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How Do You Pronounce "Maldives"?

Rang my credit card company today and got put through to an Indian call centre. Fortunately I could understand the lady I got put through to (often I have difficulty with this).

When I told her where I was going on holiday, she spelt out the whole world and told me my pronunciation was incorrect !

Oooooooooo errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

How do you pronounce it, obviously I've been getting it wrong all these years.

Ms C x
Thrifty Till 50 Then Spend Till the End
You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time
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Comments

  • iwanttosave_2
    iwanttosave_2 Posts: 34,292 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    mol - deves

    Thats how I have always pronounce it, and heard it pronounced.
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  • shellsuit
    shellsuit Posts: 24,749 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    I say Mol Deeves too......is it meant to be Mal dives then??
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  • Alikay
    Alikay Posts: 5,147 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Yep, worked in travel for over 20 years and it was pronounced mol - deeves. I'm sure thats not how the Indians say it though!
  • Ms_Chocaholic
    Ms_Chocaholic Posts: 12,777 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I said mol_deeves, she said it's spelt M A L D I V E S, that's Mal_dives !
    Thrifty Till 50 Then Spend Till the End
    You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time
  • zfrl
    zfrl Posts: 641 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    If you were telephoning India perhaps you should have pronounced it "Dhivehi Raajje" as that is what the Maldives are called.

    Have not got a clue how to pronounce this though!:confused:

    :rotfl:
    :cool:
    "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." Winston Churchill
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  • Regardless of how it's pronounced in India you are using the English pronunciation.

    It would be the same if you said you were going to Rome and an Italian said you should pronounce it Roma.

    I don't believe its the place of a call centre worker to correct someone's English.

    How would they know if it was a regional variation of an English word or that the person simply pronounced it incorrectly because that's the way they had always said it. You ring up a call centre to have service not English lessons.
    Debt free (apart from mortgage)
  • Ms_Chocaholic
    Ms_Chocaholic Posts: 12,777 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Precisely. She didn't speak the Queen's English herself !!!
    Thrifty Till 50 Then Spend Till the End
    You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time
  • budgetflyer
    budgetflyer Posts: 5,949 Forumite
    They do in Dheli. Many Indians in Delhi speak better English than us.
  • jillie1974
    jillie1974 Posts: 6,997 Forumite
    i say mawldeevs
    and when i was there that was how all the staff in the hotels pronounced it.
    'Children are not things to be moulded, but are people to be unfolded'
  • Rachie_B
    Rachie_B Posts: 8,785 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    jillie1974 wrote: »
    i say mawldeevs
    and when i was there that was how all the staff in the hotels pronounced it.

    That makes you sound incredibly posh dahling :rotfl:

    I pronounce it Mol deeves too
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