Curious... how do you pronounce niche?

How do you pronounce "Niche"

  • Neesh

    Votes: 40 51.3%

  • Nitch

    Votes: 36 46.2%

  • Nish

    Votes: 2 2.6%
  • Total voters
    78
  • Poll closed .
lyannastark

lyannastark

New member
Apr 10, 2014
42
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Westeros
I know this is a pretty pointless thread but anyway, I pronounce it "Neesh" I'm not sure if it's my accent, but I've heard alot of people pronounce it "nitch". i think the fact that it has an "e" at the end means its not supposed to be a hard "ch" like rich. but more like "riche", ie "nouveau riche"
 


How funny you ask that now, I watched an episode of Entourage Season 2 around an hour ago that was talking about just that. Weird.

It's Neesh by the way.
 
Neesh is english english, nitch is american english
 
Unarmed Gunman said:
I pronounce it "nitch", only because that's how it's pronounced. Plus, saying "neesh" makes you sound french/gay.

Niche | Define Niche at Dictionary.com
Click to expand...

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^ your link says it can be pronounced both ways.
 
I like nitch, but it makes sense that a lot of people say it the other way. Every foreign language I've ever studied pronounces the "I" sound like "ee", whereas in English we generally pronounce it either long or short, as in "vibrator" or "MILF", and the "ee" sound usually is usually spelled using "ee". I can see why someone whose native language isn't English would naturally gravitate toward the "ee" sound.

Also, if you consider the fact that the word comes from French and retains kind of a French spelling...and it's very easy to make a case for the "neesh" pronunciation. We say things like "quesadilla" or "tortilla" the Spanish way, even though that's not the way "ill" typically sounds in English.

I still like nitch, though.
 
Unarmed Gunman said:
Not for me:

And if you click the little speaker next to the word you can hear it pronounced "nitch".
Click to expand...

Yes, but scroll down and there's that other dictionary result too.

Niche - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives 2 possible ways as well: "\ˈnich also ˈnēsh or ˈnish\"

For me it makes sense to pronounce it the French way since the word came from French, but I guess having it fully adapted to English is fine too.

Inb4 lukep & bitcoin
 
stefanie said:
I like nitch, but it makes sense that a lot of people say it the other way. Every foreign language I've ever studied pronounces the "I" sound like "ee", whereas in English we generally pronounce it either long or short, as in "vibrator" or "MILF", and the "ee" sound usually is usually spelled using "ee". I can see why someone whose native language isn't English would naturally gravitate toward the "ee" sound.

Also, if you consider the fact that the word comes from French and retains kind of a French spelling...and it's very easy to make a case for the "neesh" pronunciation. We say things like "quesadilla" or "tortilla" the Spanish way, even though that's not the way "ill" typically sounds in English.

I still like nitch, though.
Click to expand...

Good point about the quesadilla/tortilla thing... the same can be said about other French derived words like entrepreneur and rendezvous. However, I'm a native English speaker who's neither from the UK nor North America... but I should point out that native English speakers in the UK also pronounce it "neesh".
 
I'm against laws based around victimless activities, but if there were ever to be one, it would be against those who say "Neesh" when it's clearly "Nitch"
 
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