Niche - 'Nitch' or 'Neesh'?

[Malofie]

I don't know what it is about "nitch" that bothers me, but it does. English was my Dad's second language, so we used to have a laugh together whenever he mispronounced a word. And because of that, I'm not a grammar Nazi or anything.

But whenever I hear niche pronounced as "nitch", I cringe. It reminds me of people who say free, instead of three.

The second one that bugs me is people who say "Haiche" instead of "Aitche" for the letter H.

 

[OldSalt]

It's a fucking French word and it's fucking Neesh! It's another American misinterpretation. Almost as dumb as when George Bush said that the trouble with the French is they don't have a word for Entrepreneur! LoL

Mind you, in the UK we say Fillet and Vallet not Feelay or Valley as they do in the US, so I guess there's no logic to this interpretation of French.

A little angry there? lol

I say Nitch simply because that's the way I learned it and it works for me. I chuckle every time I see a vid or recording of a Brit (or someone using that pronouciation) and hearing them say 'neesh'. I actually paused one and called my wife over and we both chuckled. It's just a matter of what you're used to. She knows conversational French and we both still pronounce it Nitch...

Sorry to those that we may have offended...

 

[ballbag]

A little angry there? lol

I say Nitch simply because that's the way I learned it and it works for me. I chuckle every time I see a vid or recording of a Brit (or someone using that pronouciation) and hearing them say 'neesh'. I actually paused one and called my wife over and we both chuckled. It's just a matter of what you're used to. She knows conversational French and we both still pronounce it Nitch...

Sorry to those that we may have offended...

LoL. I'm not really that worked up, just being silly. We all know what each other means either way. I'm just frustrated because I haven't found enough profitable frikkin Nitches / Neeshes yet!

 

[Tony Barns]

Neesh it is!

 

[bashhunter]

Both are correct

Nitch - American English

Neesh - British English

Case Closed

 

[AGman]

Nitch, USA baby

 

[bontii]

Neesh goddammit!! This really gets me going when I hear people online saying nitch...nitch does not exist! In Ireland its neesh.

 

[hawke]

Here ya go

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/niche?qsrc=2446

 

[ardley216]

Seems like more people say neesh I ca forgive the USA for rewriting their version of the english language.

 

[OldSalt]

Seems like more people say neesh I ca forgive the USA for rewriting their version of the english language.

I like to say that we IMPROVED it...

You know I'm kidding, right? Honestly, we took the English language and basterdized it... adding a few (hundred) words from this language, a few (thousand) words from that language and there you have it... American English.

I remember once when I was working an informational kiosk in Orlando, FL giving away Disney and other tourist info, a person came up that only spoke Spanish and my Spanish was rusty at best. I pretty much gave him the info he was looking for and he went on his way. About 20 minutes later a Brit came by and I was telling him about the previous person, telling him, "it was funny... all he could understand was Spanish and I was speaking in a mix on Spanish and English..." and that was all I got out. He very LOUDLY interupted me saying, "You Sir do NOT speak English! I speak English, YOU speak American!". He was right, but I absolutely felt he was way over the top and a bit rude. I gave him his pamplets and he was on his way... lol

When I visited England (twice as a Sailor), I made sure to tell my friends to be careful if they refer to what language they speak...

 

[ben10023]

I'm the exact oposite, when I first heard someone say nitch in some stupid IM promotional video I thought it was hilarious, I thought it was some ignorant american who had only seen it spelled out on the internet and read it wrong, but it turns out you guys actually say it that way..
I can understand the aluminium difference but phonetically niche should be said neesh surely?

A little angry there? lol

I say Nitch simply because that's the way I learned it and it works for me. I chuckle every time I see a vid or recording of a Brit (or someone using that pronouciation) and hearing them say 'neesh'. I actually paused one and called my wife over and we both chuckled. It's just a matter of what you're used to. She knows conversational French and we both still pronounce it Nitch...

Sorry to those that we may have offended...

 

[cool0403]

I don't know what it is about "nitch" that bothers me, but it does. English was my Dad's second language, so we used to have a laugh together whenever he mispronounced a word. And because of that, I'm not a grammar Nazi or anything.

But whenever I hear niche pronounced as "nitch", I cringe. It reminds me of people who say free, instead of three.

The second one that bugs me is people who say "Haiche" instead of "Aitche" for the letter H.

you mean tree, not free. lol

 

[OldSalt]

I'm the exact oposite, when I first heard someone say nitch in some stupid IM promotional video I thought it was hilarious, I thought it was some ignorant american who had only seen it spelled out on the internet and read it wrong, but it turns out you guys actually say it that way..
I can understand the aluminium difference but phonetically niche should be said neesh surely?

Well, if you're going strickly by phonetics, wouldn't 'nish' be closer to what it should be? Only in Spanish do I remember the 'i' being used as a 'hard e' but I never took French myself.

But in American English, I can't think of a quick example of an I taking on a hard E. Of course, we are really good at pronouciation rules and 5 exceptions to those rules and then there are the exceptions to the exceptions. Like, shouldn't Laughter and Daughter rhyme? Why don't they? Only the first letter is different. (in the US, Laughter sounds like 'laffter' but Daughter sounds like 'dahter' with a soft a).

Language is some strange stuff, isn't it?

 

[ardley216]

Well, niche can be said like nitch, because of "ich"

 

[cool0403]

I don't know what it is about "nitch" that bothers me, but it does. English was my Dad's second language, so we used to have a laugh together whenever he mispronounced a word. And because of that, I'm not a grammar Nazi or anything.

But whenever I hear niche pronounced as "nitch", I cringe. It reminds me of people who say free, instead of three.

The second one that bugs me is people who say "Haiche" instead of "Aitche" for the letter H.

You know it might bug you there are a lot of people whose english is not their first language and they do make pronunciations like three and tree the same, perhaps cause in the spanish language(unless your from spain) they dont have the th sound.

 

[_anonymous_]

I just say it by how it looks. Nothing more, nothing less. Saying neesh bugs me because "niche" doesn't look like "neesh."

 

[chiggles]

I just say it by how it looks. Nothing more, nothing less. Saying neesh bugs me because "niche" doesn't look like "neesh."

yes but there is no T in niche (as in pitch). By that logic it should be n-eye-sh.

I say n-ee-sh

 

[WizGizmo]

USA = Niche
UK = Neesh

Exactly. Many Europeans say "neesh" and people from the US say "nitch".

 

[sden007]

Its pronounced "Neesh". It is a French word.

 

[proxygo]

im from uk i say niche