My fellow Americans: How many times have you seen a non-American mistakenly pronounce “USA” as “Yoo-Sa”?

32 comments

1. Never

2. That’s a thing?

3. Literally never.

4. Never in my life

5. Never. Most non English speakers would say “Ooh-sa” anyway, and I haven’t heard that either.

6. Not once ever and I know a lot of foreign born people.

   Where on earth did you hear this?

7. Never

8. Never times.

9. I’ve seen an American intentionally mispronounce it as “Oosa”.

10. Just once. He was a Peruvian native and had no grasp of English.

11. Never

12. I believe I heard Jar Jar Binks use the word. He did not seem to be referring to us.

13. I’ve never seen or heard of that happening.

14. Are you perhaps friends with Jar-Jar Binks?

15. Not ever

16. Like once or twice

17. never seen this

18. Zero

19. Never had this happen

20. Jar Jar Binks after he sees my deadlift PR: “USA STRONG!”

21. In German I think they pronounce it “ooh-ess-ah,” because that’s how they say the letters.

22. Not the same as “You-sah,” but a fun anecdote is that our national women’s soccer team has a long tradition of chanting “[oos, oos, oosa!](https://youtube.com/shorts/kJWH0dq6b2E?feature=share)” in their huddles because of Italian fans’ pronunciation of “USA” when they cheered for our women during their international debut. It stuck and it’s been tradition since then, though it’s a [very niche story](https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/06/15/first-uswnt-1985-debut-kim-wyant-linda-gancitano-title-ix) and not many people – soccer fans included – know about it.

23. I’ve never seen that happen before.

24. Never

25. I haven’t. But I bought a souvenir pocket knife at a state park that was engraved with “USA”. I told the cashier I got a “yoo-sa” knife and she looked at me like I was stupid. I still chuckle when I think about that.

26. Some nationalities have a hard time with pronouncing English. I was stationed in Japan for 2 years, have you ever tried to listen to a Japanese band try to sing an American rock and roll song?

27. This is the first time I’ve ever heard it.

28. People saying not ever I would venture haven’t spent much time with not English speakers. I have lived in Spain and thought English here for about 10 years. I’ve had MANY students pronounce it uuusa. It’s incorrect and I politely correct them on the pronunciation. Ya esta

29. Happens all the time. We try to correct this by chanting the correct pronunciation every time a large group of us is on camera, but it still isn’t working 😉

30. I’ve never heard anybody *mistakenly* pronounce it that way, but I’ve heard a few people *intentionally* pronounce it that way as a gag.

31. Never. In fact, this is the first time I have heard of this.

32. Nope, but I’m remembering Usanvi from In The Heights (his parents named him after the US Navy). Fiction, though