What is the correct pronunciation of the word “processes”?

Question

What is the correct pronunciation of the word processes because in my company some say it as "process-eez" and some say it "process-ess"?

I am confused, because my mother tongue is not English.

Answer 1

Even in the dictionary, this word has several recognized pronunciations:

• In the singlar, the first syllable can be pronounced with a long or short o.
• In the plural, the last syllable can be pronounced with a long or short e.

All four of these pronunciations can be heard by clicking on the speaker icons at the M-W website.

Answer 2

From my limited understanding of English - being a UK citizen born and bred, I have formed this perhaps somewhat biased opinion. The reason processes ending in - 'eez' sounds idiosyncratic in the UK is because of the association with objects. Such as divorce versus divorcee. Divorce being the subject and divorcee being the person.

Therefore, the psychological confusion with the pronunciation 'process- eez' suggests that this is some other category beyond 'the process', to include several subjects as 'candidates' for the process, 'eez', rather than the action of processing. To my mind this is a peculiar Americanism which has become contagious in the last 40 odd years.

I doubt if you will find it in 1950’s or even early 1960’s scientific documentaries, such as the American atom and hydrogen bomb tests, which pepper You Tube.

It is a relatively recent American scientific or technocratic affectation and it feels like a kind of elitist pronunciation snobbery rather than a real 'word'. What I call 'an Americanism'. Furthermore, many Americans, culturally-linguistically seem to have problems pronouncing the letter 'O'. They say "AW" instead of "OH".

Ask an American to pronounce "O" and he will say "OH", ask him to say process and he will say "praw-cess", yet they don't say "praw-nounce". "Prah-bable" rather than "prob-able", etc. I believe that the main reason is America's huge influx of uneducated Western and Eastern European, Slavic, Chinese and Russian immigrants over 2 centuries, many of whom learnt English by defective mimicry rather than education. I would suggest that American state accents are influenced by the preponderance of the originating country’s population seeding.

Chinese and Japanese particularly have problems with received English, such as pronouncing the letter “L”, as do Indians, where, apart from sounding guttural generally, they confuse “V” and “W” where they say “Ve are having a werry good day”. Take any country which has English as a second language and you will find the primary language phonetics breaking through all over the place. It is to be expected.

Chinese and Japanese doubtless find us equally amusing trying to speak theirs.

As George Bernard Shaw said, “Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language”.

Answer 3

I find it odd that, based on your perception, some pronounce the noun "processes" as process-ess.

In English, when a noun ends in [s], its plural form in Standard English is [sɪz] or [səz], sometimes [si:z] (esp. in AmE), but never [sVs], where V stands for any vowel.

Answer 4

There are words derived from Greek that end with "-is" in the singular and "-es" in the plural. Thus

This thesis is . . .
These theses are . . .

This basis is . . .
These bases are . . .

This axis is . . .
These axes are . . .

In these words, the final "-es" is pronounced "eez". "Bases", when it is the plural of "base", is pronounced differently from "bases" used as the plural of "basis". Likewise when "axes" is the plural of "axe", it's not pronounced the way it is when it's the plural of "axis".

My guess is that those who say "processeez" inadvertently borrowed that pronunciation from the class of words of which the above are examples.

Answer 5

In addition to the pronunciations mentioned in the other answers, there are different stresses put on it depending on whether you're using it as a noun or a verb.

PRO-cess - noun, as in "Your application is subject to our internal processes"

pro-CESS - verb, as in "The bride now processes down the aisle"

Answer 6

I would say the latter is correct, but you may have hit a regional variation. Generally speaking, if lots of people are doing it, it becomes dialect, and thus "correct". An "ess" sound at the end is more usual, however, at least where I'm from - I've never heard it pronounced the other way.