I crack up every time I think of it as "n rout": I'd never even imagined that someone would pronounce it that way until I heard it in a radio commercial a couple of weeks ago. I didn't understand the commercial at first because of it. When I finally figured it out, I had to pull over (I was driving) to be safe, I was laughing so hard. Before that, if someone had said to me, "Yeah, I'm n rout." I would have replied, "How do you do, N Rout?"

English is a great language for all the variety, isn't it?

I take French in school and so I say it like I'm taught to pronounce most French words. I have heard it said 'in route' before now and I was amazed that someone could think it was said like that.

In America, do people pronounce 'route' like a tree root or the other way that I can't figure out how to sound out in words?

My mother says "rowt" and I always say "root." I noticed this yesterday when she talked about the "route" we walked our dog, and I found it odd... Children normally adopt speech patterns from their parents. Then again, I pronounce a lot of things weird ("wrong" according to my parents) because I grew up in a bunch of different countries and I was surrounded by a bunch of different accents.

(Edited for phonetic clarification)

My family is spread all over the world so I speak German, English, French and some other languages. I pronounce words as they are pronounced in the respective language if there's i.e. French vocabulary adopted to the English language.

Ratdog, I wrote it as "N rout" because the English word "rout" sounds exactly the same for some people saying "route" (even though I pronounce it otherwise).

It's funny, though, to think of some common ways that things would change if pronounced differently. Songs, for instance: "Get your kicks...on rout...66..." It has to be said that this would seem totally normal to some people. I still find it hilarious.

I can't figure out what I say... someone (harold) will have to catch me saying it. I say "rout" normally for "Is Garmin's routing algorithm any good", but I say "root" for "I ran traceroute to the server". I've been saying "on root" "n root" "n rout" "on rout" to myself so many times the last few minutes, I can't tell if anything sounds right now.

Yeah, the presence of woodworking and networking tools complicates things a bit, doesn't it, michael? Though I usually hear people pronounce "traceroute" as trace rout. I suppose some people might say "I'm having problems with my Cisco rooter", but that just sounds ridiculous to me. The unspoken rule (for me) seems to be: root for roads, rout for tools.

Neither. I say, "N ROOT".

Neither i say the German word cause i dont understand n rout or on root!!!

"en route" it`s french...so it`s "n route"

I was using English words to approximate the two different pronunciations, as Fanpop will not recognize the international phonetic alphabet (let alone most users). For the French pronunciation, I could also have written "ahn rhoot", but "on" and "root" are the two English words that sound the closest.

marizzza, the french pronounce 'en' like 'on'. not 'n' !
does the 'rout' mean it's pronounced 'rowt'? cos in england 'route' and 'root' are pronounced the same....
aaah! i'm getting myself confused!

the other way is wrong.

I know it's wrong but meh lol

When I first heard someone say "on rowt" instead of "on root" I lol'd so hard. Now it just irritates me. Stop saying it how it is spelt and say it how it is pronounced, kthx.

It bothers me to hear it pronounced any other way. ><

its the proper French way to say it!xx

This is ridiculous! I agree with what polkadotty said about 'en' being pronounced as 'on'. It is pronounced 'On root', because that is the correct way to pronounce it, or 'sounds it out'. In English, it is often that there's only right and wrong, no opinions... If we left the English language to opinions, we'd all be talking in 'Txt Language 24/7.

It is French. therefore it is pronounced "on" for en and "root" for route. ON ROOT

ON ROOT is the correct version. However, I sometimes call it ROUT rather than ROOT... it's embarrassing to admit, but it's a stupid habit of mine. xD