Probably accept it but correct them. We shouldn’t penalize people for only having read words, not heard them.
If they gave the response “Alexander Dumas” wouldn’t it be rejected, regardless of pronunciation, because it wasn’t in the form of a question?
Not 100% on the rules, but I think it depends if the question is a Daily Double or not, and there’s more scrutiny if it is.
The closest example that comes to mind is when Arthur Chu pronounced Elbridge Gerry as Jerry. He ended up getting the $800 but got a lecture from Trebeck.
Earlier in the same clip he lost $5000 from the Daily Double because he pronounced Frances McDormand as McDarmand
I think that has to do with whether it is single or double jeopardy. I think they get a free pass from the host if they forget to phrase their answer as a question in single, but not double.
IIRC for Single vs Double the difference is they will enforce the “form of a question” part. In either round, they will let you mangle the pronunciation as long as you don’t insert or omit phonemes beyond what could reasonably be the result of only having read the word.
So “Alexander Dumb-ass” would be fine, though you’d likely get some gentle chiding, or maybe even have to refilm the question (“portions of the show not affecting the outside have been edited”) afterwards, but if you were expanding NASA and left the ‘s’ off the end of “Aeronautics,” it would be wrong.
Probably not as it is not close enough to the known pronunciation. Some people have been accepted despite pronouncing their answers incorrectly and received backlash. It’s usually up to the host to determine.
I once watched an episode of Wheel of Fortune where the puzzle was completely solved: “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
But the woman giving the solution, who happened to be black, didn’t pronounce the “s” is bedbugs audibly enough. It sounded more like “don let de bedbug bite” which I think was just an accent thing.
But they didn’t give it to her. Maybe she did think it was “the bedbug” as if there’s one big bad boogeyman bug out there. I dunno. But it was pretty sad. The guy next to her was given a chance and walked away with the win.
Nothing will ever be worse than Mythological Hero Achilles
Ouch. This reminds me of a coworker of mine: they were born in one country, grew up in another, and then moved to the US. Despite only being here 5-ish years they speak perfect American English with no accent. However they are missing the last 20-30 years of American culture. They’re extremely smart but every now and then a conversation will trip up and we’ll have to explain something like “these guys are as bad as beavis and butthead.”
Now Achilles is a little better known than beavis & butthead but I don’t know how much Greek mythology they read in different countries. Especially the ones pumping out STEM geniuses like my coworker. WoF is all about catchphrases and references so I could easily see how an otherwise extremely intelligent guy could totally bomb like that dude did.
