# Nestle [Nestlé] - pronunciation



## audiolaik

Hi,

Today, one of my students was delivering a presentation on the Nestle palm oil scandal, and she explained to us that there are three possible ways of pronouncing the name, namely

a) /nesl/
b) /neslei/
c) /nesli/


The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists all the three alternatives. 

Which one do you tend to use?

Thank you!

Audiolaik


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## xqby

I'm fairly heard I've only ever heard and said (c). Your option (b) wouldn't strike me as too odd, though.

Option (a) is how you say the verb "nestle"; I wouldn't understand it as the brand of chocolate.


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## Bevj

During the whole of my childhood in England I only heard and said (a).
Since living in Spain I have learned to say (b).


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## audiolaik

xqby said:


> I'm fairly heard I've only ever heard and said (c). Your option (b) wouldn't strike me as too odd, though.
> 
> Option (a) is how you say the verb "nestle"; I wouldn't understand it as the brand of chocolate.



The dictionary gives the same pronunciation for both the verb and the brand, xqby.


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## Loob

When I was growing up, it was always (a), then I suddenly noticed that all around me were using (b), and I changed.

The _Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation_ recounts a similar story:





> *Nestlé* food company
> *ness*-lay /'nɛsleɪ/
> ____________
> The company used to be known as *ness*-uhlz in the UK, but has been using this pronunciation for at least the last twenty years.


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## lablady

Every commercial for the chocolate company that I've ever heard or seen pronounces Nestle as "Ness-lee". I assume that the Nestle company approves all commercials before they are aired, so someone would probably correct anything they felt was a mispronunciation. 

I'm speaking from a US point of view, of course. I see Loob and Bevj pronounce it differently.


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## JulianStuart

I preferred "Cad - breeze" chocolate, so I don't think I ever actually _said_ the brand name when I was in UK.  However, Nestlé is easier to find in the US and the accent suggests b) if you know French  or c) if not 

Edit: Thank you Loob - it happened well after my departure, then. I didn't know an Oxford BBC Guide to pronunciation existed.  Filled with such nostalgia, I'm sure.


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## colcan

I've always said  and heard /ness-lee/ in the US.


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## Matching Mole

> The _Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation_ recounts a similar  story:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The company used to be known as *ness*-uhlz in the UK, but has been  using this pronunciation for at least the last twenty years.
Click to expand...

It was always *ness*-uhlz when I was young, and, to the very very slight extent that I'm called on to say the word today, that is how I say it now. It was most notably heard in the jingle "Ness-uhlz Milky Bar (The Milky Bars are on me!)". _Never_ heard it in the "singular": Nessul. We tend to like our esses on the end of store names: Woolworths, Marks and Spencers, etc., and for some reason the same always went for "Nestles" and some brands. No one in Britain seemed to have noticed the é until relatively recently, but I do understand that we are now expected to pronounce it.


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## kalamazoo

The brand name is ness-lee in the US. THe verb is 'ness-ull'. The author Marion Nestle in the US is also "ness-ull"


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## latawiec

But it's a french company, so we shouldn't prounance similar to french version?


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## Spira

Matching Mole said:


> It was always *ness*-uhlz when I was young, and, to the very very slight extent that I'm called on to say the word today, that is how I say it now. It was most notably heard in the jingle "Ness-uhlz Milky Bar (The Milky Bars are on me!)". _Never_ heard it in the "singular": Nessul. We tend to like our esses on the end of store names: Woolworths, Marks and Spencers, etc., and for some reason the same always went for "Nestles" and some brands. No one in Britain seemed to have noticed the é until relatively recently, but I do understand that we are now expected to pronounce it.


 
Love it MM. As a little Londoner I grew up eating Ness-uhlz chocolate, but living in France for the last 30 years I now feel a bit ashamed of that, as there is definitely an accent on the last E.
I didn't know before reading this thread that the English have since discovered the acute accent.


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## DSmith

lablady said:


> Every commercial for the chocolate company that I've ever heard or seen pronounces Nestle as "Ness-lee". I assume that the Nestle company approves all commercials before they are aired, so someone would probably correct anything they felt was a mispronunciation.
> 
> I'm speaking from a US point of view, of course. I see Loob and Bevj pronounce it differently.



I agree and have never heard it pronounced any other way in the U.S.  Also, my brother works for Nestle and pronounces it that way.


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## colcan

latawiec said:


> But it's a french company, so we shouldn't prounance similar to french version?



No, it's not.  It's Swiss.  From Wiki:



> *Pronunciation:* Today, in English-speaking countries, "Nestlé" is  most commonly pronounced /ˈnɛstleɪ/). However, the  original pronunciation was /ˈnɛsəl/, as in the English  verb  "nestle". This pronunciation was common throughout much of the 20th  century, but changes in its spoken form in advertising influenced it to  become more akin to its native pronunciation [nɛsle]  in French-speaking Switzerland. The old pronunciation, however, is  still used today in some regions such as the Black  Country. "Nestle" in Alemannic German (Alemannisch – as spoken in southwestern  Germany and in Switzerland) refers to a small nest (Nest being the same  word in English and German). The -le ending makes the word into a diminutive.


Regardless of what Wiki says, I side with the other Americans.  In the US it's /Ness-lee/.


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## ewie

Same as other Britfolk of a certain age: when I was a kiddie and could eat white chocolate without instantly feeling nauseous, it was [*ne*ssulz].  For the past decade or two it's been [*ness*lay].


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## Spira

Sorry, but who cares what it is in the US? (or the UK, or Australia etc)
As you say, it is Swiss, and moreover, it is French Swiss.
So it really should be Ness-ley.
Thereafter, we all just murder it with our appalling ignorance of French pronunciation.


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## JulianStuart

Spira said:


> Sorry, but who cares what it is in the US? (or the UK, or Australia etc)
> As you say, it is Swiss, and moreover, it is French Swiss.
> So it really should be Ness-ley.


 Well, yes if you are speaking French or French Swiss or Swiss French, but as you sort of said: 


Spira said:


> Thereafter, we all just murder it foreign names with our appalling ignorance of French pronunciation other languages.


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## ewie

Spira said:


> Sorry, but who cares what it is in the US? (or the UK, or Australia etc)


Because this is the *English Only* forum, Spira, and Mr.Laik is asking us how we pronounce it *in English*.  (The clue's in the name.)


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## Loob

I agree wholeheartedly with Julian and ewie, Spira.

Whether it's a Swiss company or not is irrelevant to English speakers.

The company chooses to use a different pronunciation in different countries; we use the pronunciation the company uses.


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## timpeac

I come from a town that used to have a big Nestle's factory - it was a big employer and it was always nestle as in the verb. I think people would have laughed at you for saying ness-lay.

However, like the others I'm very used to hearing the ness-lay version these days.

I've never heard someone say the 3rd option though.


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## ewie

timpeac said:


> I've never heard someone say the 3rd option though.


Nor me.  There seems to be a very definite BE/AE split here ...




_... wait for it ..._


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## colcan

Spira said:


> Sorry, but who cares what it is in the US? (or the UK, or Australia etc)


The OP apparently does. Otherwise they wouldn't have posted on this forum or checked an English-language dictionary.


> As you say, it is Swiss, and moreover, it is French Swiss.


I didn't know companies in Switzerland were classified as French, Italian, German or Romansh. 

Nestlé is based in Vevey, in the French part of Switzerland, but it's a *multi*national company more than anything else. Most company meetings are conducted in English, BTW. I know; I've done work for them.

The last name _Nestle_, from which the company name derives, is German, not French. However, German does not use the acute accent. All of which makes for a very confusing company name that looks a lot like an English verb.

If I were learning English, and planned to move to the US, UK, Australia or any other English-speaking country, I'd certainly be interested in finding out how the company name is pronounced there--not in France or Vaud.


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## timpeac

Did they always have the accent on the final e in their English advertising, back in the day?


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## ewie

It used to (perhaps still does) look like this: the *é* cunningly disguised as a bit of advertising-logo fluff.


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## Loob

timpeac said:


> Did they always have the accent on the final e in their English advertising, back in the day?


Mmm, yes, I _think_ so. But my memory's not what it once was.

Perhaps I need a cup of Nescaff Nescafé....

Ah, I see the boy's found some pictorial evidence


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## preppie

And that would be 'death by chocolate", wouldn't it ?

I've always eaten NESS-lee but NESS-l with a loved one.


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## timpeac

ewie said:


> It used to (perhaps still does) look like this: the *é* cunningly disguised as a bit of advertising-logo fluff.


Ah yes, that looks familiar. Perhaps the understated representation of the accent in the logo meant that at first people didn't realise it was there and the "nessuhl" pronunciation took hold.


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## cuchuflete

lablady said:


> Every commercial for the chocolate company that I've ever heard or seen pronounces Nestle as "Ness-lee". I assume that the Nestle company approves all commercials before they are aired, so someone would probably correct anything they felt was a mispronunciation.
> 
> I'm speaking from a US point of view, of course. I see Loob and Bevj pronounce it differently.



This is the one I'm most familiar with, but I also hear AE speakers say ness' lay at times.
More rare, but not totally unknown is ness(t)-lee, with a faint t at the end of the first syllable.


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## lablady

timpeac said:


> Ah yes, that looks familiar. Perhaps the understated representation of the accent in the logo meant that at first people didn't realise it was there and the "nessuhl" pronunciation took hold.


It might also partially be responsible for the "-lee" pronunciation in the US. At a quick glance, it looks like a dictionary indication that the word is pronounced as a long "e". In fact, I have to admit that for many years I thought that line over the "e" was indeed a bar, and didn't realize it was an accent. 

Cuchu, could the US "Ness'-lay" be an indication of our warped sense of humor- somewhat like the Target department store we jokingly refer to as "Tar-zhay'"?  I've never heard "Ness'-lay" used in a serious manner, but I do have some strange friends.


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## cuchuflete

lablady said:


> Cuchu, could the US "Ness'-lay" be an indication of our warped sense of humor- somewhat like the Target department store we jokingly refer to as "Tar-zhay'"?  I've never heard "Ness'-lay" used in a serious manner, but I do have some strange friends.


 Anything's possible, but I doubt that those who eat what nesslee calls chocolate would bother. I may be wrong, of course, and find myself hearing err-shay' one of these fine days.  I suspect, and have no evidence to offer, that the "lay" ending may be the result of some folks trying to emulate what they think should be the proper FR pronunciation of what is not even a FR word.  

Say Lah Vee?


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## Greetd

Interesting discussion. I've always said and heard it the French way (nɛsˈle), probably because Dutch-speaking Belgians are familiar with French since it is the other official language of Belgium. I've also always imagined that in English it would be pronounced nɛsˈlei because ei is often the way in which the French é is pronounced in English (as cuchuflete says).

Henri Nestlé was indeed born in Germany, but he moved to the French speaking part of Switzerland and deliberatly changed his name from Nestle to Nestlé (and all other info I found about him is in French, like his wife's name, his former company's name, ...), so my reasoning is that he wanted it to be pronounced the French way, and in his time, it probably was.

In any case, the global Nestlé company seems to pronounce it as nɛsˈlei on their website, so maybe English speaking countries should go with that. I myself will always keep using (and hearing) nɛsˈle though, probably


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## natkretep

Out here in the colonies, I hear /'nesl/ and /'nesleɪ/ - never the American version. The stress is always on the first syllable, and in the adverts it's the second version - which is the version I go with now.

Nat


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## kalamazoo

The multinational company Nestle has a large presence in the US, sells lots of stuff here and runs lots of advertisements on TV in which it pronounces its own name.  We pronounce it the way we do because that's how the company is telling us to pronounce it. For our purposes, we don't really need to know how it would be pronounced in Switzerland or Japan or somewhere else.


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## natkretep

Yes, it looks as if Nestlé is happy to have different pronunciations of its name in different parts of the world. So, yes, I agree that we needn't conform to pronunciations elsewhere.

Sometimes, companies do not seem sure either. Here, the Swedish furniture store Ikea is sometimes igh-KEE-uh and sometimes ih-KAY-uh on television.


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## panjandrum

cuchuflete said:


> ...
> More rare, but not totally unknown is ness(t)-lee, with a faint t at the end of the first syllable.


Interesting, because my memory is of pronouncing Nestle rather like nettle but with an added s.  Over time, the t has faded and I'd now pronounce it Nessle.  To pronounce the accented é would be poncy and pretentious, here.


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## Forero

When I was very young, we always pronounced it "nessle's", just like the third-person verb "nestles". But when the television commercials for it started (ca. 1960?), it was always "ness-lees", with the long "ee" sound. Shortly after that the logo was redesigned and it was then I noticed what I thought was a macron over the second _e_, disguised though it was.


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## natkretep

Someone might want to edit the discussion of the pronunciation of Nestlé in wikipedia:



> Today, in English-speaking countries, "Nestlé" is most commonly pronounced /ˈnɛstleɪ/). However, the original pronunciation was /ˈnɛsəl/, as in the English verb "nestle". This pronunciation was common throughout much of the 20th century, but changes in its spoken form in advertising influenced it to become more akin to its native pronunciation [nɛsle] in French-speaking Switzerland. The old pronunciation, however, is still used today in some regions such as the Black Country. "Nestle" in Alemannic German (Alemannisch – as spoken in southwestern Germany and in Switzerland) refers to a small nest (Nest being the same word in English and German). The -le ending makes the word into a diminutive.



For a start, it doesn't include the American pronunciation. And secondly, I can't hear the /t/ in _any_ pronunciation of the world, so /ˈnɛstleɪ/ can't be right.


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## Spira

ewie said:


> Because this is the *English Only* forum, Spira, and Mr.Laik is asking us how we pronounce it *in English*. (The clue's in the name.)


 
True. Sorry.
Having been out of the country for many years, I am astounded that the form Ness-lay has found its way into English pronunciation. Astounded but pleased. What brought this about?

OK, TV advertising (I just found another page of answers). So the change came through the will of the actual company.


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## Brioche

Loob said:


> When I was growing up, it was always (a), then I suddenly noticed that all around me were using (b), and I changed.
> 
> The _Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation_ recounts a similar story:
> 
> Quote:
> *Nestlé* food company
> *ness*-lay /'nɛsleɪ/
> ____________
> The company used to be known as *ness*-uhlz in the UK, but has been  using this pronunciation for at least the last twenty years.



I'm not sure about the exact time frame, but the same situation applies in Australia.


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## Brioche

Greetd said:


> Henri Nestlé was indeed born in Germany, but he moved to the French speaking part of Switzerland and deliberatly changed his name from Nestle to Nestlé (and all other info I found about him is in French, like his wife's name, his former company's name, ...), so my reasoning is that he wanted it to be pronounced the French way, and in his time, it probably was.




An unaccented final e in French is silent, whereas in German it is always pronounced. He would have added the é, so that the final e would be sounded by French speakers.

Henri was born in Frankfurt, but as has already been remarked, the name comes from the Black Forest area of Germany.

In those areas ST is always pronounced SHT, so the original pronunciation would be Ne-sh-t-lei [almost].

And that is how people in _southern_ Germany pronounce it to-day.


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## avle

So, what's the conclusion? What should we English leaners pronounce *Nestlé?* Shall we need to conduct a poll? 
*a?  b?  c? *


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## Loob

avle said:


> So, what's the conclusion? What should we English leaners pronounce *Nestlé?* Shall we need to conduct a poll?
> *a? b? c? *


If you're learning American English, pronounce it as (c); if you're learning British English, pronounce it as (b).

No need for a poll!


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## avle

OK, It's clear. Thank you!


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## natkretep

Loob said:


> If you're learning American English, pronounce it as (c); if you're learning British English, pronounce it as (b).



Or should it be: 'If you're talking to an American, use (c); if you're talking to someone from the UK or Australia or other places, use (b)'?

I think sometimes names are more open to adjustments depending on audience.


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## Arrius

The name was originally Swiss German _Nestle_ the _le _being a diminutive ending added to _Nest_ which apart from the capital N is spelt and means the same in German as in English. The acute accent is used under the influence of Suisse Romande. Hence also the logo of the little nest with the mother bird and the chicks, the idea being presumably that human mothers may nourish their offspring like the mother bird with the company's products, and the use of the Spanish word NIDO (nest) on powdered milk tins intended for South America and Africa, though I haven't seen this alternative brand name used in Spain.
In the past I think that the pronunciation _ness-uhlz_ was used by the working classes in the UK and _ne_s_t-lay_ (with a pronounced T) by the bourgeoisie more familiar with acute accents. With the blurring of the British class system the latter pronunciation but without a T seems to have become dominant.


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## Loob

Arrius said:


> .In the past I think that the pronunciation _ness-uhlz_ was used by the working classes in the UK and _ne_s_t-lay_ (with a pronounced T) by the bourgeoisie more familiar with acute accents.


Mmm, I don't think so. I have a strong and clear memory of the original "Milky Bar Kid" TV adverts and the jingle that ended "*ness*-ulz Milky Bar". I've just been amusing myself watching a thirtieth-anniversary version on Youtube: the tag line is now "*ness*-lay Milky Bar" (no 's', even...).

It's the company that changed the pronunciation, not developments in the British class system


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## Pedro y La Torre

panjandrum said:


> Interesting, because my memory is of pronouncing Nestle rather like nettle but with an added s.  Over time, the t has faded and I'd now pronounce it Nessle.  To pronounce the accented é would be poncy and pretentious, here.



Really? That is quite surprising.

I've never heard it pronounced ''Nessle'' here, if I did, I certainly wouldn't imagine you were referring to the confectionary company (though on reflection, given the complexities of the Northern accent, I can just about imagine how it would come out like that. Town morphs into something close to ''toiiin'' after all).

In this part of Ireland, it's always pronounced ''ness-lay''.


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## JamesM

What rings in my ears is the old Nestlé's jingle on American television:

"N-E-S-T-L-E-S,
Nestlé's makes the very best...
(deep voice) chocolate."

The word was clearly pronounced in those ads as Ness-lees, so I assume that was how they wanted Americans to pronounce it. In other words, the company is as much to blame as anyone for the US pronunciation, if not more.


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## Spira

Having worked in more than one large international corporation whose name is pronounced differently in different places (eg McDonald's, Reebok or Nike) I 'd like to point out that it is rare in my experience that the company CHOOSES to impose a pronunciation. The usual sequence of events is that the local population don't know how to pronounce it, and that the company recruits its workers from that population. The head office then works like crazy to educate its own workers how to correctly pronounce  their employer's name, usually with limited success, and then any TV advertising also has to go through an agency with the same problems all over again.
It is quite likely that Nestlé's has experienced all this too.


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## kalamazoo

No doubt poor Nestle was just unable to deal with its ad agency and couldn't get the agency to put out ads with the pronunciation that the company wanted instead of using the local pronunciation. Probably Nestle's advertising budget was too small.  A lot of multinationals have similar problems.


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## Nunty

Ahem. Let's return to the topic, shall we? The topic is how the word is pronounced, not why it is pronounced that way.

Thanks.
Nunty, moderator


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## Matching Mole

> Arrius said:
> 
> 
> 
> .In the past I think that the pronunciation _ness-uhlz_  was used by the working classes in the UK and _ne_s_t-lay_  (with a pronounced T) by the bourgeoisie more familiar with acute  accents.
> 
> 
> 
> Mmm, I don't think so. I have a strong and clear memory of the original  "Milky Bar Kid" TV adverts and the jingle that ended "*ness*-ulz  Milky Bar". I've just been amusing myself watching a  thirtieth-anniversary version on Youtube: the tag line is now "*ness*-lay  Milky Bar" (no 's', even...).
> 
> It's the company that changed the pronunciation, not developments in the  British class system
Click to expand...

Loob is quite right. The pronuncation "Ness-uhlz" was used in their TV ads at least until the 70s, and likely the 80s (evidence is on-line). And yes, that "anniversary" ad has been re-dubbed. I wouldn't say that there is anything "working class" about those ads. The disinclination to pronounce foreign words as they are spoken in their native lands is hardly exclusive to the working class in any case.


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## Packard

lablady said:


> Every commercial for the chocolate company that I've ever heard or seen pronounces Nestle as "Ness-lee". I assume that the Nestle company approves all commercials before they are aired, so someone would probably correct anything they felt was a mispronunciation.
> 
> I'm speaking from a US point of view, of course. I see Loob and Bevj pronounce it differently.


 
I'm not sure that the manufacturer is seeking uniformity of pronunciation.

Nike, the shoe manufacturer, is pronounced "Nie-key"  ("nie" like "die") in the USA.

My Norwegian friends pronounce it "niekz"  (like in "dikes"), apparently with corporate approval in Norway.


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## natkretep

Loob said:


> Mmm, I don't think so. I have a strong and clear memory of the original "Milky Bar Kid" TV adverts and the jingle that ended "*ness*-ulz Milky Bar". I've just been amusing myself watching a thirtieth-anniversary version on Youtube: the tag line is now "*ness*-lay Milky Bar" (no 's', even...).



I've gone in to have a listen to the 30th Anniversary version, and you're right. The point about a vintage advert is to keep it authentic. There's also an Out of Space (1981) version of Milky Bar - and there, the tag line is clearly _nessulz _Milky Bar.

Somebody must have felt sufficiently strongly enough about it to try to change history!

Nat


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## JamesM

I got permission from an English Only moderator (cuchuflete) to post this audio link. (Please note that providing links must be approved in advance and no YouTube links are allowed per forum policy.)

This is an old American radio ad for Nestlé Quik.  You can hear the "-lee's" pronunciation from the announcer and in the brief jingle at the end of the ad.  That brief tagline jingle was played endlessly when I was young in most Nestlé's ads:

http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/old_radio_commercials/N_E_S_T_L_E_S.mp3


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## Forero

I associate that "very best (man's voice: ) choc'late" jingle with television, not with what I would consider "old time radio".

What year was that radio commercial from?


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## cuchuflete

avle said:


> So, what's the conclusion? What *should* we English leaners pronounce *Nestlé?*



"Should" is a strong and dangerous word when it comes to English pronunciation.

You _should_ ignore any prescriptivist nonsense about how the word is or ought to be or might be pronounced in its country of origin or even its language of origin, which may be different. You _should_ notice from the many different replies here that there are a number of pronunciations in widespread use in the English speaking world.

You may wish to adopt one of these, probably one that is used by speakers of the variety of English you normally use.  You may then use it in conversation with any English speakers.  Americans do not get apoplectic when they hear British pronunciation, especially from someone who is not a native AE speaker.  From my trips to the U.K.,  I can vouch for the bemused tolerance with which BE speakers greet AE pronunciations.  Canadians are an eclectic lot, and will generally accept whatever they can comprehend.


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## Loob

It's also true - innit? - that the difference between _nessli_ and _nesslay_ is unlikely to lead to* huge* comprehension differences between BrE and AmE speakers...


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## JamesM

Forero said:


> I associate that "very best (man's voice: ) choc'late" jingle with television, not with what I would consider "old time radio".
> 
> What year was that radio commercial from?


 
Sorry.. there was no date on it. I also associate the jingle with black and white TV from my early childhood, along with a silly sock puppet dog. Radio was still going strong in the 50s and 60s, so it doesn't need to be earlier than that. I was just trying to provide an example of an advertising tradition in the U.S. for at least fifty years that uses the "Nes-lee" pronunciation.


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## yoshachoo

In Japan the company had always been pronounced (a) /nesl/ and spelled accordingly in Japanese up until 1994. But then in 1994, in keeping with the international corporate identity standards, it changed the name to be read (b) /neslei/. 

The reason why the Japanese adopted the name (a) in the first place is because the company came into the Japanese market via UK where it was pronounced /nesl/. 

If the British now use (b), then perhaps the change took place around the same time in the ‘90s. 

And from my experience living in the US for many years including through the '90s, the US way of pronunciation (c) /nesli/ was never affected. 

Compared to what Nestle Japan went through, which is replacing all the signage and printed materials, changing pronunciation doesn't seem much trouble. But then again, the US is always exempted from international standards. (The metric system, anyone?)

But if Americans insist on sticking to their way, I wonder how they explain the é (e-acute) used for the second e of Nestlé.


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## RM1(SS)

yoshachoo said:


> But if Americans insist on sticking to their way, I wonder how they explain the é (e-acute) used for the second e of Nestlé.



We don't use diacriticals in AE, so many people probably just think it's just a little decorative touch that's part of the logo.  And those of us who do know what it is ignore it, because it's irrelevant to the AE pronunciation of the word.


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## london calling

Matching Mole said:


> It was most notably heard in the jingle "Ness-uhlz Milky Bar (The Milky Bars are on me!)". _Never_ heard it in the "singular": Nessul.


Yes, 'the Milky Bar Kid',  for whom 'only the best is good enough'! That's takes me back a few years.

As a child it was always 'Nessles' (plural) and to be honest I've never got out of that habit.  When speaking Italian I pronounce it 'Nesslay', however.


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## Myridon

yoshachoo said:


> But if Americans insist on sticking to their  way, I wonder how they explain the é (e-acute) used for the second e of  Nestlé.


Diacritical marks may as well not exist in American English.  We have realized that there is no problem with resume  /rɪˈzjuːm/ and resume  /ˈrɛzjʊmeɪ/ being pronounced differently according to context rather than due to little hearts and flowers decorating the letters.   We also don't have to memorize what language the word comes from so we will know if the accent means to change the stress, height, length, palatization, tone, ...


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## yoshachoo

Wow. I never expected that a 3-year-old thread could be reactivated like this! (I merely intended to offer some additional info.)

I agree diacritical marks are not common in English (or most any language). But e-acute is a rare exception because it is commonly seen in café (or Beyoncé). 

When you google the word “nestle,” the results about the company come with an e-acute (even Nestlé USA). It is only natural that you read it “neslei.”


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## Myridon

yoshachoo said:


> It is only natural that you read it “neslei.”


It is natural to you for that reason.  It is natural to me because I knew how to pronounce that [neslee] before I knew what letters were.
(A sentence starting with "I wonder ..." is likely to be taken as a question so it's not at all unusual that you got some replies.)


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## pob14

yoshachoo said:


> But if Americans insist on sticking to their way, I wonder how they explain the é (e-acute) used for the second e of Nestlé.


Well, here's how this American explains it.

Take a look at Nestle USA's website; never mind the actual text, look at the logo at the top of the page. That's how the word looks on most of their packaging. If you look very, very closely at the mark over the final E, and already know what it is, sure, it's an acute accent.  But if you don't already know that, and you're an American who is generally unfamiliar with accent marks, it looks very much like the line used in most dictionaries to represent the long vowel sound.  

That's what I always thought it was; a hint to pronounce it as Nes-lee, not as the word nestle.


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## JulianStuart

pob14 said:


> Well, here's how this American explains it.
> 
> Take a look at Nestle USA's website; never mind the actual text, look at the logo at the top of the page. That's how the word looks on most of their packaging. If you look very, very closely at the mark over the final E, and already know what it is, sure, it's an acute accent.  But if you don't already know that, and you're an American who is generally unfamiliar with accent marks, it looks very much like the line used in most dictionaries to represent the long vowel sound.
> 
> That's what I always thought it was; a hint to pronounce it as Nes-lee, not as the word nestle.


Indeed, it looks like the same "decoration" from over the -es, just continued of the last e - you have to look carefully to see a well-disguised é.  The common US pronunciation is usually learnt by hearing (at whatever age your parents first tell you what you are enjoying) so how it is written comes much later and rarely is a "guide" to pronunciation.


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## Forero

JulianStuart said:


> Indeed, it looks like the same "decoration" from over the -es, just continued of the last e - you have to look carefully to see a well-disguised é.  The common US pronunciation is usually learnt by hearing (at whatever age your parents first tell you what you are enjoying) so how it is written comes much later and rarely is a "guide" to pronunciation.


My parents always called it "Nestle's" (rhymes with "vessels"), but later the TV called it "NESTleez", and I caught my friends saying "NESSleez" without the _t_.


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## vivace160

Just to add another American viewpoint to this, I've never in my life heard it said any way other than nest-lee(z) or ness-lee(z) (I personally say "ness-lee(z)"). The chocolate milk that is now simply called Nesquik was called Nestlé Quik when I was growing up, and the "-lé" was always pronounced "lee" in the commercials.


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## Andygc

Folks, please read the whole thread before you write an echo ... echo ... echo ... echo ...


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## RM1(SS)

Myridon said:


> We have realized that there is no problem with resume  /rɪˈzjuːm/ and resume  /ˈrɛzjʊmeɪ/ being pronounced differently according to context rather than due to little hearts and flowers decorating the letters.



You put a /j/ in resume and resume?



yoshachoo said:


> I agree diacritical marks are not common in English (or most any language). But e-acute is a rare exception because it is commonly seen in café (or Beyoncé).



I would say that in AE, "cafe" is at least as common as "café" (the spellchecker my computer is currently using doesn't like _café_, by the way).


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