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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grocery
[groh-suh-ree, grohs-ree]

hmmm... after saying it aloud both ways, I'm a "groSHery" kinda gal.

DH says groh-shree. He is from Maryland. I do not say either. I "do the marketing".

"Sh" in eastern Missouri, for the most part. But you have to listen very carefully to hear it unless the person speaks fairly slowly.

Oh wait! I just said it out loud, and I guess sometimes I do say "groh-shree." Maybe more often than not...yup, I definitely say "sh." Now I'm the crazy girl sitting at her desk saying "grocery" to herself.

@hmlicata, I'm from Chicago, too (suburbs, actually), and I don't recall the "sh" sound. But maybe it evolved over time, much like the name of the city itself. When I was growing up in there, everyone said Shicago, but after MJ got on the news, people picked up his habit of starting it with the harder "ch" sound, like in "chicken."

I recall one heated conversation about the correct way to say "garage" with the contentious part being the last "g." It seemed like it was a north-side, south-side division.

I say "kyu" as well.

I watched a cooking show last weekend and I noticed the person pronouncing fettucine pronounced with an "ay" at the end instead of "ee." It makes sense with the way it's spelled, not sure why I've been saying it with an "ee" at the end.

another escaped chicago suburbanite saying grow-sir-ee.

btw, how do you pronounce "sherbet"?

And spellling caramel "carmel"? But we digress...how unusual!

hmm -- native new englander here too.

but i say gro-shur-ee and coo-pon.

perhaps my midwestern parents are to blame?

We need gro-shu-rees, but I never seem to have any Koo-pons.

Raised in VA.

I go to the gro-sir-ee store because I need gross-crees. On the second syllable of the latter, you can almost hear the c. Guess I say both, but never, ever include sh and can't ever remember hearing it pronounced that way. Sometimes I cash in coo-pons and other times kew-pons, so both there also. Hate to admit this, but I'm a caramel and occasionally a carmel (candies) girl. My famlee (YIKES - I SAY THAT!) likes sherbert (where did I leave that gun?), but we always eat ketchup and drink espresso. I guess I've been contaminated by PA-NJ-NY. At least I didn't pick up Murray Chris-miss, and Churry Hill. I live near a nuclear power plant and that word gets mutilated. That stupid plant is what brought me here when my husband got transferred. Maybe I should move to Bimmington, NY? ;0

Grossery, groshery, and the odd market (too many British sitcoms/TV shows)

@buffy ~ ORange and ENvelope are just wrong. It is are -ng and ahn-velope. And, as noted on another post - Nurk Airport. Murree Chris-miss.

Northeaster Ohio...

grow-sir-ee

coo-pin ala Ron White and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour!

I plan on making some salted care-ah-mels in the next week or so!

hee hee hee. piggly wiggly. that's a blast from the past. it still makes me giggle. in my part of ri. we say gotta go to the store. and it's always cuupon. sometimes clipped out, usually ripped out, seldom used , always expired scrap of paper. ar-enge shurbit is pretty good.

Warsh is very rural Missouri, and of course, that means Warshington, DC, and Warshington, MO, too. The real old-tiimers talked about the kitchen "zink", and I was shocked when I moved to St. Louis and discovered that some of the old ladies here called it that, too - "It's the German, dearie!" was the response.

So what's the piece of cloth that you use with soap and water? The one for dishes? How about the one you use in the showe? And what's the thing you use to dry the stuff you don't throw in the dishwasher, like your good knives?

@buffy, when i worked in brooklyn, the children would correct my pronunciation of "awrange" and tell me "it's AHrinch!'.

they would also correct me when i said, go sit at the table. "it's BY the table!" they insisted. { "bei" means "at" in yiddish and german.}

i had an aunt who said "warsh", and "sherbert" and "groshery". she was from rural ell-a-noise. as a child, i thought she was from mars.

@ Buffy, I knew a few people who insisted it was Wall-market.

My father was a stickler for pronunciation after spending countless hours as a teen listening to the radio and practicing to lose his "foreign" accent (He was born here, but his parents spoke no English, and his siblings all had a distinct accent. He didn't.) And he is the only person I ever knew who pronounced the "h" in words like "what" and "when."

My mother, on the other hand, grew up in Pittsburgh PA and had that accent. While she lost a great deal of it after living in Chicago for many years, you could always tell when she'd been talking to her sister in AP, because the accent would come back a little stronger for a while.

Eastern NC here. My rural kin pronounce it graw-SHREE and KYOU-pawn, although I've learned to round my short o's.

Of course, it's usually just, "hey, we need to go to the store."

SoCal born and raised...

I don't use the word grocery often (I generally go to the supermarket or the market or even just to the store). When I do use it, it's because I have to do some gross-ree shopping or I'm running out to get some gro-sir-ees. Two or three syllables, maybe, but never an SH sound.

Hubby's from TN and he says grosh-ree store (he also says hosepipe for garden hose). People around there also eat okrey (okra) and plant peeOHnees in their flower beds.

I'm pretty sure my dad says grosh-rees, but his dad was from Lucyanna, so he picked up few random regional words, even though he was born and raised in CA. Things like ungyun (onion), heelocopter, motorsickle, etc.

My mom was born in NJ and raised mostly in TX, but lived all over the world (USAF brat), so you can definitely rely on her to be completely inconsistent in her regionally-specific pronunciations! I'm not sure if she says it with an S or an SH, but I know she'll tell you that she was born in AHR-annge, NJ.

Not sure why, but there a lot of words I don't say like ee-thur (them) or eye-thur (me) of my parents. Probably because I've always been a bit OCD about my pronunciation (except possum and punkin, two bad habits I can't seem to break). I also have a thing about adopting words and pronunciations just because I like the way they sound (yes, I know I'm a troubled girl).

BTW... on the rare occasion that I actually use them, I only take koo-ponns to the supermarket. Pretty sure my dad takes kyoo-ponns, which is one of those things that drives me a little bit nutso.

My skin crawls when I hear local newscasters - yes, newscasters! saying "shtreet" instead of "street".

Syracuse raised here; it's grocery with an "s" sound. Koo-pons, not kew-pons.

It's a wonder we know what other people are saying. As far as sand-witches, I've also heard sang-wich and sand-widge. I think I actually say something between sand-wich and sand-widge. I'll have to listen to myself later.

I usually say "green beans" because just "beans" doesn't do it, and string beans have sort of disappeared from markets. Or at least the green beans have been bred to be stringless, which is fine with me.

Yellow beans could also be wax beans.

Peas are usually green peas unless they're with carrots, because that's a known enitity.

Some words, I know I say both (or multiple) ways depending on who I'm talking to, and what other words are nearby. And some things, I know I used to say differently. It used to be kyoo-pon but now coo-pons are more likely.

Funny thing is that if you just say the word all alone, it can be a lot different than when you use it in conversation. I know people who swear they pronounce the "day" at the end of Monday, Tuesday, etc., and they do when they're reading off the days of the week. But in a sentence, it's "Do you want to come over Frydee night?"

HEY. The end of my first paragraph disappeared. It said, they give you directions by sending you N,S,E,W, so many blocks, but they never say go right or left. That made me craaazzzyyyy. It's easier now with all of our new toys, but back in the 60's & 70's, my brain didn't work that way.

@db ~ now you've got me saying days of the week. I think it's time for a home for me. ;)

I'm in SW Ontario, Canada. I say "gro-shree" but the sh is very short, not drawn out. Koo-pon, sherbet, and care-a-mel.

@ LoCo ~ I still can't say Worcestershire!!!

@wookie ~ I have tears, I am laughing so hard!!

@Josdean, when my Aunt came to visit from Pgh, she nearly drove the deli guy crazy when she asked him for jumbo. He thought she was nuts, she was thinking he was an idjit, and after a lot of pointing, she got her bologna.

Oh, and then there's chipped-chopped ham, one of my favorite Pittsburgh deli meats.

I usually say woosta sheer shire sauce. Why does the Pittsburgh accent remind me so much of Governor Palin (or is it Tina Fey - I keep gettin' them up mixed)? Yuze are closer to Alaska than I thought.

@Josdean ~ gum band is a new one. Can you chew it and blow pink bubbles?

Time to go fix me some vittles. Now where in heaven's name did that word come from??? Got me some vej tah bulls and taters, so ah'll slap me a meal ta gether en fix up this empty gut. Y'all come back now, hear?

@Perky, guess wir closer ta 'Laska than we thaut, awl tho Palin/Fey sound more like She-CAA-go and Pixburg combined. No Isaly's chipped ham for her. She'll be shootin' dinner from a helicaawpter.

No, we don't swallow gum bands, but I can't attest to the fact we don't chew'um:-).

Also, N'orlans lost Monday Night football against Minasoda.

If I say the word I say gro ser ee. Being from the Pac. N.W. the word "salmon" is always done wrong. My mother being from the old country would alsways say "sal mon" as in sol mon, but the correct way is sa mon, no let "L" even near the word the "A" pronounced as in the name Sally.

Lea and Perrins, I won't even go there.