How do YOU pronounce "dressage"?

[FrittSkritt]

Just out of curiosity. I'd never heard anyone pronounce it as option B until I moved to Area 2 -- even after spending a good year in DQ land up north. :)

I posted the same poll in the dressage forum... and it looks like the majority pronounce it as option A. I wonder what the DQs think of our BNR eventers out there that put the emphasis on the first syllable!

[snoopy]

Just out of curiosity. I'd never heard anyone pronounce it as option B until I moved to Area 2 -- even after spending a good year in DQ land up north. :)

I posted the same poll in the dressage forum... and it looks like the majority pronounce it as option A. I wonder what the DQs think of our BNR eventers out there that put the emphasis on the first syllable!


option B but that is because I've spent the majority of life in the UK...as for what the american Dq's think...."who cares WHAT they think";)


I think the difference in the way it is said, with regards to area 2 maybe has to do with the fact that the national trainer pronounces it that way and with all the trainers here that are working with him and are traveling to european events where it is pronounced DRESS-age, then it is bound to carry over.

[Tuckertoo]

Can I have a clarification?? By the first option, do you mean pronounced like the word massage? Because that's how I pronounce it (the normal way, to me:D), but that seems to me more like the stress is on the second syllable, not equally distributed:lol:

I've heard people pronounce it like the word message...

But also, a trainer I work with from Canada (do all Canadians say it this way? I've never been around enough of y'all to know) says it with the first syllable stressed like Dress- but the second syllable is still pronounced like the end of massage.

So, that's three I've heard it, but I'm not sure what category MY pronounciation goes under. I'll withhold from voting so as not to flaw the data;)

[FrittSkritt]

Rhymes with massage. :)

I didn't mean that we should care what the DQs think, but that it was funny because we consider them to be the snobby ones... yet half our BNRs pronounce dressage as if they're British citizens when they're not. ;)

[Tuckertoo]

Ah, then Option A it is! :)

[snoopy]

Rhymes with massage. :)

I didn't mean that we should care what the DQs think, but that it was funny because we consider them to be the snobby ones... yet half our BNRs pronounce dressage as if they're British citizens when they're not. ;)


LOVE to have a go at the DQ's:lol::lol::lol: They are so grand. One might be expected to curtsey in their pressence. But hey there are a few in the eventing world that expect the same.

[Liebe-ist-Krieg]

with my trainer (who is from the Netherlands) its always "you are never going to win in the DRESS-age".. so after 3 years i have picked it up lol.

[yellowbritches]

I think most of the time I pronounce it like B. Similar but different from snoopy, while I haven't spent anytime in the UK, I have spent a great deal of the last 8 years or so of my life watching British commentated videos. the Brits have a MUCH better way of saying most stuff, really, though I don't know if DRESS-age is better than dressage...just comes out that way! :lol:

[yellowbritches]

Oh, and for another person here, you know, the one with TWO broken horses :mad:, he would choose C...he says STRESS-age!!!! :lol::lol::lol: Can you guess what his least favorite phase is?

[vineyridge]

dreh-Sahje Accent on the sah

[Dr. Doolittle]

My DH has his own unique pronunciation: "Dre-saggy"...

And please, no cracks about old age as being a contributor to this "variation" :lol:

[JER]

Dressage is a French word. In French (the language in which I learned to ride) you pronounce it like most Americans pronounce it.

The Brits like to stress the first syllable of just about any word you throw at them. Canadians of the Anglo variety tend to follow this trend, IME.

[snoopy]

The Brits like to stress the first syllable of just about any word you throw at them.

:lol: very true!!

[Gnep]

Please folks, get civilized, it is pronounced DRESSUR, geeeee those Anglos

[flyingchange]

half our BNRs pronounce dressage as if they're British citizens when they're not. ;)

So true. :lol::lol::lol:

It's always amusing and somewhat annoying when white-bread Americans take up Option B. All the sudden they're all "well, this horse is FANTASTIC in the DRESSage" after they've been exposed to the brit's way of saying it. And to the word "fantastic." Oh, and "brilliant" starts to creep in to the vocab too.

[Kairoshorses]

My DH has his own unique pronunciation: "Dre-saggy"...

And please, no cracks about old age as being a contributor to this "variation" :lol:

OMG, I resemble that remark...!!!

[Dr. Doolittle]

So true. :lol::lol::lol:

It's always amusing and somewhat annoying when white-bread Americans take up Option B. All the sudden they're all "well, this horse is FANTASTIC in the DRESSage" after they've been exposed to the brit's way of saying it. And to the word "fantastic." Oh, and "brilliant" starts to creep in to the vocab too.

:lol:

Yes, I've noticed this on ocassion...

Among non "real" horse people, Madonna comes to mind as being an *extreme* example! :winkgrin:

(Brian O'Connor always pronounces it DRESSage, but then again, he was raised by a Brit, so I suppose it comes naturally...)

[RAyers]

I pronounce "dressage" as "The s$%t I have do do before XC." ;)

Reed

[Sebastian]

I like the blue-collar pronunciation myself... < Dres-aj > (long "a")

Akin to meaning #6a on Webster's "to apply dressings (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dressings) or medicaments to <dress a wound>" as there's usually a huge BLEEDING hole in my self-esteem after I do this portion of the Event... :lol:

Seb :)

[Beverley]

You don't seem to have captured the French pronunciation, which is what I use, being fluent in French. Dressahhhhjjj, emphasis on second syllable. It is a French word, after all. Meaning training.:)

[shea'smom]

I assume since it is French that that was the correct pronunciation, DRESS-ahg, kinda. But you are saying that the French is dress-AGE? Then I have been right all along and don't need to feel unedurkated about not saying it the Brit way!

[Beverley]

Yep, sounds like you're properly edumuckated...:)