How to pronounce notre dame? There are two common places called bearing the name Notre Dame and that is The University of Notre Dame in the state of Indiana and a Catholic Cathedral in Paris France. Interestingly despite both having same name they are pronounced differently. Notre Dame is originally a French word correctly pronounced “Notruh Dahm” in French language.

In English Notre Dame pronunciation varies from country to country.  The British who border France and have a feel of how French words may be pronounced call it not-ra-DAM” or “not-ra-DAHM,” . in the United States pronounce it as “noter-DAME” (sometimes “note-ra-DAME” or “note-ra-DAHM”).

When referring to the Cathedral in Paris, most Americans actually do pronounce it almost correctly “Notra Dahm”, but due to their phonetic accent miss it slightly. When it comes to their university they commonly call it “Noter Daym”.  Americans have a lot of regional accents and phonetic rules that have aot to do how it is pronounced.

The word is a bit Anglicized pronunciation and they change its pronunciation because that pronunciation follows a phonetic rule of American English. The vowel sounds become long when followed by a single consonant and final silent [e].