The month of May generally brings some nice weather to Europe, and with it the start of lots of sporting action. Two recent big events catching the eye have been the French Open tennis tournament and the Italian Giro - one of cycling's 'Grand Tours'. The expectation these competitions bring mean that many Forvo users have been taking advantage of our new events section to find out how to correctly pronounce the names of the competitors taking part. In the case of the French Open, the pronunciation of the alternative title of the tournament, Roland Garros, trended on Forvo for several days.
But it was the pronunciation of the name of new French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza which provoked most debate. Which is the correct way to say it - the Basque or Spanish version? Although she was born in Venezuela, Garbiñe represents Spain at international level. She has a Basque father and a Venezuelan mother and it's generally accepted that both pronunciations are valid. As for the Giro, for a while Dutch rider Steven Kruijswijk looked like he was going to be the man taking the trophy home to the Netherlands. Despite a crash putting him out of contention a couple of days before the final stage, his name continued to trend on Forvo right up until the end of the competition.
Meanwhile, away from the world of sport, US President Barack Obama's historic trip to Hiroshima led to much debate over how to correctly pronounce the Japanese city where US forces dropped an atomic bomb during World War II. The word trended on Forvo for several days in May. And it seems many of us have been pronouncing the name of this city wrongly for years. The Japanese language generally doesn’t have accented syllables - meaning each part of the word usually gets an equal weight in sound.
Want to know how to pronounce the names of the footballers at Euro 2016? Interested in how to pronounce typical golfing terms? Look out for more upcoming events on Forvo at forvo.com/events.