General Question

longgone's avatar

How do you pronounce "refuge" and "refugee"?

Asked by longgone (19795points) 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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18 Answers

stanleybmanly's avatar

First syllable on both.

flo's avatar

Re fu gee
Re fuge
But I’m guessing.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Refuge: ref-you-sh. In Kansas, however, we just say “trash.”

Refugee: Ref-u-gee.

zenvelo's avatar

@Dutchess_III It’s refuge not refuse.

REF uge
and
REF u GEE

jca's avatar

First syllable on both, like @stanleybmanly said.

jca's avatar

Play for your family the Tom Petty song “Don’t have to live like a refugee.”

dappled_leaves's avatar

REF uge
REF ugee (because Tom Petty says so)
ref UG ia (just to throw one more into the mix)

zenvelo's avatar

But Refugio beach just up the coast from Santa Barbara is Ray-foo- hee-oh

stanleybmanly's avatar

With the accent on the “hee”?

ibstubro's avatar

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!

dxs's avatar

I say “REF uge” and “ref u GEE”
Dictionary.com has these pronunciations as well, and also mentions “REF u gee”.

longgone's avatar

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.

ibstubro's avatar

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.

longgone's avatar

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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