Are you supposed to pronounce the "u" in Miguel?
In 3rd grade, I had always watched “Maya and Miguel” and in school one day, in my reading group, or whatever it was, we were reading about a boy named Miguel. She pronounced it “Mig-you-el”
and not “Mig-el” like I always heard it on Maya and Miguel, so whenever I said Miguel’s name, I pronounced it “Mig-el”, and she always wrote it how I was pronouncing it.
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
6 Answers
I’ve known two people named Miguel, from two different countries.
One prounced his name “Mee-gel” – with a hard G
The other pronounced it “Mig-well”.
In Spanish, if “gu…” is followed by i or e (as in Miguel), the u is silent. If the “gu…” is followed by a or o (as in iguana), the u is pronounced.
I knew I was right. I can’t believe she counted me wrong for something that was right…
No. You pretend the u isn’t there. In Spanish the same is true for QU. Quince is pronounced like keen-say. Quito, Ecuador is kee-toe. Miguel is mee-gell, the g staying hard like in gap.
Right, but it somehow seems more nuanced than that. The accent in Miguel is on the second syllable, the g is indeed hard but something different goes on in the back of the throat.
The GU combination in Spanish is pronounced with a hard G sound as in guy. So I would definitely defer to however the person wants it pronounced but if you’re going solely by the fact that it’s a Spanish name and if you want to pronounce it properly because of that, you should say it with a hard G. I worked with the lady for years whose last name was Vasquez and people always pronounced it with the QU sound that we use in English. It always annoyed me because I heard her tell people the proper way to pronounce it before and they just always seemed to ignore that.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
