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Wed 27 Oct, 2010 06:44 am
okay, a few years back there was a tv commercial for a fairly large Michigan based furniture retailer, the regularly pitched the great prices on bedroom suites, they pronounced it suit, like mens sunday go to meeting type attire, yesterday i heard an american on a radio show say the same thing
now every canadian i know pronounces the word suite so that it rhymes with sweet
i don't know where the american i heard speaking is from in the states, so i don't know if this is a Michigan thing, or country wide
what say you, A2K
@djjd62,
I'm an American mostly-midwesterner. I say sweet.
Yeah . . . but a lot of Americans say "suit," and i have frequently heard it in ads. Makes me cringe . . .
@sozobe,
Ohio'ish if i'm not mistaken, we used to get some Toledo tv, don't remember any specific furniture ads that i saw from there
maybe it's a regional or ethnic background thing, be interesting to see more responses
@Setanta,
i think of a bedroom suit as pyjamas
@djjd62,
I'm in Ohio now but grew up in MN and went deaf there, so most of my speech is MN (I've probably adjusted a few things but not sure what).
@djjd62,
Quote:maybe it's a regional or ethnic background thing, be interesting to see more responses
Did the speaker sound ethnic, or have a noticable regional accent?
Kansas: sweet
Arizona: sweet
@JPB,
Nuh-uh . . . i've heard ad announcers on television from Illinois stations say "bedroom suit."
is it possibly an anti "Kings English" type situation, like the "our" at the end of words that England and Canada (though less and less it seems) still use, humour, colour etc.
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
Nuh-uh . . . i've heard ad announcers on television from Illinois stations say "bedroom suit."
Indeed. "Suit" is common downstate. "Sweet" is common in the Chicago area.
The context is what decides, according to my retail furniture sales/management background.
You buy a suite (suit) of furniture for your master suite (sweet).
@joefromchicago,
joefromchicago wrote:
Setanta wrote:
Nuh-uh . . . i've heard ad announcers on television from Illinois stations say "bedroom suit."
Indeed. "Suit" is common downstate. "Sweet" is common in the Chicago area.
Downstate? Do they count?
They don't count Chicago for much.
@squinney,
squinney wrote:
The context is what decides, according to my retail furniture sales/management background.
You buy a suite (suit) of furniture for your master suite (sweet).
From Merriams:
Quote:
suite noun \ˈswēt, 2d is also ˈsüt\
Definition of SUITE
1
: retinue; especially : the personal staff accompanying a ruler, diplomat, or dignitary on official business
2
: a group of things forming a unit or constituting a collection : set: as
a : a group of rooms occupied as a unit
b (1) : a 17th and 18th century instrumental musical form consisting of a series of dances in the same or related keys (2) : a modern instrumental composition in several movements of different character (3) : a long orchestral concert arrangement in suite form of material drawn from a longer work (as a ballet)
c : a collection of minerals or rocks having some characteristic in common (as type or origin)
d : a set of matched furniture
A group of rooms is indeed a suite (sweet) and a set of furniture
(2d) is a suite (suit) according to Merriam.
I call it a set of bedroom furniture.
avoids the whole debacle.
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