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”…
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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.”
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
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’
My take is I don’t care what the dictionary or other people think it is pronounced. All I care is how the person or company wants to pronounce it. Years ago when I flew Qatar, in-flight safety video pronounced itself KAH-tur. It is how I call it since then.
Same for many other brands that people pronounce them incorrectly everyday – Adidas, Chanel, even Marriott. We can discuss it all day long, but the only correct pronunciation is the one the company (or the person) wants.
You are overthinking this. Call Qatar airlines and listen to the pronunciation on the recorded greeting.
Qatar Airways TV ads in Singapore say “KAH-tur Airways”. So I say “KAH-tur” or “guttar”, not ka-TAR as in NC Tar Heels.
Why would you cite the British or American dictionaries ? Because they’re so correct on pronouncing cities and countries? Like Peking, Bombay, Florence, etc? How about asking someone from Qatar how they pronounce their own countries name instead of trying to Anglicize it (which 99% of the time is incorrect)?
I lived in Qatar for many years – in Doha and Umm Said. The Qataries – and us expats – pronounced it as kuTAR.
ITS KUH-TAR
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.
https://bit.ly/2GCOE1Z
I think changing the pronunciation of Qatar is New Agediculous! Are we going to start saying Francaise instead of France or Paree instead of Paris or Deutschland instead of Germany etcetera?! Do other countries pronounce our names our ways ,on a Spanish station I heard them say Nueva York instead of New York . Do they pronounce Qataries Cutteries now? How does Qataries pronounce our country and cities and states?
On another note if you’ll pardon me. Re:Smokey Bear? It’s a bit irksome when wrong-headed ageism tries to change something the way it was when I was a kid and I’m 72 years old. It’s my impression even before my childhood it was and is Smokey the Bear .the argument against that I heard was that who has “the” in their name . Duh, what about Felix the Cat ,Alexander the Great ,Eric the Great, Attila the Hun and in common terminology like Otto the German , Jack the Plumber, or Mickelson the golfer, and how about John the Baptist?
And nobody asked me about “hashtag” ,what about Tweed tag , Crossroads tag or why add to the terminology of pound sign & number sign? And instead of so-called hashtag why not use the star sign? Thank you and John 3:16 and 1st Corinthians 14:33 and “pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” and may God bless America and the judeo-christian ethic and may God bless the children
You’re 72. That’s all you had to say.
I lived in Dubai when it was as a dusty, desert town. Fascinating but very provincial. We, everybody, pronounced it ku-TAR. I’m going to continue to call it Ku-TAR no matter what is “current” in the United States.
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I’ve studied Arabic and get that things are pronounced differently by region—as they are here in the US—so I asked a Lebanese friend whether my pronunciation was reasonable. She said yes, /q/ah-tah/r/, with glottal q and flipped r, both a as in “father”, and approx equal emphasis on the syllables, is correct. FWIW.
[…] then I started to do some research. I came across other blogs that posed the question. I learned there were even more ways to pronounce Qatar, like the […]
I like to know who sets the pronunciation for international locations or names , his problem is he knows only English . You need someone one with at least knowledge 10 languages . You better with a Roman who speaks Latin , I believe he can pronounce better , but they are all dead .
Stanley, I love your response. True about the Anglo-centricity of it all, and funny as well. Thank you for giving me a laugh!
Good point! For instance, I’m sure French speakers would say “kah-TAR” (2 long a-sounds, stress on the final syllable, with the unique French r-sound), because that follows the rules of French pronunciation. It’s all relative.
But I think we can all agree that “nuclear” is pronounced (in English, at least) “NEW-klee-uhr” and not “NOOK-yew-luhr”. 😀
Also “noon” is not “newn”, “too”/”two” are not “tew”, “coupon” is not “KEW-pahn”, “Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик / Soyúz Sovétskikh Sotsialistícheskikh Respúblik was not pronounced “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”…
OK, I’m having trouble climbing out of this rabbit hole… Lol!
For gods shake is not cutter is katar . I did google the pronunciation site the voice was cutter . Very wrong . In international pronunciation the a is always an a sound as a in large , also Iran , Iraq the I is like an i as in Italy not airan or airag . I did see the interview of the Emir of katar with president of university , the Emir call his country katar and the president of the university call cutter , very unprofessional. What make me mad most was Irma German female name . Was pronounce Ir-ma its I-Rma As for mr Charlie rose when I see him next time I will tell him katar I know mr rose very nice man. And Oikos yugart is eeeeekos not Oekos , very wrong oi in Greek is an e sound as economy oikos house nomos law ,law of the house .
During the 60 Minutes interview (29 Oct 17) of the Emir of Qatar by Charlie Rose, the Emir kept saying KahTAR (or catTAR) vice Charlie’s pronunciation as “cutter.” The Emir probably has a better grasp of his language, than non-native speakers. I believe the “cutter” pronunciation emerged due to US military intervention in the Gulf Wars. I think it is an arrogant, derogatory pronunciation intended to belittle or demean, because it’s “so cool” now to be mean and ugly. Obviously, the people are “KahTAReze” (phonetic) not “cutteries.” We should respect the country’s language, not insist on “Americanizing” it!
I hate to disagree with you however I am a desert veteran I have been to Kuwait and I have to tell you that I don’t agree with the arguments that I see in the media and on pages like yours it’s as simple as looking at the people of the country i.e. Americans come from America we don’t call ourselves Am’ e ricans the same is true with Qatar there’s only one way to pronounce their people and it is qataris right so what are you going to call their people if you pronounce it cutter or gutter? Makes no sense whatsoever I don’t understand why this is so hard for people a little common sense goes a long way even Merriam-Webster has it wrong which is hard for me to believe but they do
Merriam-Webster also mispronounces fleur-de-lys. (That final s is not silent in French.)
Actually, it’s fleur de lis (not lys) and no, the s is silent.
A long “a” is as in grape – not at all how the “France” example describes it.
I guess it’s sometimes it’s hard to get your mind into the Qatar
I lived in Saudi Arabia in the ’80s and everybody except the Brits said Ka-TAR. The people are Ka-TAR-ees. I don’t know when this whole “cutter” and “gutter” thing began.
Like we’re going to start calling it Deutschland instead of Germany now…
It’s hip to say Cutter in 2017. Previously it was Quaytar.
I visited Doha, Qatar in 2015 and did not hear anyone pronounce it “cutter”. It was usually pronounced “kah-TAR”. When watching CNN I have noticed it is usually pronounced “cutter”.
Interesting!
Well, it can be both .. and uttered by the same crew member! As part of the usual post-landing spiel after arriving in DOH on our first QR flight, we were welcomed to the State of “kuh-TAR” and thanked for flying “KAH-ter” Airways. Said crew member was most unlikely to have been a Qatari, mind. 🙂
Are these all western pronunciations
KAHTAR
gutter lol
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My sister has a friend from Qatar and he always pronounced it like “cutter” but with a softer c. Kind of like it’s halfway between “cutter” and “gutter”.
Also, more of an “ah” sound than “uh”. So kind of like halfway between “KAH-tur” and “GUH-tur”
Nailed it
Having traveled there and met natives a few years back, most of them tend to pronounce it as “cutter” but agree that there are many ways to say it and not one of them is right. A very interesting place with a unique culture. They also have sister U.S. college campuses there and a lot of people come in from all over the world to study there.
One of my professors guest lectured there during our spring break about two years ago and he told us it was pronounced like “cater,” which is how I’ve pronounced it since. Guess that was wrong!
You say Tomato…I say Toe-mah-toe
I say CaribBEan, and others say it wrong. 😉
ant not ahnt
That freakin letter is responsible for every headline containing an alternate spelling of Moammar Gaddafi (Qadhafi? (Kadaffi??)).
I knew someone who grew up there. She said KAH-dur. (My best phoneticization…)
“Welcome to gutter airlines” just sounds so wrong. I’d think maybe they renamed spirit or ryan air.
Aa exp rep called it “cutter” had me confused . I pronounce it kah-tar
Ha !
I noticed the funny pronunciation here in the US. Lived in Doha for many years when there was hardly an asphalt road in the country. We always pronounce it as ku-TAR and the people as ku-Taries.
That is what I thought the pronunciation was thank you!!!
I had to call AA to book award travel to Tanzania on Qatar. Not knowing properly how to pronounce, I reviewed internet articles and settled on something that sounded close to “cutter”. Proudly calling the award desk, I was told, in a thick Texas accent, “cutter” airlines is not a member of OneWorld. Then I said, “how about “Kaa-TAR” airlines. That did the trick.
How do you pronounce Qatari then?
Join the discussion…Cutteri, cutter ee ran together like boundary.
Next question: how do you pronounce Qataris? 🙂
Join the discussion…I am retired from the post office and have worked as window clerk. One of my customers one day was an arab looking man. He had filled out a customs form to mail his package to Qatar. I asked him how to say Qatar and he replied with something sounding like this “cutter”. He was from there so he is right. I would suggest you pronounce Qataris as Cutteris.
you being a man wouldn’t be able to find cutteris, even if you did work in a post office
This post reminds me of scenes from Keeping Up Appearances. “My name is Bouquet that’s spelled B-U-C-K-E-T” -Hyacinth Bucket. Thanks for the good laugh.
Talking on her Slimline telephone, and eating from the dishes with the hand painted perriwinkles. Good, I loved that show.
Join the discussion…Yep, and my name is Jeff. It is spelled Ja’quon’ ifa.
I flew Qatar Airways in Jan. When checking into the Admirals club at LAX, I called it Kotter, like the show (that is how the British pronounce it on their commercials). The lady at the desk had no idea what I was saying. Then she realized and told me it is pronounced Ka-Tar.
I’ll go with those that should know, like the Prime Minister, whom I’ve heard pronounce it as “Ka-Tar” also.
no they don’t the british pronounce kah-tar or que-tar, i’d never heard anyone pronounce it different till i heard rachel maddow say cutter, cutter this, cutter that and even making fun of trump for pronouncing it que-tar or qua-tar, you can mock him for 10,000 other things daily but saying a word the same as everyone except american media is not one of them, you can’t even spell properly.