I was corrected re: pronouncing of the name "Adobe"

[MrQuat]

I was corrected this summer by a French acquaintance when I mentioned "Adobe"...
He told me with a straight face and a stern glance that is properly pronounced "Ah-doub"

He would not be convinced otherwise. 
He also did not recognize the name of Van Halen... saying "Oh, you mean 'Vann-ay-lynne', it's pronounced 'Vann-ay-lynne'".

Goodness.

[Nancy OShea]

A rose is still a rose...  I hope you & your acquaintance are still on speaking terms. 🙂

Languages can be polarizing even within the same country.  For example, do you say bucket or pale?  Beach or shore?  Huge or ewe-ge?  Soda or pop? 

The words we use and how we say them say a lot about where we come from (the tribal thing).

[KShinabery212]

Nancy... if you go down South it is not Pop or Soda... everything is Coke.
LOL. When I moved to Tennessee as a kid... when they asked me what kind of Coke do I want, I was confused. Because down there everything is Coke.

[Nancy OShea]

...down there everything is Coke.

By @KShinabery212

=======

Must be hell for fast food workers. "Gimme Mountain Dew Coke." 😖

[Leslie Moak Murray]

I worked at Air France for a few years. There's a reason the term "Chuavinism" is named after a French guy (a Napoleon loyalist). I've met Frenchmen who told me the telephone was invented by a Frenchman, also the automobile and the light bulb.

[EuanWilliamson]

When everybody knows it was the Scottish !!

ps. I've been told I'm condescending. That means I talk down to people 😉

[KShinabery212]

Living here in Germany, I have heard many Germans say "Ah-doub".  No offense to my German friends.

LOL a young person in Germany that might not know Van Halen would pronounce the V as an F or W. 

[MichelBParis]

See:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_(entreprise)

"Adobe Inc. ou Adobe, anciennement Adobe Systems (/adob/ en français, /əˈdoʊbi:/ en anglais) est une entreprise informatique éditant des logiciels graphiques dont ..."

I don't know any Adobe French customer able to understand what /əˈdoʊbi:/ does mean. I am sure a few do.

[Nancy OShea]

Adobe is derived from the spoken Arab word al-tob which means "the brick."

Adobe is sun dried mud bricks made from clay, water & straw.  It also refers to the dwellings made of the material. Frontier ranchers and monks favored adobe as it remains cool in the summer and insulated in the winter, however it's susceptible to California's frequent earthquakes.  😞

Where I live, this is the last Monterey-style adobe from the Rancho-era.  Built in 1847, it was a working horse & cattle ranch and year-round home for 10-12 people. It looks spacious on the outside but the rooms inside are very small.

Historic Olivas Adobe

[MichelBParis]

Good illustration Nancy!

With ecology I believe that there is a future for constructions with 'adobe', for instance:

http://www.botmobil.org/cloisons-torchis-murette-adobe/

Anyway,

/əˈdoʊbi:/  or not   /əˈdoʊbi:/ that is the question!

[Nancy OShea]

All depends on where one comes from. 🙂

[Ricky336]

And let's not get started on spelling, pronunciation and even grammar differences between UK English, varieties being RP (Received Pronunciation), Scottish, Welsh, Irish, etc, and US Standard English with their own differences between States, and NZ English, Australian English, South Africa English, Indian English, Singaporean English...

[Nancy OShea]

And let's not get started on spelling, pronunciation and even grammar differences between UK English, varieties being RP (Received Pronunciation), Scottish, Welsh, Irish, etc,

By @Ricky336

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Hey mon, we mustn't forget about Pidgin English spoken in Sea Island Creole (South Carolina 's Sea Islands ), Haitian Creole, and Louisiana Creole.

My dad was born in Louisiana. He spoke French before he learned to speak English.  But it was a vastly different form of French than what we hear in either Montreal or Paris.   🙂

[KShinabery212]

Look at the English version of Wikipedia....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Inc.

Adobe Inc. (/əˈdoʊbi/ ə-DOH-bee), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware^[3] and headquartered in San Jose, California.

I think I would go with the American way.  Since it is an American-based company.  Not sure why in other languages they messed it up. But I should not complain Americans also mess up how words are pronounced from other countries.

But do not say Adob without the e....

[MichelBParis]

Look at the English version of Wikipedia....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Inc.

By @KShinabery212

Of course, I did and compared both versions before posting. I even checked my old school Harraps shorter (1972) English dictionary where both pronunciations were acknowledged.

/əˈdoʊbi/ and /əˈdoʊb/

Anyway, "Adobe" is not only a trade mark, it's a common noun existing separately in both languages with their own local pronunciations. As already stated, if you want to be understood in French speaking countries, you'd better use the local way. Two additional reasons: we commonly hear users in this forum saying 'my Adobe' instead of my Photoshop, my Lightroom, my Acrobat... whereas people in our parts will say 'my photoshop' for any Adobe software. Huge difference in brand notoriety. You may not believe me, but as most French speaking are not even aware of the common name 'adobe' (espèce de pisé), the original pronunciation has for them a kind of babyish talk connotation.

[J E L]

That's funny about Adobe. I love talking about pronunciations. For Adidas, I say it the German way (AH-dee-dahs, with emphasis on the first syllable), but some in American shoe stores laugh at me (they say Ah-DEE-dus). The designer names are fun, too, with most saying Givenchy wrong.

Moschino = moss-KEY-no
Louis Vuitton = lou-ee VWEE-tah-n (soft 'n')
Loewe = Lo-EE-vay
Lanvin = lohn-vahn
Jean Paul Gaultier = JHON Paul GOH-t-ay
Hervé Léger = ehr-VAY ley-JAY
Givenchy = jee-VOHN-shee
Anna Sui = ah-na swee
Yves Saint Laurent = eeves san lor-RAUN

[JR Boulay]

"I was corrected this summer by a French acquaintance when I mentioned "Adobe"...
He told me with a straight face and a stern glance that is properly pronounced "Ah-doub"

He would not be convinced otherwise."

So you're right: he is a Frenchman!   🙂

In fact, Frenchs mostly prononce foreigns words using the French prononciation.

[JR Boulay]

"I've met Frenchmen who told me the telephone was invented by a Frenchman, also the automobile and the light bulb."

You can add the hot air balloon (mongolfière), the plane, the bike, the bra, the photo, the calculating machine, the folding umbrella, the micro computer, the Bézier curves… and the Value Added Tax (VAT) !

😉

[Nancy OShea]

No disrespect to French inventors but ancient bras date back to the Minoans.  Torture devices like corsets and brassieres came much later.

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/the-long-evolution-of-the-bra-who-invented-it-and-why

The French can be proud of Joseph Marie Jacquard for creating the first replaceable punch card machines which  revolutionized the textile industry and became the basis for early computers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_machine

[Averdahl]

He also did not recognize the name of Van Halen...

By @MrQuat

That´s the biggest issue right there.

So please, Somebody Get Me a Doctor... 😉

[MrQuat]

Ha!

[Test Screen Name]

In France, that is the correct pronunciation for a French speaker. A final "e" is not pronounced on a word, and nor is "h" ever pronounced (the sound does not exist in French).  Some French speakers might make allowances for foreign (non-French) words, and some might not. Your friend is not wrong, and nor are you. Your acquaintence arguably should not correct you, but equally you should arguably not try to correct your acquaintance. Unless of course you want an argument.