# How do you pronounce Beaufighter?



## Oreo (Jul 26, 2008)

Well, how do you?


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## B-17engineer (Jul 26, 2008)

I am gonna say Byoo-fi-ter.......are you trying to figure this out or are you testing us?


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## Oreo (Jul 26, 2008)

B-17engineer said:


> I am gonna say Byoo-fi-ter.......are you trying to figure this out or are you testing us?



kind of both. I don't know for sure the right way. I have been pronouncing it Bo-fighter all my life, but I rarely have heard it pronounced by anyone-- I've only ever read it or heard it said by people who may not have been a good authority on the subject!


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## B-17engineer (Jul 26, 2008)

I am Pretty sure its Byoo-fi-ter


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## Oreo (Jul 26, 2008)

Also I thought it would be a funny poll!


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## B-17engineer (Jul 26, 2008)

haha I look at it I was like...hmmmmm...how to pronounce Beaufighter I never really thought of that becoming a thread


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## lesofprimus (Jul 26, 2008)

It* IS* pronounced Bo fighter... As in boa...


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## Njaco (Jul 26, 2008)

Bow (as in ribbon, necktie) fie -ter
 
Beau Bridges
Beau Geste


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## Oreo (Jul 26, 2008)

Njaco said:


> Bow (as in ribbon, necktie) fie -ter
> 
> Beau Bridges
> Beau Geste



You mean I was right? Gasp!


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## Oreo (Jul 26, 2008)

And, uh, what about those two people who voted other?


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## Njaco (Jul 26, 2008)

descendants of Helen Keller?


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## Oreo (Jul 26, 2008)

Njaco said:


> descendants of Helen Keller?



noice! And they didn't explain.


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## Matt308 (Jul 26, 2008)

They would have, but their profile indicates they have no lips.


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## Njaco (Jul 26, 2008)

Hey I was one of those!


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## Matt308 (Jul 26, 2008)

no nwhat is nyour pnoint, Njaco?


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## Njaco (Jul 26, 2008)

(tyoing with elbows) %$#...0 ..,;hfd nm....


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## Matt308 (Jul 26, 2008)




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## Njaco (Jul 26, 2008)

There is one other way to pronounce it

Bee-you-fighter

as in Beautiful. Yes?


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## kool kitty89 (Jul 27, 2008)

That's how I thought it was pronounced Njaco... Until I heard it pronounced by the narator on a British history programme. (I think it was from the Battlefield series)


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## Freebird (Jul 27, 2008)

Njaco said:


> Bow (as in ribbon, necktie) fie -ter
> 
> Beau Bridges
> Beau Geste



Beaucoup, Fantastique! Njaco Tres Bien!


Yes why be so dogmatic about pronunciation! 

How about the US Battleship Wheezy-ana?

Or the US heavy cruiser class Gnarl-eens?


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## Oreo (Jul 27, 2008)

Njaco said:


> There is one other way to pronounce it
> 
> Bee-you-fighter
> 
> as in Beautiful. Yes?



I think that's just a coloquialist version of Byoo-fighter. The fact is, not everyone says bee-you-tiful. Some just say Byoo-tiful. Splitting hairs, here, we are!


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jul 27, 2008)

I have always pronounced it Byoo-fi-ter, but I am not really sure how it is pronounced.


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## lesofprimus (Jul 27, 2008)

As I stated up above, Beau is Bow is in archery bow... I choose Other because the listings didnt look right to me....

Bo fit er is sounded out to me as Bofitter... To correctly list it I would have done this:

Bo fie ter


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## Oreo (Jul 27, 2008)

lesofprimus said:


> As I stated up above, Beau is Bow is in archery bow... I choose Other because the listings didnt look right to me....
> 
> Bo fit er is sounded out to me as Bofitter... To correctly list it I would have done this:
> 
> Bo fie ter



OK, OK, sorry! "Bow-fie-ter"


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## B-17engineer (Jul 27, 2008)

Njaco said:


> There is one other way to pronounce it
> 
> Bee-you-fighter
> 
> as in Beautiful. Yes?



Thats how I pronounce it


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## hunter0f2 (Jul 27, 2008)

How do you pronounce Beaufort???


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## Njaco (Jul 27, 2008)

> How do you pronounce Beaufort???


"By the power invested in me, I hereby......"

Didn't mean to confuse with all those ways to say it, but like Dan, I wasn't sure about the choices at the beginning. I've always pronounced it like "bow".


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## hunter0f2 (Jul 27, 2008)

Yep Bow!! as in Bow Tie!!


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## ToughOmbre (Jul 27, 2008)

I think the Japanese pronounced it "Whispering Death".

TO


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## Oreo (Jul 27, 2008)

Well, since they had a bow-fighter, why didn't they have a sword-fighter, too?


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## Oreo (Jul 27, 2008)

Oreo said:


> Well, since they had a bow-fighter, why didn't they have a sword-fighter, too?



They probably just didn't think of it. You know the Brits. I mean, really, who would name a bomber a "Bolingbroke?" Or a "Wellesley?" And surely they could have come up with better names than "Skua," "Fulmar," or "Albemarle." And naming their bombers after cities was just weird. Whenever I hear of one of those British cities, out of the aviation context, I immediately think of the corresponding bomber that went with it. Now what if we had named our bombers "Houston" "Los Angeles" "Philadelphia" or "Chicago?"

"Achtung, Heinz, ich sehen einen staffel dem Schikagaoen!"

"Schikagoen, Dieterich?"

"Nein, sie sind nicht Schikagoen, sie sind San Diegoen!"


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## hunter0f2 (Jul 27, 2008)

The Edsel Fish Fighter--- Ummm the enemy would scramble to Intercept them in their Peashooter Potatoe Pursuits---


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## bigZ (Jul 27, 2008)

I say tomato. You say ...


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ3fjQa5Hls_

For me its Bowfighter. Although a younger generation may pronounce it differently. Eg Kids will say lieutenant adults leftenant.

As Churchill said (Of England and America) ‘Two nations separated by a common language.'


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## trackend (Jul 27, 2008)

deffinately bow fighter but then we say boy for buoy 
where I believe you say booey and lets not get into hoods, fenders, bonnets bumpers


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## evangilder (Jul 27, 2008)

or aluminum versus aluminium?


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## claidemore (Jul 27, 2008)

I had a chat with Dallas Schultz a few years ago, a canadian who flew both Beaufighters and Mosquitos in WWII, and he pronounced it Bow-fighter. 

Here's a tougher one for non-German speakers, how do you pronounce Jagdgeshwader? And no, "dishwaher" ain't even close.


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## hunter0f2 (Jul 27, 2008)

JAG-GESH-VADER---- Ithink ???? I only did 2 years of German at School...


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## Njaco (Jul 27, 2008)

well, there is a Tie-fighter.


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## merlin (Jul 27, 2008)

hunter0f2 said:


> JAG-GESH-VADER---- Ithink ???? I only did 2 years of German at School...



It may be spelt with a 'J' but isn't it pronounced with a 'Y'? As in Ja, is pronounced yah, isn't it!?
Therefore it would be Yag-gesh-vader ('yag' as in English bag)!


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## Njaco (Jul 27, 2008)

I thinks its more like "Yahg -"


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## kool kitty89 (Jul 27, 2008)

Oreo said:


> They probably just didn't think of it. You know the Brits. I mean, really, who would name a bomber a "Bolingbroke?" Or a "Wellesley?" And surely they could have come up with better names than "Skua," "Fulmar," or "Albemarle." And naming their bombers after cities was just weird. Whenever I hear of one of those British cities, out of the aviation context, I immediately think of the corresponding bomber that went with it. Now what if we had named our bombers "Houston" "Los Angeles" "Philadelphia" or "Chicago?"
> 
> "Achtung, Heinz, ich sehen einen staffel dem Schikagaoen!"
> 
> ...



Well the British did name their A-20's "Bostons"


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## Oreo (Jul 27, 2008)

kool kitty89 said:


> Well the British did name their A-20's "Bostons"



My point exactly. We didn't do it. I think we can also thank them for Dakota, Baltimore, Maryland, Buffalo, Bermuda, and Hudson.


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## Njaco (Jul 27, 2008)

don't forget Kittyhawk.


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## Oreo (Jul 27, 2008)

Njaco said:


> don't forget Kittyhawk.



Yeah. Could have been worse-- it could have been Chickenhawk!


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## Thorlifter (Jul 27, 2008)

Yep. 

Bow fi ter (Like bow and arrow)


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## kool kitty89 (Jul 28, 2008)

I don't think Kittyhawk (even before the British "Tomahawk" and "Mohawk" -P-36- Curtiss had Hawk as a name for a long line of fighters), Buffalo, or Hudson would count for the cities though, and remember they named the P-38 the Lightning as well. (Lockheed had "Atalanta" in mind Atalanta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

And the Buffalo and Lightning names are quite well suited IMO.

But what I find more interesting is that the British a/c designations were all names only, no numbers or letters for types which pretty much every other country were using.


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## Freebird (Jul 28, 2008)

kool kitty89 said:


> Well the British did name their A-20's "Bostons"



The British had names for all aircraft, a practice that the US picked up on later.



Oreo said:


> My point exactly. We didn't do it. I think we can also thank them for Dakota, Baltimore, Maryland, Buffalo, Bermuda, and Hudson.



And Liberator...


We are very grateful that the USA was as good at making aircraft but poor at naming them, instead of the other way 'round.

Did you ever wonder why the USA did not win the war with Apache Atalanta aircraft?


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## Freebird (Jul 28, 2008)

Thorlifter said:


> Yep.
> 
> Bow fi ter (Like bow and arrow)



Boo-fighter.

Rhymes with Foo Fighter?


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## kool kitty89 (Jul 28, 2008)

Thunderbolt was a pretty good name though.


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## claidemore (Jul 28, 2008)

kool kitty89 said:


> I don't think Kittyhawk (even before the British "Tomahawk" and "Mohawk" -P-36- Curtiss had Hawk as a name for a long line of fighters), Buffalo, or Hudson would count for the cities though, and remember they named the P-38 the Lightning as well. (Lockheed had "Atalanta" in mind Atalanta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
> 
> And the Buffalo and Lightning names are quite well suited IMO.
> 
> But what I find more interesting is that the British a/c designations were all names only, no numbers or letters for types which pretty much every other country were using.



Mark 1, Mark V, Mark IX etc? Those are numbers.  Also, the MkIX Spitfire was a Type 361. Numbers are confusing and easy to forget, names, if well chosen, stick with you. The system of giving a type a name, and specific models within the type numbers, is a good one. 
The Soviets had names for their fighters, of designers or compilations of designers initials, supplemented by model numbers. That seemed to work pretty well for them.

Oreo? Will we be having a poll for the silliest name for a WWII plane?


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## kool kitty89 (Jul 28, 2008)

I said interesting, not necessarily bad...


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## Lucky13 (Jul 28, 2008)

Don't you Yanks also have the Brits to thank for Lightning, Mustang?


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## kool kitty89 (Jul 28, 2008)

As I mentioned...



kool kitty89 said:


> I don't think Kittyhawk (even before the British "Tomahawk" and "Mohawk" -P-36- Curtiss had Hawk as a name for a long line of fighters), Buffalo, or Hudson would count for the cities though, and remember they named the P-38 the *Lightning *as well. (Lockheed had "Atalanta" in mind Atalanta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


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## Oreo (Jul 28, 2008)

Lucky13 said:


> Don't you Yanks also have the Brits to thank for Lightning, Mustang?



They did a whole lot better with the RAF fighters, those I have no complaints. The RN fighters were mainly fish or birds (I guess) what's a Martlet, anyway? Firefly, ok. Fulmar??????? Skua????


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## Oreo (Jul 28, 2008)

claidemore said:


> Oreo? Will we be having a poll for the silliest name for a WWII plane?



yeah, good idea. Stay tuned.


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## BikerBabe (Nov 15, 2010)

"Bow"fighter, and Blenheim = "Blennem" - with a heavy british accent, of course.


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## Bernhart (Nov 15, 2010)

think most British naval aircraft were named after seabirds, Fulmars and skuas are both( the birds i mean)


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