Tomato…..Tomaaato
Hello Creative Types:
I grew up in a household with a mother from Waco, Texas and a father from Brooklyn, New York so the “Tomato…Tomaaato” conversation was part of the daily ritual. Luckily for the family peace my parents didn’t challenge each others pronunciation of the word potato opting instead just to use the word “taters”.
The whole concept of how things are pronounced is the topic of today’s rant…um I mean..blog.
So as you might imagine I am a student of commercial advertising. I watch and listen very closely to advertising not only because am looking for something to toss rotten tomaaatos at but frankly I am always in search of ideas and inspiration. Recently I have noticed a crop of really bad voice over performances on local TV spots.
Voiceover 101…the pronunciations of the word “THE” and “A”.
When to use “the” with the long e (thee). Use this pronunciation sparingly because it provides emphasis to the word immediately following (in most cases).
“It is the best new car in it’s class for 2010.”
When NOT to use the long e.
“Look for our ad in the Washington Post.”
Now I know that we are taught in grammar school that the word “a” can be pronounced either way but lets be honest it just sounds weird when you hear a professional voiceover artist misuse this word.
When to use “A” with the long a sound.
“It’s a brand new way of looking at things.” (provides emphasis)
When NOT to use “A” with the long a sound.
“It’s a new day!” (say this out loud with both ways you will see what I mean).
Bottom line a voice over is a performance and not a “read”. When recording the voice over make sure you sound real. Make sure you are performing as if you are speaking to someone not reading to them.
Small issue but it has bugged me for 45 years and I just had to get it off my chest.
Got any comments questions or rants? Just let me know.
~The Head Who~
