Croissants, the flaky crescent-shaped pastries, are delicious. Fact. Served warm smothered in butter and jam, or chocolate spread, flecked with almonds, stuffed with ham and cheese, or just plain.
They’re arguably the best thing the French have ever given the world, save for Marion Cotillard.
However, many people are just learning they’ve been pronouncing the word ‘croissant’ incorrectly for years, making our friends across the Channel think we are “les incompétents”.
If you’ve been pronouncing it as ‘cross-aunt’, you would be incorrect. Perhaps you leaned into it a little and said ‘cross-son’? Still wrong.
Posted to Threads, user VeryBritishProblemsOfficial asked: “What’s a word from a foreign language that Brits absolutely love to try and pronounce very correctly? I’ll go for: ‘croissant’.”
In response, another person replied: “Errrr, how do you say croissant? Coz I say cross-onts.” And another user added: “So cross-aunt is wrong?” Someone else responded: “It’s kwa-son, like the start of quack.”
A quick search shows that this indeed is the correct pronunciation of ‘croissant’ — ‘kwa-son’.
Meanwhile, other people shared their frustrations over other words that us Brits butcher. One person wrote: “Fillet. Drives me nuts. Like nails on a chalkboard.”
Another user penned: “Any native English speakers? Please read out loud ‘Marylebone’.” To which someone else answered: “Marr-Lee-Bone (emphasis on Marr).”
If you’re a fan of not only saying words correctly but eating them properly, too, you might be shocked to learn that you’ve been eating McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes wrong for years.
The age-old confectionery conundrum has been whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit, but now there’s a new twist that’s sending chocolate orange fans into a frenzy. We’ve all been munching on Jaffa Cakes the wrong way around!
A representative for McVitie and Price, the company behind Jaffa Cakes, revealed that the chocolate part of the much-loved treat is actually the bottom. This revelation means that generations have been gripping and gobbling Jaffa Cakes in an inverted fashion.
The truth emerged when a curious individual named David reached out to the official Jaffa Cake page to settle the debate once and for all, asking “what side of the Jaffa is the bottom?”
The response he received, which he shared in a screenshot on the Facebook group Family Lockdown Tips and Ideas, showed the brand clarifying: “Hi David, our Jaffa Cakes go through a reservoir of chocolate, so the chocolate is on the bottom. Thanks, Jaffa Cakes.”
David’s reaction to this news was one of disbelief as he exclaimed: “WTF dude”. And he wasn’t alone in his astonishment; another person commented, “OMG just turned my world upside down,” reflecting the widespread bewilderment.
