The world has erupted as one chocolate classic has been incorrectly pronounced by scores of people – but the blunder is easily done.
With Christmas on the horizon, it’s time to stock up on some sweet treats for the festive season. But it appears many people are mispronouncing some of the most famous chocolate classics.
But fear not, Santa’s elves in the form of the team at QuillBot has put together a list of popular chocolate bars and sweets you might see this Christmas, and has disclosed exactly how they should be pronounced. And MandM’s are one of the goodies on the list.
These delicious delights come in a variety of flavours, like caramel, peanut, and classic chocolate, making this a firm family favourite to suit a host of tastes. Despite its simplicity, many of us get muddled about how to pronounce the brand’s well-known name. It’s often pronounced as “em-en-ems,” but the correct pronunciation is “em-and-ems,” emphasising the “and”.
Other variations have also cropped up, with one person taking to X, formerly Twitter, to share their child’s adorable pronunciation of the multi-coloured chocolate treat. They wrote: “My child thinks that MandM’s are called MMMs (like em-em-ems) and isn’t it the cutest.”
The Australian podcast Not My Cup of Tea saw a bit of banter among its hosts over the pronunciation of a well-known confectionery brand. Kicking off the debate, host Mitchell Coombs called out his colleague Aishlin Garnett, saying, “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.”
He craftily led her on by asking what she would call the “small, round, chocolate candy” that come in “different colours” but aren’t Smarties. Confidently, co-host Aishlin replied: “MandM’s correctly emphasising the ‘and’.
He queried further: ” Mitchell probed further: “Why do you put so much emphasis on the ‘and’ and the second ’em’? ” To which Ashley retorted: “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’.”
Co-host Talecia Vescio joined in, mistakenly claiming that the correct pronunciation was ’em ‘n’ em’, leading to more debate. Talecia was shocked when she revisited the MandM’s logo and saw the ampersand symbolising ‘and’. The name MandM’s originated in the 1940s from the surnames of chocolate innovators Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie — the M and M.