HOW TO YOU PRONOUNCE QUINOA HOW TO

Why not invite them over for supper tonight? Or you can skip going the store and discover where to buy quinoa online!Įither way, you’ll be just one step away from cooking it and fixing a fine recipe for yourself and your loved ones. They'll be especially thankful that you don't say quinoa like this. You can confidently enter any quality grocery store and ask for it by name.

HOW TO YOU PRONOUNCE QUINOA HOW TO

So now you know how to pronounce quinoa (and how not to). And we transfer that sound over to English.Īn unsatisfying answer? Welcome to the ever-so-nuanced world of language translation! I can sympathize.īut we know what it sounds like in Spanish. It seems like it should be pronounced like 'boa' or 'Noah'. Someone in the comments below asked why the English quinoa has an 'oa' at the end. We end up saying it like “keen-WAH.” Hey, old habits die hard. Sometimes my wife and I revert to our English way of accenting the last syllable of a word. Yeah, it’s pretty much the same as you’d say it in Spanish. So can you guess how to pronounce quinoa as an English speaker? Drum roll please… Also, the i in Spanish usually sounds more like an English ee.Īlright, so how does all of this transfer into English? Let’s find out! They make more of a K sound than a KW sound. Remember, Spanish Qu’s don’t sound like English Qu’s. Now try that kind of pronunciation with quinua. See the similarity?Īnyway, you would pronounce ag uaas “AH-gwah.” Well, do you know the Spanish word ag ua? Yeah, it means water - think of the English word aq ua. (Notice the 'ua' at the end.)īut how would they pronounce this new word? They determined that quin ua would do very nicely.

So the Quechua kinwa had to be transformed into a Spanish word. But I do know how to speak Spanish… un poco !Ĭheck out the 3 craziest ways to pronounce quinoa!Īs the Spanish explored and settled in South America they encountered strange new words that they needed to put into their own language.

They spoke in Quechua.Īnd I have no idea how to speak that language. That’s right, the Incas didn’t natively speak English of course. Well you see, kinwa is actually a word in a language called Quechua. They called it kinwa.Īnd how do you pronounce kinwa? Quite honestly I don’t know. Quechua: “Kinwa”Īs far as we know the Incas were the first people group to cultivate quinoa.īut of course they didn’t call it quinoa. The word quinoa - the so-called mother and queen of the grains - had to travel through two other languages to make it into the king’s English. How to pronounce quinoa: Origin of the word Otherwise keep reading if you want the explanation for why we English-speaking folk say quinoa the way we do. If you just want the pronunciation without any of the reasons behind it, jump down to the English pronunciation of Quinoa. So let’s try to figure out the whys and wherefores behind the proper pronunciation of quinoa. You want to be sure that you’re sure that you’re sure… that you can say quinoa like a pro. You can find a number of sites on the internet that delve into quinoa pronunciation. Is one of these pronunciations right? Are they all wrong? How would you know? Most people I talk with pronounce it like “kwinn-OH-ah” or “KWINN-oh-ah.” In fact, I point out on another page 3 crazy ways to pronounce quinoa that I've heard over the years. So you want to know how to pronounce quinoa? You’re not alone.

How to you pronounce quinoa