Can someone explain it for me please? I used to think that mum was the British spelling and mom the American, but that they were pronounced the same way, just with a different accent obviously. I mean, that’s the way they’re written in books, and watching films/tv shows it seems like mom is said just like mum but with an American accent instead of a British one. But I’ve seen in a few threads people talking about mom/mum and mommy/mummy as separate names, rather than the same one. I thought it was just a color/colour across the pond variant spelling thing, but now I’m not so sure.
Anyone able to help a confused [name]Brit[/name] out?
As you said, they are just different terms for one’s maternal figure, “mom” being chiefly American and “mum” being chiefly British. “Mom” rhymes with “Tom.”
They are just the same name, in my experience anyway. However I was always until the impression that mum was American and mom was British. This is because my mum always insisted on me putting Mom on cards and kicked up a big fuss when I decided I liked mum better, aged about 10, because that was American and we are British. So… I’m confused now aha!
Yep, it isn’t a spelling difference with the same pronunciation. They’re two different terms, derived from the same source, and as alzora said, one is chiefly British and the other generally American.
I agree with above, Mum and Mom and pronounced differently. Mom rhymes with [name]Tom[/name] and Mum rhymes with Sum. Although I am British and I call my mother Mam.
I’ve heard from my university friend that in Worcester and near abouts that they use mom instead of mum. It only seems to occur in that isolated pocket of the population though and I have no idea why, lol. Generally, mum is used in Britain/Australia/New Zealand and mom is America/Canada. They’re the same word but with different spellings and pronunciations
Then, like Beth said, there’s also mam! I use that on occasion too
I think it depends on where you are regionally in [name]America[/name]. For me, mom ([name]Tom[/name]) and mum (thumb/sum) are different, but there are instances in that they do sound the same. Come to think of it, in spoken language, I probably use both interchangeably purely out of lazy pronunciation.
I’ll just add my two cents and repeat what everyone else has said - Mum is English/Australian/etc and Mom is American/Canadian/etc. I think we just use different pronunciations because of our different accents and the spelling probably evolved from our pronunciations. I’m guessing.
[name]Love[/name] it! That was one of my all time favorite Family [name]Guy[/name] moments.
My son is a little over one and he calls me mum, not mom or mommy. I think it so cute because mom or mommy are the terms we use, but for whatever reason he prefers mum.
