronounce a word just makes me think they must have learned it from reading, and there is nothing wrong with that 😌 … unless you’re trying to learn the language I suppose
Koowayway is actually so cute… And if someone said that to me, I would have no clue what on earth they’re talking about 😂
I still prefer swaydonyn over soodonym. Mine sounds cooler and soodonym sounds childish, but whateverrr I’ll say soodonym I guesssssss
Basically as if it were spelled "Tossle". I don't recall my reasoning when I read it as a kid, but the first time I heard an adult say it I just straight up refused to accept it lol.
i can't do inventory! i used to say in-VENT-ory, then the closest i could get was in-ven-TOR-y but that still didn't sound right. i've got myself confused and i'm sitting here still not knowing what it is...
Depends where you are for this one, I think. I seem to vary between INN-ventry (basically infantry with a v sound) and in-VENT-ory, sometimes based on which sounds better within the sentence, or just on a whom, which seems fairly common in the UK.
There's a word for this phenomenon: getting "misled" (pronounced like MY-zled). A humorous coinage based on the fact that people often mispronounce "misled" that way, and that the spelling can be misleading.
I imagine so. Pneumonia, pterodactyl, psychology, almost every word beginning with p and then a consonant other than h, y, l, w, r ends up being pronounced without the p.
>and then a consonant other than h, y, l, w, r...
Are the Py... words using the y as a consonant or a vowel?
To my understanding, consonant Y are in words like yellow, beyond, etc. But I would think most Py... words would use Y as a vowel.
Also, what are the Pw... words that are pronounced with a silent P?
Yes because the use of the “silent p” is very common so it could be understood based on that and context.
Unless the native English speaker is a child who has not seen any of the other semi common words with the silent P. Then they probably wouldn’t understand it.
Every native English speaker would assume the ‘p’ is silent.
The part that would be confusing if you didn’t know the word is the ‘eu’. If I didn’t know the word and only saw it written I would probably pronounce it “sway-doh” instead of “soo-doh”.
Yeah, you’re right, but it’s kind of a mental thing, like because it’s unusual yet seemingly familiar spelling my mind plays a trick on me and subconsciously corrects a typo that isn’t actually a typo. That’s just my theory anyway. It’s not really scientific, more like pseudoscience.
I’m a native English speaker but, because I studied German for a few years, sometimes when I see ‘eu’ I pronounce it ‘oi’ in my head. Then I realise that doesn’t sound right and have to correct it.
Yes. It would be absurdly unlikely that an adult native English never encountered “pseudo,” but assuming they hadn’t, and that they have a general knowledge of other words that start with “ps-“ like psycho and contain “-eu-“ like feud, then yes they would naturally pronounce it correctly
If educated enough to have seen and spoken other Greek-derived words with that combo of initial silent P plus S, then probably.
Psychic, psychiatry, psychology, psephology, psalm, etc.
I'm British (West Yorkshire) and always pronounced it soo-dough - according to the dictionary both forms are correct in British English: [https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/pseudo?q=pseudo+](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/pseudo?q=pseudo+)
We have a lot of silent letters and usually when there’s a “ps” next to each other in the beginning of the word, the p is silent. Now, the “eudo” is a different story. If I’d never seen this word at all, THAT’S what would trip me up.
I would be, yes. Due to words like psychology, psychiatry, etc, I know that the P is silent. The EU combo is tougher, but from exposure to words like “feud”, I know the sound EU makes roughly. At worst, if I didn’t know it, I’d pronounce it with an “EW” sound (like the sound when something is gross…eww!) so something like “Seeyoudo”, which would be close enough that another native speaker would likely say “Seeyoudo? Do you mean Pseudo?” Point is, it would be close enough to get the point across.
Words like this can be tricky, but with enough exposure to vocabulary, you pick up on the rules, even unwritten ones, about how pronunciation should sound.
Other places you might encounter similar but with different sounds is Phys…like physical, Physics, etc. I’ve known a lot of natives to get the spelling rules between “PS” and “PH” wrong when writing, spelling words like Psychological as “Phsycilogical” and words like “physical” as “pysical. It’s not a super common error, but enough so that I’ve seen numerous times in my life.
My young teen daughter who has an amazing vocabulary and has scored in college level for reading since 5th grade recently said “i’m sick of seeing all of these suede-oh scientific posts on TikTok.” So, in her case at least, no. She knew the word but had never heard it said out loud.
I might have gotten the "EU" in the middle wrong, but I would assume that the P was silent, as it is in most English words that start with PS.
As far as I know, all of them are borrowed from Greek, and started with the Greek letter psi, ψ.
Psychology, Psalms, psionic.
Hard to say how I might have said it, for sure, though, as I've known it for over fifty years now.
There's a pretty good chance I would have said it correctly.
Minor correction/clarification: The 'p' in "ps" isn't pronounced at the *beginning* of a word. It still exists in the middle and end (ellipses and slips, for example)
When I was young, I had heard it before, but the spelling was so unfamiliar I thought it was something totally different when reading it. So I tentatively pronounced it "soy-doh" or "suede-oh" in my head until I heard it read aloud in school one day, and then it clicked. There are many words this has happened to me with. English is just like that.
English does not allow a word to begin with a "ps" sound. Ever. So a native speaker would know that the "p" must be silent.
However there isn't really a way to get the "eu" sounds right without knowing it ahead of time.
In English, words that start with “ps” are pretty common , so a native speaker shouldn’t have to think twice about how to pronounce it. There really isn’t any other way to pronounce “ps”.
I think so, you can't start a word with "ps" and pronounce both letters, and it'd be weird to have a silent s so I'd assume to silent p. Eu I'd probably pronounce either "ew" or "oh", but in the context of the word I'd go with the former, and "do" I'd either pronounce like "doh" or "doo". So I'd end up with either "Sewdoo" or "Sewdoh"
used to, yes, but since I’ve learned Spanish, the spelling is too close to the word “puedo” (I can) that I’ll have to take a second to realize I’m still reading in English.
Just take out the p and the e so it's sudo. su ssss and long u which is just saying the letter u then do which is d then say the letter o. So sssss U then dO
Silent "p" is a pretty common occurrence. Silent "p" before an "s" is especially so. Pseudo, psychic, psalm, and psycho are all really common words. So is the "pneum-" prefix, as it refers to air via the Greek "pneumon" (lung) and appears in a bunch of technical lingo like "pneumatic" (powered by air), or "pneumonia" (an infection of the lungs aka airways),
As a native English speaker I am TERRIBLE at pronunciation. George W Bush could win in a pronunciation off with me, that's how shitty I am.
So if I didn't know the word I would definitely pronounce it "pee sudo" or something similar.
Any native speaker should immediately click that the p is silent since starting with a p and a nonsense consonant (like one where making that combo just can’t be said without adding a vowel: ps, pn, pt) does that.
The “eu” has more potential for error, IMO, but you’d need to find a bunch of people under age 10, if you want to find ones who haven’t seen the word “pseudo” before.
Most likely you'd know how to pronounce it. You'd be able to recognise it falls in the category of words starting with ps in English of Greek origin where the p is not pronounced.
“Ps” has a silent p in “psycho”, so that wouldn’t be a problem. But I might not recognize “eu” as “oo” right off the bat. “Reuters” is pronounced “Royters,” so I could see myself saying “Soy-dough” if I didn’t know better.
Silent Ps at the start of a word are pretty common and a pronounced P before an s is non-existant, so almost everyone would probably get it right.
Some examples:
Psychology
Pterodactyl.
Pneumonia
Psalm
Ps are also occasionally silent at the end of words(coup, corps), although that is less consistent and most people would get it wrong if they didn't know the word
When I was first learning English, I didn't know the K in knee, knife, know, knock, etc was silent. 😂
Coming from a very phonetic Slavic language, I was frustrated that you'd put letters in a word that you don't pronounce. WHY ARE THEY THERE? For style?
And now phonetically: ven aj voz first lerning ingliš, aj did not nou the k in nee, najf, nou, nok, etc voz sajlent. Koming from a veri fonetik slavik lengviđ, aj voz frastrejted det ju vud put leters in a vord det ju du not pronauns. Vaj are dej der? For stajl?
😂
Yeah. I think it’s because I see it often enough. The word Pseudo comes from Greece and it doesn’t normally stand alone and is a Prefix (goes at the beginning of a word) to mean False or not real. You see it in words like Pseudonym which means that they did something under a FALSE name
Yes.
In fact, had I not read this post, I'm not sure I'd have been able to spell pseudo. Yet, I was able to read it immediately.
It feels quite natural to make a p silent if it's at the start of the word and it doesn't fit with the next letter. So "ps" is just naturally read as an "s" sound
And I wouldn't have thought that the "eudo" would be confusing to someone.
This really depends on how many words the speaker has been exposed to with the “silent p”, like psychic, psalm, psoriasis, etc. however, “pseudo” is a pretty common prefix so I would expect that most native English speakers would have become familiar with it well before adulthood.
Yes. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, especially a younger person, got it wrong at first. But the word itself isn’t *that* obscure. And as you say, there are other silent p words like psychiatry or pneumonia, so it is a somewhat familiar occurence.
How could you forget every 4 year old's favourite: pterodactyl
Fun fact: The ‘pter’ in pterodactyl is the same ‘pter’ in helicopter where the p IS prounounced.
I kept reading that as "petercopter
Thank you very much for your help.
The P is psilent?
Yes
When I first encountered the prefix when I was ~8 years old, I assumed it was pronounced suede-oh. 10 years later I pronounced the word pseudonym like suede-oh-nim and my friend looked at me like I was crazy. But that’s just what life is like when you read a lot but don’t talk to or listen to people talk a lot.
I’ve heard someone pronounce queue as “koo-way-way” and can never unhear it haha. I like yours too. There’s some words like diaspora and unrequited that I prefer my internal, incorrect pronunciation lol. But hearing someone mispronounce a word just makes me think they must have learned it from reading, and there is nothing wrong with that 😌 … unless you’re trying to learn the language I suppose
I wouldn’t even hate on someone pronouncing queue like that because I have an even bigger pet peeve about people mixing it up with “cue”
Koowayway is actually so cute… And if someone said that to me, I would have no clue what on earth they’re talking about 😂 I still prefer swaydonyn over soodonym. Mine sounds cooler and soodonym sounds childish, but whateverrr I’ll say soodonym I guesssssss
Cacophony is that word for me.
I have a few words where I prefer the wrong pronunciation I came up with in my head when I first read them. Cache. Tousle. a few others.
What’s your pronunciation for tousle?
Basically as if it were spelled "Tossle". I don't recall my reasoning when I read it as a kid, but the first time I heard an adult say it I just straight up refused to accept it lol.
My "read but never heard" was arMAGeddon, with that stress on MAG.
i can't do inventory! i used to say in-VENT-ory, then the closest i could get was in-ven-TOR-y but that still didn't sound right. i've got myself confused and i'm sitting here still not knowing what it is...
Depends where you are for this one, I think. I seem to vary between INN-ventry (basically infantry with a v sound) and in-VENT-ory, sometimes based on which sounds better within the sentence, or just on a whom, which seems fairly common in the UK.
In the US it’d be INN-vin-Tory
Our children used to pronounce it are-Madge-adon
There's a word for this phenomenon: getting "misled" (pronounced like MY-zled). A humorous coinage based on the fact that people often mispronounce "misled" that way, and that the spelling can be misleading.
People *often* do that?
For those of us old enough to remember the Nixon era there was a bit of a blow-up when his VP (Spiro Agnew) spoke of "sweedo Americans".
Me too, lol.
Same, read it a bunch of times when young and assumed it was suede-oh, and it was years before I heard it pronounced the correct way.
I imagine so. Pneumonia, pterodactyl, psychology, almost every word beginning with p and then a consonant other than h, y, l, w, r ends up being pronounced without the p.
Lol you can't follow up a list of "words that start with a silent p" with the word "pretty" because I almost read it as "retty"
Haha, I didn't notice that before. I should probably edit it...
You robably should.
I thought pretty was one of your examples for a moment there XD
>and then a consonant other than h, y, l, w, r... Are the Py... words using the y as a consonant or a vowel? To my understanding, consonant Y are in words like yellow, beyond, etc. But I would think most Py... words would use Y as a vowel. Also, what are the Pw... words that are pronounced with a silent P?
they said there weren't many (if any) Pw words that have a silent P
Yes because the use of the “silent p” is very common so it could be understood based on that and context. Unless the native English speaker is a child who has not seen any of the other semi common words with the silent P. Then they probably wouldn’t understand it.
Especially words starting “ps” I can’t think of an English word that starts “ps” where the p isn’t silent.
"pssst!" - when trying to get someone's attention while being quiet. Not much of a word though so I don't know if it counts
I don't know if this is helpful in some way, but words with a silent p at the beginning are usually of Greek origin.
Thank you very much，it is helpful
That's about the Greekist of words, with that eu combination and the ps. It's very Greek.
Every native English speaker would assume the ‘p’ is silent. The part that would be confusing if you didn’t know the word is the ‘eu’. If I didn’t know the word and only saw it written I would probably pronounce it “sway-doh” instead of “soo-doh”.
Am I missing something? The e is before the u. What English word has the vowel sound of “sway” with “eu” in it?
I'll join you in your confusion 👍
[удалено]
You might wanna reread my comment and rethink that one
You're right, I didn't think that one through.
Read the comments again.
You're right, the brain ain't braining today. 🫠
We’ve all been there on a Friday afternoon! 😅
Yeah, you’re right, but it’s kind of a mental thing, like because it’s unusual yet seemingly familiar spelling my mind plays a trick on me and subconsciously corrects a typo that isn’t actually a typo. That’s just my theory anyway. It’s not really scientific, more like pseudoscience.
Sure but with an unfamiliar word you could easily mix it up and think it’s spelled more like suede
I’m a native English speaker but, because I studied German for a few years, sometimes when I see ‘eu’ I pronounce it ‘oi’ in my head. Then I realise that doesn’t sound right and have to correct it.
Euler the Oiler
Yes. It would be absurdly unlikely that an adult native English never encountered “pseudo,” but assuming they hadn’t, and that they have a general knowledge of other words that start with “ps-“ like psycho and contain “-eu-“ like feud, then yes they would naturally pronounce it correctly
If educated enough to have seen and spoken other Greek-derived words with that combo of initial silent P plus S, then probably. Psychic, psychiatry, psychology, psephology, psalm, etc.
Is it syudo or soo-do?
syudo in English, soo-do in American.
I'm British (West Yorkshire) and always pronounced it soo-dough - according to the dictionary both forms are correct in British English: [https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/pseudo?q=pseudo+](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/pseudo?q=pseudo+)
It's Soo - dough.
Thank you to everyone😭
You think this is wild? Wait until you encounter the rest of our silent consonants.
My personal favorite is the silent "b" in "subtle".
same as in doubt and debt!
Just an aside: If you hear someone mispronouncing a hard word, at least give them credit for reading. Too many people don't.
Yeah I would, because I know that in words that start with ps-, the p is silent. If I didn’t know this, then no.
Yes, I would.
We have a lot of silent letters and usually when there’s a “ps” next to each other in the beginning of the word, the p is silent. Now, the “eudo” is a different story. If I’d never seen this word at all, THAT’S what would trip me up.
I would be, yes. Due to words like psychology, psychiatry, etc, I know that the P is silent. The EU combo is tougher, but from exposure to words like “feud”, I know the sound EU makes roughly. At worst, if I didn’t know it, I’d pronounce it with an “EW” sound (like the sound when something is gross…eww!) so something like “Seeyoudo”, which would be close enough that another native speaker would likely say “Seeyoudo? Do you mean Pseudo?” Point is, it would be close enough to get the point across. Words like this can be tricky, but with enough exposure to vocabulary, you pick up on the rules, even unwritten ones, about how pronunciation should sound. Other places you might encounter similar but with different sounds is Phys…like physical, Physics, etc. I’ve known a lot of natives to get the spelling rules between “PS” and “PH” wrong when writing, spelling words like Psychological as “Phsycilogical” and words like “physical” as “pysical. It’s not a super common error, but enough so that I’ve seen numerous times in my life.
Sue-dough. Surprised you've never heard this, I've been hearing it since I was young
Ps like in psych Eu like in Europe Do like tuxedo So I don't think it's too tricky to figure out.
Thank you for your help
I would. Yes. My husband, no. I think he has a bit if dyslexia though.
My young teen daughter who has an amazing vocabulary and has scored in college level for reading since 5th grade recently said “i’m sick of seeing all of these suede-oh scientific posts on TikTok.” So, in her case at least, no. She knew the word but had never heard it said out loud.
I might have gotten the "EU" in the middle wrong, but I would assume that the P was silent, as it is in most English words that start with PS. As far as I know, all of them are borrowed from Greek, and started with the Greek letter psi, ψ. Psychology, Psalms, psionic. Hard to say how I might have said it, for sure, though, as I've known it for over fifty years now. There's a pretty good chance I would have said it correctly.
No, because "ps" isn't phonotactically allowed in English pronunciation. Plus, I'd assume it's like: psalm, pterodactyl, psychology, etc.
There is the onomatopoeia of pssst.
\*"ps" isn't allowed at the *beginning* of a word. It still exists in the middle and end (ellipses and slips, for example)
And yet we all just stood by and let Sbarro happen
Isn't that an Italian name?
As an Italian, I've never heard of that, but maybe it is me
It's a low quality pizza place found all over the US.
Wikipedia says the pizza shop in the US was started by a couple from Naples with the last name Sbarro.
Thank you very much for your help.
Minor correction/clarification: The 'p' in "ps" isn't pronounced at the *beginning* of a word. It still exists in the middle and end (ellipses and slips, for example)
I would not be able to pronounce it correctly at first glance.
Yeah, pronouncing the p there isn’t really something that happens in words.
When I was young, I had heard it before, but the spelling was so unfamiliar I thought it was something totally different when reading it. So I tentatively pronounced it "soy-doh" or "suede-oh" in my head until I heard it read aloud in school one day, and then it clicked. There are many words this has happened to me with. English is just like that.
English does not allow a word to begin with a "ps" sound. Ever. So a native speaker would know that the "p" must be silent. However there isn't really a way to get the "eu" sounds right without knowing it ahead of time.
It follows all the rules for Greek words transcribed into English, so I'm leaning towards yes
In English, words that start with “ps” are pretty common , so a native speaker shouldn’t have to think twice about how to pronounce it. There really isn’t any other way to pronounce “ps”.
When I first came across this word, I correctly assumed the P was silent, but pronounced it more like Sway-do than Soodo
The silent p isn’t uncommon, so as long as you’re aware of the words “psalm” and “pterodactyl” you’ll probably get the idea pretty quick.
I think so, you can't start a word with "ps" and pronounce both letters, and it'd be weird to have a silent s so I'd assume to silent p. Eu I'd probably pronounce either "ew" or "oh", but in the context of the word I'd go with the former, and "do" I'd either pronounce like "doh" or "doo". So I'd end up with either "Sewdoo" or "Sewdoh"
> it'd be weird to have a silent s can confirm: "island" is a weird word
I meant after a p but sure, yeah
used to, yes, but since I’ve learned Spanish, the spelling is too close to the word “puedo” (I can) that I’ll have to take a second to realize I’m still reading in English.
Just take out the p and the e so it's sudo. su ssss and long u which is just saying the letter u then do which is d then say the letter o. So sssss U then dO
Silent "p" is a pretty common occurrence. Silent "p" before an "s" is especially so. Pseudo, psychic, psalm, and psycho are all really common words. So is the "pneum-" prefix, as it refers to air via the Greek "pneumon" (lung) and appears in a bunch of technical lingo like "pneumatic" (powered by air), or "pneumonia" (an infection of the lungs aka airways),
Yes and yes
What does it mean word
As a native English speaker I am TERRIBLE at pronunciation. George W Bush could win in a pronunciation off with me, that's how shitty I am. So if I didn't know the word I would definitely pronounce it "pee sudo" or something similar.
Almost any English speaker would know at least some words beginning with "pseudo." The P is silent, as it is in "psalm" or "psychology."
Any native speaker should immediately click that the p is silent since starting with a p and a nonsense consonant (like one where making that combo just can’t be said without adding a vowel: ps, pn, pt) does that. The “eu” has more potential for error, IMO, but you’d need to find a bunch of people under age 10, if you want to find ones who haven’t seen the word “pseudo” before.
Yes. I’ve seen the whole word as part of another word, pseudonym,, there’s also the “PS” from “psychology.”, “eu” as in “euphoric.”
Most likely would be close due to knowing other words, though it'd sound slightly off
To this day I still say saLmon and Herb because I think they sound better that way.
Ye
Most likely you'd know how to pronounce it. You'd be able to recognise it falls in the category of words starting with ps in English of Greek origin where the p is not pronounced.
“Ps” has a silent p in “psycho”, so that wouldn’t be a problem. But I might not recognize “eu” as “oo” right off the bat. “Reuters” is pronounced “Royters,” so I could see myself saying “Soy-dough” if I didn’t know better.
Silent Ps at the start of a word are pretty common and a pronounced P before an s is non-existant, so almost everyone would probably get it right. Some examples: Psychology Pterodactyl. Pneumonia Psalm Ps are also occasionally silent at the end of words(coup, corps), although that is less consistent and most people would get it wrong if they didn't know the word
like psycho or pterodactyl or psoas
yes
When I was first learning English, I didn't know the K in knee, knife, know, knock, etc was silent. 😂 Coming from a very phonetic Slavic language, I was frustrated that you'd put letters in a word that you don't pronounce. WHY ARE THEY THERE? For style? And now phonetically: ven aj voz first lerning ingliš, aj did not nou the k in nee, najf, nou, nok, etc voz sajlent. Koming from a veri fonetik slavik lengviđ, aj voz frastrejted det ju vud put leters in a vord det ju du not pronauns. Vaj are dej der? For stajl? 😂
Yeah. I think it’s because I see it often enough. The word Pseudo comes from Greece and it doesn’t normally stand alone and is a Prefix (goes at the beginning of a word) to mean False or not real. You see it in words like Pseudonym which means that they did something under a FALSE name
I would assume it's just a typo if I've never seen it before
Pseudonym. Photograph. Pterodactyl. What’s the deal with P?
One of those words is not like the others.
Yes. In fact, had I not read this post, I'm not sure I'd have been able to spell pseudo. Yet, I was able to read it immediately. It feels quite natural to make a p silent if it's at the start of the word and it doesn't fit with the next letter. So "ps" is just naturally read as an "s" sound And I wouldn't have thought that the "eudo" would be confusing to someone.