How do you say Melee?

[VulakAerr]

Me Lee

Try explaining to a six year old why a word is spoken different than what it looks like.

Sure thing. "English, as a language, is a mess. A beautiful, expressive mess, but still a mess. Some things will not make sense, so really reading and practise is the only way."

 

[elcamino41383]

May-lee or May-lay. I think I say it differently every time.

I do this also. But I think most commonly I say May-lay.

 

[VulakAerr]

Meh - Lay
but I'm from the north of england so I say everything incorrectly.

Nowai, British English is pretty much the original English. It's Meh-lay.

He's referring to the fact that he's from the north. By modern standards he's right that the north deviates from RP the most, but RP in itself is much newer than many northern dialects.

He's spot on with his "melee" though".

 

[VulakAerr]

He's referring to the fact that he's from the north. By modern standards he's right that the north deviates from RP the most, but RP in itself is much newer than many northern dialects.

He's spot on with his "melee" though".

She's* spot on, indeed.

Whooops! My apologies!

You're right that our deviations are most in intonation rather than actual pronunciation. Interesting. Time for some more research, I feel!

 

[Haxxle]

*May-Lay*

 

[Sonic Doctor]

May-lay is how I say it.

Same here, besides, it is the correct pronunciation.

I remember back in high school, when Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, some guy kept pronouncing Melee as "Ma-lee".

I said to him, "You must be playing some bizarre generic knock-off game, because all of us are playing 'May-lay'."

 

[Zac Smith]

Well it's a French word, "mêlée" and it has accents, so you'd have to pronounce it with the accents for it to be technically correct.

In IPA it's /ˈmeɪleɪ/ (International Phonetic Alphabet if anyone is unsure) and that translates to "May-Lay" But also [mɛle] "Meh-Lay"

 

[Potato21]

There's two ways of saying it but it always ends in -lay, anyone ending it with a -lee is saying it wrong.

May-Lay or Meh-Lay, NO MEE-LEE

 

[Kenko]

It varies for me, its either Meh-Lay or Mii-lii.

 

[DTWolfwood]

me·lee

noun

\ˈmā-ˌlā, mā-ˈ\

 

[Segadroid]

Since I am Dutch and English is my second language, I used to pronounce it like 'Muh-layy' when I was younger. The correct pronunciation being 'may-lay' I learned after listening to people who were talking through headphones.

 

[floppylobster]

I've heard it said two ways but I wanted to know what was more common. Personally I say it like Me Lee, like its spelt but what about you guys?

May-Lay.

There's a word that's pronounced Me-lee. That word is mealy. And it means something entirely different.

 

[havass]

I used to say it as me-lee until I heard the band Melee. Then I learnt that it was supposed to be pronounced may-lay.

 

[Ghostkai]

May-Lay or Meh-Lay is fine (though, I personally say May-Lay)

MEE-LEE is just wrong.

 

[badgersprite]

Meh-Lay. Which is weird, because that's how I hear most British people say it, and I'm Australian.

 

[dogenzakaminion]

Based on the phonetics, I'd say me-lee, saying me as in meh.

 

[smeghead25]

'Fisticuffs'.

 

[8-Bit Grin]

I used to think it was pronounced "Mell-e".

Also, I thought debris was pronounced "Deb-riss".