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In my experience, Qatar can be an interesting country to visit and Qatar Airways is a terrific way to fly. Pronouncing “Qatar,” though, is not obvious or easy. In an earlier version of this post I showed that there is no single accepted way for non-locals to pronounce Qatar. Qataris seem happy to accept anything from kuh-TAR to Cutter with many variations in-between. That said, there is of course a standard pronunciation for Qataris themselves and we now have the definitive answer to “how to pronounce Qatar”…
How Qataris pronounce Qatar
I recently had the opportunity to visit Qatar and to fly Qatar Airways with my friend Maisie. We took that opportunity to finally and definitively answer the question “how to pronounce Qatar.” The final answer is that the correct Qatari pronunciation of “Qatar” is closer to Cutter than to kuh-TAR, but neither is correct. “KUH-tah” is much closer, but even that isn’t quite on the money. The best answer is to watch and listen to this video to hear the answer for yourself:
How the rest of the world pronounces Qatar
In a previous post I described my hunt for business class award flights to South Africa in which I happily found Qatar Airways business class award flights (click here to read that post). When discussing these plans with my family, I quickly realized that writing about Qatar Airways is very different than talking about it. Most often I’ve heard Qatar pronounced as “cutter,” but I’ve heard “kuh-TAR” as well. When talking with people unfamiliar with the country or the airline, the conversation seems to require a few steps:
I booked business class flights on “cutter”…
Or, “kuh-tar”…
That’s spelled Q.A.T.A.R
Curious if there was a better answer, I turned to the internet…
Cambridge Dictionary
The Cambridge dictionary online offers two English pronunciations of “Qatar” (found here). You can click to listen to the spoken words or
- UK: /ˈkʌt.ɑːr/ [sounds like “KUH-tah” to me]
- US: /kəˈtɑːr/ [sounds like “kuh-TAR” to me]
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The Merriam-Webster dictionary online offers a single English pronunciation of “Qatar” (found here): ˈkä-tər, ˈgä-, ˈgə-; kə-ˈtär. When clicking the link to listen, it sounds to me like “KAH-ter” (as in Welcome Back, Kotter).
Quora
On the question and answer site, Quora, someone asked: Arabic (language): Qatar: Is it “kah-tarr,” “cutter,” or “gutter”?
Here were some of the answers:
Since the Arabic letter qof/qaf (ق) doesn’t exist in most European languages, an approximation is necessary. The closest in English is “gutter”. Definitely not “ka-TAR” as is frequently heard.
… However, the caveat to all of this is that when speaking English and speaking of foreign nations it doesn’t always have to be restricted to mimicking the native pronunciation. For example, Americans would say France with a short A, whereas in French it would be la France with a long A. …This is a long way of saying that Qatar, pronounced “cutter” is probably more in vogue now. It is replacing the older way, “kuh-TAR.” People who’ve had some interaction with the region might say, “gutter” a bit more – not inaccurate either. As many Qataris will tell you, the pronunciation can vary.
It’s significantly closer to “cutter” than it is to “kah-tarr”. Some gulfies like to say “gutter”, which is probably the easiest pronunciation for anyone who’s not familiar with the “qaf” sound. In normal English I say “cutter”. When talking to Arabs, I say “qutter” or “gutter,” depending on how they pronounce their qafs.
NPR
NPR published an amusing segment in 2010 titled “More Than One Way To Pronounce Qatar.” Mike Pesca describes many pronunciation options and ends with:
But officially they want me to say it sort of like guitar. We called the embassy, they said, “kuh-TAR” is fine, everyone pronounces it that way anyway. Well, maybe not everyone.
Summary
The correct Qatari pronunciation of “Qatar” sounds (to me) similar to “KUH-tah,” but the exact pronunciation is best heard rather than read (watch and listen to this video to hear “Qatar” repeated multiple times).
For western speakers, there is no single correct pronunciation of “Qatar.” Feel free to use any of these options:
- KUH-tah
- kuh-TAR
- KAH-ter (Kotter)
- Gutter
- Cutter
So, say it however you wish and, if talking with someone unfamiliar with the country or airline, follow up with “That’s spelled Q.A.T.A.R.”
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/21/sports/world-cup/how-pronounce-qatar.html
How are you hearing “cutter” from that??
This is negative experience with Qatar airways.
I had booked Biz class awards tickets using 70K avios + $215 for 2 people from DOHA to TRV.
QA (Qatar Airways) customer service rep put the award on hold (was told I need to ticket it within 10 days , which was by Nov 8th).
On Nov 6th I decided to ticket the booking and paid with 70K Q Points and $200 approx.
The status showed confirmed (before that it was on hold)
Later after 2 days I decided to get the eTicket from the website and ran into a “system error”
Called CSR and was told the award could not be ticketed because the award price when I tried to ticket had gone upto 140K Q Points and $200 for 2 tickets. The only option was to refund the booking. In was on the phone for 2 hours. I checked award prices which still showed 70K + $200 for 2 tickets.
But here is the kicker, when things go wrong, they punch you hard. The Q Points and cash will not be refunded for 21 days. The date of travel is 16th Nov. Repeated calls to CSR always get escalated to some mysterious department which always comes back with the answer, will be refunded, today, tomorrow and so on, still no luck
I had to book the same award using alaska miles. Long story short, I am not a fan of Qatar airways
raghu
Am a little worried now too about Qantas
It’s CON-tis
I say it like the TV ads which is “KAT-tar” Airways. Gutter is my second choice. KaTAR is the very old mispronunciation and Cutter is way too American.
Really love this piece and all the comments but I have to take issue with the idea that the French pronounce “France” with a long A. That would rhyme with “take.” They pronounce it differently than we do, of course, but the A rhymes with the vowel sound in “John” or “gone.”
In all European languages, there is no equivalent to the leading letter in Qatar, which exists in both Arabic and Farsi. When we hear it, we attempt to force it into how we would pronounce it. We attempt to enunciate the letter in the middle of the mouth as a G or a K. It is properly enunciated in the very back of the mouth, almost in the throat, almost like a gag response. It is very unnatural and takes substantial practice.
I’m a native Arabic speaker and you will not ever be vilified for Not speaking Arabic or saying a word incorrectly. That said the Q, T and R letters of the word – do not have an exact equal in the English language, but only closely resemble Q, T, and R in English
I had the privilege of learning Icelandic last year and pronouncing the “soft r” at the end of words as an American was difficult if not downright infuriating. When listening, it sounds different to me every time (everything from “ah” to a more american-soinding “ar”), even when the same person says it. But the locals certainly knew I was mispronouncing it. 🙂 To me this sounds like a similar soft r, and I hope to get it right some day. Thanks for the language challenge today and I feel your pain.
And please don’t get me started on the way foreigners pronounce chinas capital. “Beige-ing”!!! It’s not even hard to pronounce correctly. It’s “Bay-jing”. Two distinctive syllables.
I also just returned from Qatar and laughed when I saw the title of your post. We had the same question when we went and spent some time talking to locals who must get asked alot because they chuckled when asked. We came away understanding that it sounded more like “guitar”. At least that how we remembered it.
Jun a minha é o que a gente vai ter a gente vai ficar a gente vai ter a gente vai ficar a gente vai ter a gente vai fazer a sua mãe que eu estou falando e ele está bem e
Just flew Qatar Airlines and I asked 10 flight attendants how to pronounce the name. Every single one of them said Ka Tar … they laughed at Cutter…said nobody says that except those that have no clue.
This is a funny debate, and really actually just hinges on the English pronunciation vs native pronunciation.
We call Germany, Germany. They don’t, in German. Sweden <> Sverige. Espana vs. Spain.
Like, it’s all inconsistent all over the world. There’s just a weird hangup on this particular county’s name.
I was an Arabic linguist in the military, in a middle-east specialist unit, and have heard all the permutations here in this thread and comments from many colleagues and foreigners. In my early years, it was definitely ka-Taar. More knowledgeable, but not Arabic speakers went with ‘cutter’.
Based on language school, and native speakers:
Take the last sound of “lack”, with that hard “K in the back of your throat. That glottal sound doesn’t exist in English, but this is very very close.
Say “lack” like 10 times
Then put that very last sound in front of “-utter” and say it fast: “Kut’r” almost.
And, in fact, they don’t refer to Qatar as “Qatar”. All countries in Arabic are preceded by essentially the equivalent of “the”.
So, on the airplane itself, it says (in Arabic script): al-Qatar
Iraq is called “al-Iraq”, etc.
So, by just referring to the country as Qatar, we have already, in English, change the name/pronunciation.
Nice contribution, thanks!
+1, I asked the same question to a batchmate from Saudi and her pronunciation was the same.
This is incorrect. Not all country names in Arabic are preceding by the definite article ‘Al-‘ – just some. Proper nouns don’t need ‘Al’ in Arabic, but some do since the country name refers to something (eg Morocco being ‘the west’).
But Qatar, in Arabic, not not take ‘Al-‘ so your point is wrong.
Just an aside!
My sister-in-law lives in Dammam, they say it ‘cutter’