Ever been in a Greek restaurant and felt unsure about how to pronounce the name of a dish? Well, it turns out there’s a popular Greek dish that many of us have been mispronouncing all along.
Gyros, a mouth-watering Greek delicacy made with slices of meat – chicken, pork, lamb or beef – served on pita bread with Tzatziki sauce on top, is a global fast food favourite. However, you might be slightly embarrassed to discover that you’ve been pronouncing its name incorrectly.
During a visit to Milos, a volcanic Greek island, online content creator and fashion student Sara Shammout asked a local waiter how to correctly pronounce the name of this popular fast food item. She shared a video of the interaction on TikTok, captioning it: “I’ve been saying it wrong this whole time.”
According to the waiter, the correct pronunciation is “yee-ros”. Sara was taken aback and asked for confirmation: “It’s not guy-ro?,” It appears those who have been pronouncing it this way have been getting it wrong.
And Sara wasn’t the only one. The enlightening TikTok video has been viewed by over 1.4 million people, with hundreds taking to the comments section to share their thoughts. “This was actually very helpful I always eat Greek food lol. Been saying guy-ro,” admitted one grateful social media user.
Another confessed: “This is how I found out I’ve been saying it like guy-ro.”
One individual remarked: “So I have been saying it right my whole life,” followed by crying-while-laughing emojis. “I’ve been saying Jai-ros all my life,” chimed in another. Some praised the tourist for taking the initiative to ask a local and learn.
Linguistics expert and communication coach Hadar Shemesh explains on her website that there are actually two ways to pronounce gyros. She clarifies: “The word consists of two syllables, and the primary stress is on the first one. One way to pronounce ‘gyro’ is: jee-row or zhee-row.
“The first syllable begins with either a J or ZH sound, which is the same sound you have in the word ‘vision’. Then it transitions into a long ‘ee’ sound as in the word ‘sheep’. The second syllable begins with the R sound and changes into the OW diphthong as in the word ‘go’.
“The other way to pronounce ‘gyro’ is: yee-row. The second syllable is pronounced the same but the first syllable begins with a Y sound, as in the word ‘yes’.”
