Halloween is just around the corner, and that means it’s the perfect time to indulge in chocolates and sweets.
As people prepare for a night of trick-or-treating, there are some classic items sure to make an appearance in many spooky season hauls. It turns out, though, many of us are mispronouncing some of the most well-known brands.
The team at QuillBot has compiled a list of the most popular chocolate bars and sweets that are most likely to be handed out to costumed trick-or-treaters this Halloween night, along with their correct pronunciations. An unlikely feature on the list was the trusty M&M’s.
The classic sweet treat is sure to be a hit this Halloween, thanks to its wide range of flavours like caramel, peanut, and chocolate, so it’s no wonder the tiny confectionery is a household name.
However, many of us get it wrong when it comes to pronouncing the brand’s name. While some people say “em-en-ems,” the correct pronunciation is actually “em-and-ems,” with an emphasis on the “and.”
It’s not just adults who get it wrong, either. One parent took to X (formerly Twitter) to share their child’s adorable mispronunciation of the multicolored chocolate treat.
They wrote: “My child thinks that M&Ms are called MMMs (like em-em-ems) and if it isn’t the cutest.”
Even podcast hosts can get it wrong. On Facebook, an Australian podcast named Not My Cup of Tea poked fun at one of their hosts for actually pronouncing the brand’s name correctly.
Host Mitchell Coombs started the conversation by saying to co-presenter Aishlin Garnett: “Darling, you’ve been screwing up big time and I don’t think you even know. You’ve been mispronouncing a certain word for as long as I’ve known you.”
Mitchell craftily coaxed her into saying the word by inquiring as to what she would call “a small, round, chocolate candy” that comes in “different colours”, but are not Smarties. Aishlin then replied: “M and M’s”, stressing each syllable correctly.
The host then questioned: “Why do you put so much emphasis on the ‘and’ and the second ‘em’?” To which, Aishlin assertively responded: “Because there’s an ‘and’ in the middle – they are ’em and ems’, okay? The last ’em’ doesn’t get any credit, it just gets morphed into the ‘and’. I don’t know why I’m getting so angry about this – ’em and ems’.
However, fellow co-host Talecia Vescio was adamant that it should be said as ’em ‘n’ em’, a common yet incorrect rendition. The contentious exchange escalated until Talecia was flabbergasted upon being presented with an image of the M&M’s logo, which clearly shows an ampersand signifying the word ‘and’.
The iconic M&M’s first emerged in the 1940s. The name is an abbreviation derived from the initial letters of the surnames of chocolate pioneers and founders, Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie.
