How do you pronounce "refuge" and "refugee"?
Asked by
longgone (
19764)
September 4th, 2015
Where do you stress the terms?
Is it REF uge or ref UGE ?
Is it REF ugee, ref U gee, or refu GEE ?
Family dispute.
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Composing members:
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18 Answers
Re fu gee
Re fuge
But I’m guessing.
Refuge: ref-you-sh. In Kansas, however, we just say “trash.”
Refugee: Ref-u-gee.
Play for your family the Tom Petty song “Don’t have to live like a refugee.”
REF uge
REF ugee (because Tom Petty says so)
ref UG ia (just to throw one more into the mix)
But Refugio beach just up the coast from Santa Barbara is Ray-foo- hee-oh
With the accent on the “hee”?
REF-uge
and
REF-U-gee
But I admit I’ve been known to interchange the pronunciation given the other person in the conversation. I’m comfortable with all the pronunciations.
Then there are ref-u-GEES.
Being in General now prohibits me from bringing up the Bee Gees, thank the gourd!
I say “REF uge” and “ref u GEE”
Dictionary.com has these pronunciations as well, and also mentions “REF u gee”.
Thanks! Seems like there are several options, then. We all said
REF ugee, and REF uge.
Then, we were confused. We are going to stick to our original pronunciation, I think.
I can’t say REF-u-gee(s), @longgone, without concentrating.
And the verbal pronunciation on Dictionary.com is clearly ref-u-Gee, contrary to my personal use.
You don’t want to wade into a family dispute too deeply and have to backtrack.
I thought you do stress the first syllable, but I see you are stressing the first two. I can’t imagine hoe that works. Are you sure you aren’t just stressing the middle part?
You have a point.
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