Shone in the UK

[probus]

Americans pronounce shone to rhyme with phone. Here in Canada it rhymes with on. I'm curious about how British people say this word.

 

[jutfrank]

Like Canadians, to rhyme with on.

 

[emsr2d2]

Americans pronounce shone to rhyme with phone.

Really? I've never heard that. I just popped over to Forvo and there are four AmE pronunciations of "shone". With the exception of one, they all rhyme with "gone". Even that odd one doesn't rhyme with "phone".

 

[Tarheel]

Americans pronounce shone to rhyme with phone. Here in Canada it rhymes with on. I'm curious about how British people say this word.

I've never heard it any other way. Where I'm from "shown" and "shone" are homophones.

 

[probus]

Really? I've never heard that. I just popped over to Forvo and there are four AmE pronunciations of "phone". With the exception of one, they all rhyme with "gone". Even that odd one doesn't rhyme with "phone".

You've got me scratching my head @emsr2d2. I think the whole pronounces phone the same way, to rhyme with bone. I was talking about shone, not phone.

 

[emsr2d2]

You've got me scratching my head @emsr2d2. I think the whole pronounces phone the same way, to rhyme with bone. I was talking about shone, not phone.

Apologies. I made a typo. The word I listened to on Forvo was "shone", not "phone". I've edited my previous post.

 

[SoothingDave]

I'm pretty sure most Americans say "shined."

 

[5jj]

That doesn't surprise me with the transitive verb with shoes.
It does surprise me with the intransitive verb with the sun.

 

[probus]

Yes, I meant today the sun shines, whereas yesterday it shone. Nobody could use shined in that context.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, I meant today the sun shines, whereas yesterday it shone.

Over here in the cloudy UK, we're much more likely to say it didn't shine!

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes, I meant today the sun shines, whereas yesterday it shone. Nobody could use shined in that context.

I think I would say "yesterday it was shining" in order to dodge the issue.

 

[Skrej]

I wasn't aware it could be pronounced any other way than to rhyme with 'phone'.

Really? I've never heard that. I just popped over to Forvo and there are four AmE pronunciations of "shone". With the exception of one, they all rhyme with "gone". Even that odd one doesn't rhyme with "phone".

I don't know that I put much faith in the veracity of the submission details - one of them says 'female', but sound quite male to me. However, at least two of them I hear as rhyming with 'phone' (usernames ribran and timiciousknid). The lady who pronounces it like the name 'Shawn/Sean" doesn't sound like a native AmE accent to me.

It is kind of hard to tell though when it's just an isolated word.

 

[Skrej]

On an unrelated note, I suddenly can't help reading this thread title without singing it to the tune of Springsteen's "Born in the USA".

Hopefully, the topic will disappear from the top list soon, so that particular earworm will leave me.

 

[wayen00]

Your message definitely made me chuckle, and now I can't stop singing "Born in the USA" in my head too! But hey, maybe we can make a remix out of it and turn this thread into a hit song!

In all seriousness though, I totally get how a catchy tune can get stuck in your head and drive you crazy. Let's hope this topic fades away from the top list soon so we can all get some peace and quiet.

Thanks for sharing your musical musings with me, and I hope you're having a great day!

 

[probus]

English has an idiom for that @wayen00. When a tune gets stuck in your head we call it an earworm.