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How do you pronounce "Lowe" in "Lowe's", the home improvement store in U.S.?

How is it pronounced when it is in a person's name? Is it pronounced in the same way?

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It'll take you 20 seconds to find out, but you can listen to this commercial and hear a professional voice-over provide the answer you're looking for. It's pronounced the same way when it's someone's name, as you can hear in the opening of this video. – J.R. Aug 6 '12 at 0:47
@J.R.: Add that as an answer. – Mechanical snail Aug 6 '12 at 6:05

1 Answer

up vote 19 down vote accepted

It is homophonic with the regular word low, in all circumstances. The e is silent.

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Don't say "in all circumstances". Someone just emigrating from Germany today with name Löwe may not pronounce it that way. But his children or grandchildren will. – GEdgar Aug 6 '12 at 12:17
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@GEdgar: tchrist is giving accurate information for how the store itself means its name to be pronounced. Citing special cases in general is sophistic nit-picking (shall we discuss Chinese speakers' difficulties with the term, or the attempts of people with speech impediments?), and even your special example doesn't work since the German word for lion is spelled differently from the American store chain, and there is no 's ending in German. – Robusto Aug 6 '12 at 12:34
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@Robusto - I think that GEdgar was addressing the second half of the OP's question: "How is "Lowe" pronounced when it's a part of someone's name." And in that context, the remark about the German surname Lowe seems perfectly appropriate. – Lynn Aug 6 '12 at 18:11
@Lynn: Except that the German word is Löwe, not Lowe. Most Germans I've met would not be confused by such Anglicizations. You'd be making a better case if the name in question was Kraft, which does have an identical German counterpart. – Robusto Aug 6 '12 at 18:26
There are two things we need to separate: Anglicization of Foreign names; Foreign names in the original names. It is better to focus on the anglicization part, that's how all natural languages have adapted foreign words. – RainDoctor Aug 6 '12 at 19:56

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