Small question about a parenthetical...

[Conz]

say you want someone to pronounce a name phonetically, but the name is in the middle of the block of dialogue, where do you enter the parenthetical without it breaking it up too much.

Like for instance, I'll just make something up. Let's use Patrick Roy, who of course pronounces his last name "Waa," but the character calls him Roy as in "Roy Rogers."


"I'm a huge hockey fan, Patrick Roy is my favorite player of all time."

Would it go like this?

I'm a huge hockey fan,
(pronounced phonetically)
Patrick Roy is my favorite player of all time

that doesn't look right. Am I overthinking this?

[ComicBent]

It does not matter, as long as you are clear. Right now, you are not being clear. Since I have never known the name of even one hockey player in my whole life, I am having to try to interpret your example.

I am assuming you mean that Patrick Roy is a real player who uses a French pronunciation of his name (Roy = "rwah"), and someone pronounces the name in an English manner. Or maybe you just made up Patrick Roy. But if that is the case, you have to establish beforehand what the "proper" pronunciation is within the world that your script creates.

In any case, it does not matter how you handle the situation as long as you get the idea across so that the actors will handle the pronunciation as you intend. Saying "phonetic pronunciation" is not a good approach in English, which does not use phonetic spelling.

A couple of solutions:

SOLUTION 1
                     I'm a huge hockey fan. Patrick Roy -
          (mispronouncing Roy as an English name)
                     - is my favorite player of all time.

SOLUTION 2
                    I'm a huge hockey fan. Patrick Roy
                    is my favorite player of all time.

He mispronounces Roy as an English name and continues
to mispronounce it throughout his conversation.

[JimVines]

You're making this a bit more difficult than necessary. If your character gets the name wrong, that's fine, just have him say...

JOE: I love Patrick Roy...he's my all-time favorite player.

Then I'm assuming another character will set him straight and provide the correct pronunciation, like this:

BERT: It's not Roy, it's Waa.

JOE: Waa? How do you get Waa from R-O-Y?

BERT: I'm tellin' ya, that's how it's pronounced.

Anyway, you get the point. Just write the name as it's pronounced by the character; then when the character is given the correct pronunciation, he'll say it properly from then on (and the reader of the script will also be clued in on how the word is pronounced).

This reminds me of like the title of the movie "The Tao of Steve." The word "Tao" is actually pronounced "Dao" (or Dow).

[scripttoolbox]

Originally Posted by JimVines

You're making this a bit more difficult than necessary. If your character gets the name wrong, that's fine, just have him say...

JOE: I love Patrick Roy...he's my all-time favorite player.

Then I'm assuming another character will set him straight and provide the correct pronunciation, like this:

BERT: It's not Roy, it's Waa.

JOE: Waa? How do you get Waa from R-O-Y?

BERT: I'm tellin' ya, that's how it's pronounced.

Anyway, you get the point. Just write the name as it's pronounced by the character; then when the character is given the correct pronunciation, he'll say it properly from then on (and the reader of the script will also be clued in on how the word is pronounced).

This reminds me of like the title of the movie "The Tao of Steve." The word "Tao" is actually pronounced "Dao" (or Dow).

I agree.

[Conz]

ok thanks. Patrick Roy was just the first name that came to mind.

[Craig Mazin]

I'd probably do....

JOE
I love Patrick Roy.

He pronounces "Roy" like "Roy Rogers.'

JOE (CONT'D)
He's my favorite player.

[Conz]

that's how I'm gonna do it. thanks everyone for the input.