Royal Navy

[honestjohn64-_]

Lieutenant. How's this pronounced these days? It used to be lootenant but on TV
it seems to be left-tenant

[ChrisHewat]

You are absolutely right with Left-tenent. The Loo-tenent one is more applicable to the US Army and Navy!! Hope this helps.

[daffy654]

As far as I remember it has always been 'lef-tenant' in the UK.

[THECORBYLOON]

I thought that in the RN it was pronounced Letenant without the "f", always willing to be corrected but.

[mike11111]

English: Lefftenant. US: Lootenant. End of.

[THECORBYLOON]

Just had a look in ma Chambers Dictionary and the "letenant" is an alternative pronunciation especially in the Navy.

[vulcan]

Leftenant UK Army & RAF, lootenant, US Military and UK RN.

[New Judge]

Yes, TCL, you're absolutely correct. Leff-tenant in the Army (2nd Leff-tenant, Leff-tenant, Leff-Tenant General) and the RAF (Flight Leff-Tenant).

Le-tenant (sub-Le-tenant, Le-tenant, Le-Tenant Commander) in the Royal Navy.

Loo-Tenant has no place in the British Armed forces. It goes alongside the method of salute which looks like a fly is being swatted from the forehead.

[Quizmonster]

The word 'lieutenant' means '(one) holding the place of (another)' from the French root-words. In Old French, both 'lieu' and 'luef' were used to mean 'place', the latter more rarely. English seems to have adopted the SOUND of one of the old words and the SPELLING of the other, whereas Americans etc ended up with the matching pair, with the spelling as extended, more or less, into modern French. Certainly, the Scottish poet, John Barbour, wrote of a 'luftenand' as long ago as the mid 14th century.

[honestjohn64-_]

Quizmonster
WOW!!!
Many thanks

[heathfield]

I've even heard Americans pronounce it 'loyt-nant'

[Quizmonster]

I think that's exactly the pronunciation in German, HF, isn't it?

I'm glad the background linguistic information helped, HJ, and thanks for the "Wow!"

[heathfield]

On reflection, your right, QM. Anecdote - Some friends and I were talking to a small group of US servicemen when their lieutanant suddenly asked, ''Hey. Anyone know what the French word for lieutenant is?'' We looked at him in disbelief!

[Quizmonster]

Rather like our own claim, H, that the French have no word for entrepreneur or even Del-Boy's question about what they call duck à l'orange!

[ludwig]

// Loo-Tenant has no place in the British Armed forces. It goes alongside the method of salute which looks like a fly is being swatted from the forehead. //

British salute - fast up, slow down
American salute - slow up, fast down

[Nibble]

Nice try Ludwig, but entirely wrong.......Try the other way round.......

British Forces (slow up, pause of 2..3, FAST down)
American Forces (FAST up, pause of ..., slooooow down) & sloppy IMO

As an retired soldier..... I know!!!!

[ludwig]

Well, I was close. How about the the French one - both hands straight up fast.

[New Judge]

Yes nibble - also "the longest way up, the shortest way down"!

Whenever I see US servicemen salute (admittedly mainly on the telly) they seem to wipe their forehead with the side of their right forefinger before bringing the hand down across their face.

[Wharton]

stand at ease