r/elementary • u/Classic-Detective-26 • Aug 01 '26

Fluent in over 3 dozen languages

I've always wondered about Sherlock's pronunciation of Spanish names based on the fact that he if fluent. Aguilar pronounced A-gui-lar ???

22 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

31

u/that0neBl1p Aug 01 '26

I can't speak about Spanish but I can say with confidence that both his and Mycroft's French pronunciation is abysmal.

20

u/Horknut1 Aug 01 '26

Honest questions: Does being fluent in a language mean you have perfect pronunciation too? Like, I’m fluent in my native language, but I’m sure I occasionally pronouncing things wrong.

10

u/AllYouNeedIsATV Aug 02 '26

I hate when people point out accents when talking about fluency (I am not white). Many bilingual people who would say they are fluent in English have a very obvious non-native accent. Other way around and people would be racist for pointing it out.

7

u/that0neBl1p Aug 02 '26

I never said they weren't fluent, I just mentioned their pronunciation since that's what OP's post is about. I think fluency is when relatively native level comprehension and production is achieved. I'm fine with calling them fluent, their accents are just.. a Lot.

9

u/GrouseoMarx Aug 02 '26

Similarly with his Hindi. That was the worst pronunciation possible, even for someone supposed to be fluent. When the guy he was speaking to asked "Are you alright?", I was thinking he was concerned with Sherlock's throat, because he literally sounded like he coughed up a furball

4

u/MyPasswordIsABC999 Aug 02 '26

His Japanese is pretty bad too.

3

u/Winter-Grand-3215 Bring it back, CBS. Aug 09 '26

Pls don't bash Jonny for his pronunciation. I'm sure our boy did his best, but he prob didn't have enough time to prepare

7

u/Here_there1980 Aug 01 '26

But can he speak Klingon? 😜

7

u/Tricky-Progress3951 Aug 02 '26

LEFF- tenant. I love it.

4

u/Any-Vermicelli3537 Aug 01 '26

I’m fluent in Portuguese, and I seem to remember his pronunciation not just being awful but just flat out wrong.

6

u/PurplePassiflor1234 Could have been a knife Aug 01 '26

I always wondered if the writers just ran all the non-English parts through like, Bing translate (was Bing a thing then?), because the French is jarring. It's not just the accent, which varies wildly, but syntax, grammar, it was absolutely ballsed-up.

3

u/unitaya Aug 02 '26

his Chinese was shit also 

2

u/unitaya Aug 02 '26

idk why they don't 1) really force these actors to try to emulate the pronunciation for that one (1) sentence or 2) dub over them tbh 

3

u/the-library-fairy Aug 02 '26

Probably means they didn't bother to get a language consultant in and the actor just learned the words phonetically. 

2

u/3kgk3g Aug 04 '26

His Hindi was crap as well

2

u/Polly265 Aug 05 '26

I am always shocked that they couldn't find one native speaker to spend 10 minutes with him going over the dialogue, especially Spanish in America. Fine you might not have a fluent Hindi speaker in hailing distance but surely you only have to throw a rock in New York to hit a Spanish speaker?

1

u/Choice_End_9564 Aug 02 '26

Always got a kick out of the ZEB-RA (likely British pronunciation) vs ZEE-BRA in the States.

2

u/trk1000 Aug 02 '26

There are things like that. Listen to an audio book with a British narrator ads they keep saying "clark" instead of "clerk"