Lori's NZ Blog

How to say "no" like a Kiwi

It's pronounced kinda like "noi," but not quite as harsh. If you say "deny it" but remove the "de" and the "t," then you've almost got it. There seems to be a tiny bit of a shwa-like sound at the end, but it's very subtle. They manage to squeeze a lot of vowel sounds into such a little word.

They also pronounce short "e"s as long ones. For example, most people pronounce "Weta" to rhyme with "mo betta." But a true dyed-in-the-wool Kiwi will pronounce it "Weeta." But it's their bug, so Weeta it is.

They also use odd expressions like "sussed out" (meaning to investigate something) and "sorted" (instead of sorted out) and "cheers" instead of "thanks" and "sweet-as" instead of "awesome." They say "how ya going" instead of "how ya doing." Also, no one here says "dude."

posted by Lori @ 5:38 PM