Waitrose confirms you've been pronouncing chain's name wrong all this time

A spokesperson for Waitrose has revealed you're probably saying their name incorrectly.

It doesn't seem like the most complicated word to say, but apparently a lot of us still mess it up.

It's a common bugbear for people to mangle names, like calling rival supermarkets Tesco's, or Asda's, and apparently we all say Nutella and Ikea wrong too.

It all started when Annabel Port, a creator who regularly shares trivia about British history on TikTok, posted a fun fact about the pronunciation of the name.

Port said she reached out to the Waitrose press team to ask the big question.... How should you actually say it?

A spokesperson confirmed that it’s actually pronounced ‘Wait-rose’, rather than ‘Way-trose’.

A subtle, but important difference, we think you'll agree.

After all, who wants to embarrass themselves by saying it wrong while browsing for olives and wine?

She captioned the post: "Let's settle this once and for all. How do you pronounce the name of British supermarket Waitrose."

Port said on TikTok: "I contacted them to find out and they said: 'The pronunciation Wait-Rose, is the original way, as it comes from the founders’ last names, Waite and Rose.”‘

Every day really is a school day!

Try saying it out loud - you basically need a tiny pause or gap between the 'Wait' and the Rose'.

The founders of the firm are Wallace Waite and Arthur Rose, but it was actually originally formed in 1904 under ‘Waite, Rose & Taylor,’ but Taylor left after four years.

Not only that, but technically you need a harder ‘t’ on the ‘Wait’, too.

Annabel continued: "It’s unclear when this morphed into Way-trose, but it slowly became the name and Waitrose just went along with it.

"But if you want to be both correct and retro, you should say Wait-Rose."

The social media account for Waitrose commented on the post to confirm she was correct: "It’s pronounced Wait-rose, not Waitrose."

Port replied: "Good to have this important matter cleared up. Thank you!"

TikTok users rushed to the comments to share their thoughts.

"OK, I’m going to be insufferable with this information," joked one, with another adding: "I promise I can’t hear the difference between the two pronunciations, help."

Not everyone is willing to change: "I’ll die before I call it Wait-Rose," insisted one.

Others poked fun at the brand's highbrow image, adding maybe it should be 'Waitreaux,’ while someone else joked "I can’t afford to say it."

Someone else thought it was obvious: "You still pronounce the T either way. In no universe is it ‘way-rose’ with a dropped T as you seem to be suggesting. It’s either ‘way-trose’ (common) or ‘wait-rose’ (after founders)."

Well, now you know.