How to Pronounce Caramel

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Katie Fuller. I’m calling from Texas.

Hi, Katie. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Katie.

I was wondering, is it pronounced caramel or caramel?

You mean like the brown, sweet, sticky stuff that you might put on an apple?

Yeah.

And what got you to wondering about that, Katie?

Okay, so my dad is from Nebraska, right? So he calls it caramel.

So I call it caramel, but my mom calls it caramel.

So I’m like, what?

-huh.

And where’s your mom from?

My mom’s from Texas.

Okay, so dad pronounces it with three syllables and she pronounces it with two?

Yes.

And you take your dad’s pronunciation?

Yes, I do.

Why?

I’m not sure, actually.

I kind of switch between them mostly, but I usually say caramel, so I don’t know why, honestly.

You know what? That’s exactly what I do.

I grew up in Kentucky, and I go back and forth between those two pronunciations.

But get this, Katie.

There are at least seven different ways to pronounce this word.

Can you believe that?

Seven? What?

Yeah, so that first syllable alone, Martha, what is it?

Three different ways to say that first syllable?

Yeah, I mean, we’re talking about the word C-A-R-A-M-E-L, which looks like it has three syllables.

But in the United States, some people say caramel, some people say caramel, some people say caramel, and some people actually say caramel.

And that’s just in the United States. There are three other pronunciations in England.

That’s crazy.

The three-syllable pronunciation is one you hear mostly along the east coast of the U.S., all the way from Maine to Florida and into parts of Texas.

But I’m not surprised that there’s some difference.

Because sort of the rest of the United States tends to pronounce it the other way.

Yeah.

There’s no one place that pronounces it only one way.

There’s always a scattering of both pronunciations no matter wherever you go, no matter where you go.

Yeah.

I think I say caramel.

My wife and I talked about this recently.

I think I say caramel most of the time.

And when you add it on to another word like caramel corn, I can’t imagine saying caramel corn.

It just doesn’t sound right.

Caramel corn sounds right.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

Do you eat caramel apples or caramel apples?

I eat caramel apples.

Yeah, yeah, me too.

Me too.

But when I’m talking about other things, like caramel.

Right.

Do you want a caramel?

Sounds better than do you want a caramel.

Mm—

Yeah.

Yeah, or this tastes like caramel.

But your family is representative of the same differences that we hear all across the country.

There are all these different ways to pronounce it, and there’s no one correct way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So how do you feel about that?

I think that’s cool.

I thought there were only three.

Yeah, that first syllable can be care, cur, or car.

The last syllable can be male, mil, or mel.

And that middle syllable can either be or not pronounced.

And they’ll mix them up, and you’ve got a lot of different pronunciations.

Yeah.

But by any pronunciation, it still tastes as sweet, right?

One of the sweetest.

I’m not a very big, like, candy person, but when it comes to caramel, ooh, can’t go wrong with that.

I agree.

I’m with you.

Totally with you.

All right.

Take care of yourself and be well.

Call us again sometime, okay?

All right.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

We’d love to hear about the differences in your family.

Let’s talk about it.

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