How to pronounce lychee

Short answer: in American English, say LEE-chee (/ˈliːtʃi/), which rhymes with peachy. Merriam-Webster lists it first, and American Heritage and Cambridge (for US English) give only this version. British dictionaries say LYE-chee (/ˈlaɪtʃi/): that's the form in Cambridge and Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, while the Collins English Dictionary moves the stress to the end, lye-CHEE. Both go back to the Chinese name 荔枝: lìzhī in Mandarin, roughly "lee-jur", and lai6 zi1 in Cantonese, roughly "lye-jee".

Listen

Wiktionary labels the recording Southern England. For the American LEE-chee, say peachy and swap the P for an L.

Is it LEE-chee or LYE-chee?

Both are correct. Lychee pronunciation mostly depends on which side of the Atlantic you're on:

So the split is mostly American versus British. Every American dictionary we checked puts LEE-chee first, though Merriam-Webster and Oxford Learner's also accept LYE-chee. None of the British dictionaries we checked (Cambridge, Oxford Learner's, Collins) lists LEE-chee for British English. Wiktionary also gives LEE-chee for South Africa.

Other languages borrowed the name too. Hindi calls the fruit लीची (/liːtʃiː/), close to LEE-chee, while Japanese raichi (ライチ) sounds more like RYE-chee; Wiktionary traces it to Cantonese, probably through English.

Our advice: in the US, say LEE-chee; in British English, say LYE-chee. Neither one is a mistake.

Why is lychee pronounced differently?

Dictionaries trace the word to different Chinese languages, and English gave it several spellings.

• Mandarin lìzhī. Merriam-Webster and American Heritage trace lychee to the Mandarin name, which starts like English "lee".
• Cantonese lai6 zi1. Collins, a British dictionary, traces the word to Cantonese lai chi. Its first syllable sounds close to English "lie", and Wiktionary also links LYE-chee to Cantonese.
• Hokkien lē-chi. Wiktionary connects LEE-chee and the spelling litchi to Hokkien, another Chinese language, where one local name for the fruit is lē-chi.

Merriam-Webster dates the first known use in English to 1588. That year, an English translation of a Spanish history of China, by Juan González de Mendoza, described "a kinde of plummes, that they doo call lechias".

Spelling adds to the confusion. The French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat named the tree Litchi chinensis in 1782, and litchi is still the headword in the Collins English Dictionary and Dictionary.com. Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, Cambridge and Oxford Learner's Dictionaries use lychee and list litchi as another spelling. The y doesn't help: in words like lyre and cycle, a y says "eye", so lychee looks as if it should start with LYE.

How to say lychee step by step

1. Start with an L. Touch the tip of your tongue to the ridge just behind your top teeth.
2. Say the stressed vowel: "ee" as in see for the American LEE, or "eye" for the British LYE.
3. Finish with "chee". Say the ch in cheese, then a short "ee": LEE-chee or LYE-chee.

Keep the stress on the first syllable, as in peachy. The British lye-CHEE, listed by the Collins English Dictionary, is the exception. Litchi and lichee sound the same: American Heritage gives LEE-chee for all three spellings.

If you speak Mandarin or Cantonese, leave the tones out and simply make the first syllable a little longer and louder.

Practice in a sentence

• I'll have the lychee martini, please.
• Peel the lychee, eat the white flesh and leave the seed.
• Is it LEE-chee or LYE-chee? It depends where you learned your English.

Then try lychee's neighbors at the fruit stand; longan and rambutan are in the same soapberry family. American pronunciations, from the Cambridge Dictionary:

For more food words English borrowed from other languages, see how to pronounce açaí, quinoa and pho.

What is a lychee?

A lychee is a small, roundish fruit with a rough pink-red rind, sweet white flesh and one large brown seed. It tastes sweet and slightly tart, with a floral aroma often compared to roses. The tree comes from southern China, where its cultivation has been documented since the 11th century, and the Tang emperor Xuanzong had lychees delivered to the capital at great expense for his favorite consort, Yang Guifei. Today China grows the most lychees, followed by India and Vietnam. Lychees are usually eaten fresh, but they also go into drinks and desserts, from the lychee martini to lychee liqueur, and dried lychees are sold as "lychee nuts".

Sources

• Merriam-Webster — lychee, pronunciations and first known use; American Heritage Dictionary — lychee
• Cambridge Dictionary — lychee and litchi; Oxford Learner's Dictionaries — lychee and lychee (American English)
• Dictionary.com — litchi; Collins — litchi and lychee
• Wiktionary — lychee, litchi, 荔枝, लीची and ライチ
• Wikipedia — Lychee and Longan
• Juan González de Mendoza — The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, translated by Robert Parke, 1588 (Hakluyt Society reprint, 1853), p. 14