How do you pronounce Phuket?
Phuket pronunciation...
Endless schoolboyish giggles surround the pronunciation of Phuket, and indeed Phi Phi, while everyone is mystified by the new Bangkok Airport - Suvarnabhumi.
Phuket is my home, so I get a bit annoyed sometimes by people saying Fookit or FooKet or anything else with an F sound. There is no F in Phuket, but the transliteration of Thai words is sometimes nearly impossible. You can see signs in Phuket to the same places with slightly different spellings. The "Ph" in Phuket is a hard P sound, but not as hard as a normal "P", slightly softer with undertones of "B"...The island was once called Bukit, which is Malay for "hill".
No F'ing please (although I guess that could apply if talking about Nadi Phuket), the correct pronunciation of Phuket is "Poo-ket", though as I say, the P is softened slightly, the K can sound more like a G and indeed the final T is not a hard T either. Easy, huh.
Oh, and Phi Phi is "Pee Pee", which could be funny if you are 6 years old, like Phuket there is no F in Phi Phi. Oh, and Phi does not mean ghost.
What of the airport - Suvarnabhumi, Suwanapoom is how you pronounce it. The V is a W, the R is silent and the BH is a P. With 4 M's and a silent Q.
Happy New Year from Fookit.
Jamie
How do you pronounce Phuket? | A Monk in Thailand
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Lol thanks for the insiders way of saying this. I was playing a game that had this as a city, and I was like...WHAT? I have to find out how to say this before I go and have it permanantly stuck in my head as FUKET! lol
Thanks, I sounded out every letter the way you had it and I think I have it down. : )
Thank you so much! I had no idea! I am really glad you put this out there.
Angela
We have an excellent Thai restaurant in Rapid City, SD, that features many dishes (ostensibly) from Phuket. I have been embarrassed to ask how to pronounce the word in person and but am ordering take-out and really need to know (can't imagine dancing around it on the phone).
Appreciate very much your manner of addressing this (and I did have a schoolboyish giggle -- "It can't be pronounced THAT way, can it?" -- LOL)
Nice description, but you left out one phoint ;-) Is it POO-ket or poo-KET?
...Hehe, Pee Pee. Thank you, very helpful! And guiding :)
Thank you for explaining! I was afraid of the name being fook-it/fuck-it. At first I'm here like "what's with Thailand and all these names?!" haha
Hi Jamie,
many years ago there was a story from Aerothai that they had two aircraft reporting overhead Phuket airport.
The first QANTAS reported they were over FUKIT, the second from British Airways reported they were overhead P who kay!
Best wishes from Tim's Dad
Hi Jamie, good post, the first time I saw the word "Phuket" was in a magazine - win a trip for 2 to Phuket. We were like, imagine telling people you're going to Phuket. (We thought it rhymed with bucket). And Phi Phi - didn't know the pronunciation before today. With the airport, is the "poom" like the double o in book or boot?
Cheers.
Hi BFG,
Oh, the airport, not a short oo like book or a long one, more of a boom with a silent p .. the vowel a bit like the "cuum" in vacuum.
:)