How do you say Gato?

[Reno]

I have a pretty smart guy at work who thinks I may be pronouncing Gato wrong. He reasons that if Gato is named for a small catshark off the west coast of Mexico, then the correct pronunciation for cat in spanish is GAH-tow, not GAY-tow. How did they say it back then...in the spanish or was it anglicized?

[mookiemookie]

GAH-toe

[AVGWarhawk]

The word gato is from Spanish desent but as you know, English pronunciation with certain words is very different then the Spanish counterpart. I do not suspect the pronunciation of gay-to in English tongue as incorrect. I do not believe the 21 year old skippers were pronouncing it as gah-to either. There are variations of the Spanish tongue and English tongue. I believe the pronunciation of gay-to is correct.

[tater]

^ not that there's anything wrong with that.

:D

tater

[AVGWarhawk]

You say tomato and I say tomahto!

[letterboy1]

I believe that was when they first established the don't-ask-don't-tell policy for letting Gatos in the Navy.

[Mike@UK]

As an Englishman I say it like gateau, as in the cake, but then that probably confuses it even more as people will no doubt have different ways of saying gateau. :p

[Sailor Steve]

Since it is named for a species also known as the catshark, it should almost certainly be gah-toe. On the other hand, everyone I've ever talked to said that her crew pronounced it gay-toe.

So, it may be wrong, but if you're on board, it's gay-toe.

[letterboy1]

Since it is named for a species also known as the catshark, it should almost certainly be gah-toe. On the other hand, everyone I've ever talked to said that her crew pronounced it gay-toe.

So, it may be wrong, but if you're on board, it's gay-toe.
I'll bet that there was one geek with glasses who tried to correct the rest of the crew with the "Gah-toe" pronunciation including an interesting dissertation on the origin of the word and the fish species. After his blanket party I'm sure the official pronunciation became "Gay-toe."

[Misfit138]

Kato

Gotta love that certain simplicity in finnish language :p

[letterboy1]

Kato

Gotta love that certain simplicity in finnish language :p

That's The Green Hornet's sidekick played by Bruce Lee.

[MGR1]

Kato

Gotta love that certain simplicity in finnish language :p

That's The Green Hornet's sidekick played by Bruce Lee.

Or the name of the Japanese tin can skipper who's trying to stove your head in with a depth charge....

Mike.

[sniperpr1]

Well, Gato stands for Cat in Spanish - in this case it means Catfish. The correct way to pronounce it is GAH - TO, not GAH-TOW. The accent or pronunciation strenght is in the first syllable. The 'O' is actually pronounced as you would pronounce the letter 'O' in the word TON. I'm from Puerto Rico, and even though we are a US possession, our primary language is Spanish. If someone has any other question of the Spanish language, feel free to ask :yep:

Que tengan muy buenas noches y buena cacería, Capitanes. => Have a very good night, and good hunting, Captains.

[Reno]

:huh: ...it sounds like the correct pronunciation, GAH-tah, (at least in Puerto Rico), has been changed to suit the region. KAY-tow in Finland, GAH-tew or tow(?) if your eating some sort of cake in England, GAH-tow if you're an American trying to impress someone with your multi-lingual ability, and GAY-tow if you're an actual Gato crew member or someone who's just trying to be politically correct. And then of course there's Warhawk who thinks this whole mess can be settled with tomatoes. :D

Is it just me or does this all seem a little confusing?

[Sailor Steve]

[I'll bet that there was one geek with glasses who tried to correct the rest of the crew with the "Gah-toe" pronunciation including an interesting dissertation on the origin of the word and the fish species. After his blanket party I'm sure the official pronunciation became "Gay-toe."
HEY! That's me you're talking about!:rotfl: I'm always trying to correct everything, and I do wear glasses.

As to the different pronunciations listed above, I think what's important isn't the proper way to say it, but how the guys who served aboard her said it.

So there.

[Sulikate]

Well, I say gah-toe.

[Digital_Trucker]

HEY! That's me you're talking about!:rotfl: I'm always trying to correct everything, and I do wear glasses.


Don't feel like the "Lone Stranger" Steve, there's at least two of us here:o Judging by all this discussion of the various pronunciations, I'm beginning to think that some of us are decidedly homotoebic:rotfl: How did this question end up being a discussion of the sexual preferences of our pedal digits?

[letterboy1]

I think it's helpful to know the origin of the word and its pronunciation in the mother tongue, but you can no sooner get a Spanish speaker to say Van instead of Ban than you can get the crew of the Drum to say Gah-to instead of Gay-toe.

How many of us Americans refer to the capital of Russia as Moskva? Very few I'm sure . . . we say Moscow. Heck, we don't even bother with the word Deutschland, we say Germany. Or the German city of Köln gets called Cologne. Let's face it, we change pronunciations to suit our languages and regions.