Hellow again, need to know how to pronunce "Coley" as John Ford Coley's last name.

[pray4amy]

Hello,

Again, I'm not sure what to pronunce "Coley" as

koolee

or

koulee

or

koulei

Sorry that I just don't know. Is there any phonetic rule that I should follow here? My guess is /koulei/, then again, I am not sure, it's just a pure guessing....

Thanks a lot.

[Ouisch]

"Col" sounds like cold or coal
"ley" sounds like Lee

KOH-lee

[pray4amy]

Thank you very much. Separating the world into 2 parts helps!!

I'll remember this analogy. Again, pronuncing names, especially the last names is very hard for me. I never know whether I am pronuncing them the right way or not... Sigh. I wish I knew.

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by Ouisch

"Col" sounds like cold or coal
"ley" sounds like Lee
KOH-lee

Also, as a rule of thumb (there are exceptions), a vowel before a single consonant is pronounced long, and a vowel before a double consonant is pronounced short. For example:

'Folley' - 'Fo(h)ley'
'Bonny' - 'Bo(h)ney'
'Conny' - 'Co(h)ney'
'Flutter' - 'Flu(oo)ter'
'Matter' - 'Ma(y)ter'