When an average person joins the national spelling bee

[@dsanchack332]

"And did you burn the witch afterwards" had me dieing.

[@anantrathi373]

It's dy- I see what you did there

[@dsanchack332]

@@anantrathi373 No, I actually did not know that. I just suck at spelling. Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt, though.

[@Soundy777]

Me too xDDD

[@penginguy2177]

dying*

[@AndresMagnone]

It had me dieieieing too!

[@AtrakKarta]

"Can you use it in a sentence?" "The opposing team fell for our guetapens." "...Can you use it in a sentence that's relevant to our century?" *Ahem* "You've activated my guetapens card." "..." "..."

[@MidnightHalfPastThree]

well that is super helpful

[@axiezimmah]

I like how a snare is called get a paw.

[@Definitely-dr.bright]

*atem

[@Programmable_Rook]

⁠@@axiezimmah*guetapens

[@OJB437]

Yugioh goes hard

[@jason2mate]

This is why spelling bees are kind of nuts, because it literally becomes which kid has spent more time reading the dictionary, rather then anything useful.

[@cheesyfromindonesia9969]

All that learning and spelling from a dictionary for a medal/plastic throphy? Fuck that id rather do Steam Achievements

[@niki8280]

It's more of acknowledging the logic of each word's language source and identifying the logic of the word's construction.

[@GeekNewz]

@@niki8280 Sometimes that's nice, but then you have words that come from French, where word construction was destroyed for the sake of getting money- They added random letters to the words because each letter cost money, and they received more money for longer words. (honestly, other languages also do that, but not nearly as much) How can you appreciate that?!

[@irtur52]

Well I doubt you can learn all possible words they can ask. It's rather about linguistic patterns and connections between different languages, I wouldn't say it's not useful. After all many things can be considered useless, chess for example is just basically board game. I think if someone thinks that something is ineresting then it's useful.

[@toseltreps1101]

being proficient in orthography is very useful.

[@eternalcanadiandevyt]

I'm getting PTSD from my Grade 6 spelling bee.

[@cheesyfromindonesia9969]

Not the only one

[@therealking6202]

My school was so poor we couldn't even afford any bees so we just had spellings.

[@eternalcanadiandevyt]

@@therealking6202 Lmao nice

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

I think I could do alright if I could have some paper and a pencil. I'm terrible at spelling when I can't physically see the word.

[@RaneBoDasch]

I lost the final round of the 3rd grade spelling bee. I still can't spell "Scissors" correctly after 30 years.

[@maodebo3301]

The funny thing is that everytime one english show aired dubbed in my country and there was a spelling bee it was always so weird because I was like "Can't they just hear the word and say the letters???" but then you learn english and you finally get it. Everytime I have to write the past tense of teaching, thinking or "even though" I just wing it

[@RishabhSharma10225]

Yep. Spelling bee would be trivial in Hindi. It's written exactly as it's pronounced.

[@daniloroganovic9359]

@@RishabhSharma10225 Same in pretty much all Slavic languages

[@shivanshukantprasad]

​@@RishabhSharma10225it will be trivial as soon as I figure out how to differentiate between स श and ष or ‍‌harshi i and dirghi i

[@Conta_Minated]

@@RishabhSharma10225 So, basically fun for everyone at first grade, but super boring for anyone older than that?

[@anonl5877]

English borrows a lot of words from French and German. If you learn how to spell in those languages, and you ask the person what language the word originates from, I assume it becomes easier.

[@themushroommonarch]

I remember losing a spelling bee because the teacher pronounced decor as day-core and refused to use it in a sentence.

[@zacharyrollick6169]

It IS a valid pronunciation, unfortunately.

[@themushroommonarch]

@@zacharyrollick6169 True, but she had a different accent so I couldn't recognize it. I was also, like, 8.

[@belle_pomme]

​@@themushroommonarchcouldn't you ask for definition?

[@themushroommonarch]

@@belle_pomme I did, she wouldn't do it.

[@Noferrah]

@@themushroommonarchisnt that like illegal or something

[@KnightSlasher]

For real those kids have +10 intelligence in their SPECIAL stats while wearing an item that gives +2 more

[@yamimounir3231]

Correction +99

[@Batkudev]

It also gives them a debuff of getting absolutely 0 hoes under any circumstances

[@g3n3r1c6]

according to every kid, that item with the intelligence stat bonus is called glasses

[@WibleWobble]

picking the asian starter 💀

[@Serhii_Diemientieiev]

​@@g3n3r1c6Actually, those are just aesthetics(they either give +50 or -50, nothing in between). The real ones are "Encyclopaedia Stash", "Dictionary Tower", and "1000 and 1 KZbin Educational Channels"

[@jackadams3878]

"If the next letter isn't T, somebody has to die." I feel you, man

[@josephpostma1787]

But some kid still died.

[@thekingscrown8931]

@@josephpostma1787 That was for the s at the end.

[@HyperX755]

Me when something isn't going the way I was hoping it would:

[@mystey1]

@@josephpostma1787 It was inevitable with a word like that

[@f5673-t1h]

It's like David [Guet]ta, who is French.

[@ptolemyhenson6838]

The subtitles literally spell it more reasonably. "Getapaw".

[@Blue2x2x]

Zach: "Whatever happened to sound it out?!" Silent letters: **laughing maniacally**

[@OmniscientWarrior]

They're just standing there, menacingly!

[@determineddaaf3]

In Dutch we have a bunch of common tones that can be spelled in different ways. We are screwed badly.

[@satansbarman]

English also has silent letters, it's just less common

[@syenous2454]

sunami

[@chryssandermahinay5562]

A is for Aisle

[@JackMadness91]

G-wiz, they clearly make up words with complicated spellings just to screw with people. I can respect that.

[@GeekNewz]

Even better. They did it for money. If no one knows how to write, then the guy who does know would get paid to write and would receive more money for more letters

[@pollypockets508]

We are French!

[@mentosvagabond]

Well I can't.

[@duckymomo7935]

We have words like butyraceous and soubrette

[@amyhouck7247]

I love the fallback to reciting the alphabet. You’ll get to the right letter eventually! “What’s the origin?” “French”- Looks at the word. Yeah that checks out.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

"Whatever happened to sounding it out? You guys juat said 'fuck that advice', right?" "That is correct." 😂😂😂

[@OrigenalDarkMew]

"Whatever happened to sound it out? You guys just said fuck that huh?" "Correct" 😂

[@HJM9x]

"Did you burn the witch afterwards"

[@unpythonic]

I, myself, have not once stepped through the alphabet trying to finish of the cross of two inconceivable clues in the nyt crossword. Definitely not once.

[@SCP-173peanut]

How could your comment be made 9 hours ago if the video was posted just two minutes ago?

[@BallisticMC]

I think youtubes drunk

[@rat.cheese]

@@SCP-173peanutwas just about to comment this

[@anoofhussain1895]

@@SCP-173peanut members have early access

[@Leyrann]

I just go through my keyboard tbh.

[@AByteofCode]

Even as a french who knows the word guetapens, i would not have guessed it was that from the english pronounciation

[@MrSamwise25]

Yeah, I'm curious where he heard that pronunciation, because that sure isn't how I would pronounce it.

[@OmniscientWarrior]

As a person that knows bits of other languages but exclusively only knows English, he did say it wrong.

[@AmagiFaker]

l lost entering a national spelling bee TWICE because of the word "Tuff" I didn't even know there WAS a word with similar pronunciation. To this day, I absolutely despise that word

[@davidcovington901]

I won't say "tuff schist" because that'd be too cruel. I met "mufti" on an exam once.

[@betterlatethannever4529]

So , Tough&Tuff Damn, that’s rough buddy

[@AtrakKarta]

​@@betterlatethannever4529Rough or ruff?

[@BetaMaster2]

Damn, that's tuff

[@SupachargedGaming]

Someone doesn't play minecraft.

[@arjunharitas5068]

Tbh i would have just killed everyone in the building and myself after hearing 'getapaw'. Also tiny Zach is a masterpiece.

[@lukacunningham342]

I once had to spell “amphitheatre”, with two ways of spelling theatre and that I never heard that word in my life, I lost because of that one word

[@satansbarman]

"You're saying it wrong" as a Frenchman I have to agree there 😅

[@headkraber]

Yeah, like what were they thinking? Let's borrow a French word, butcher the pronunciation and blame the French for screwed up words? Your silent letters are still silly though.

[@justinchase6666]

​@@headkraberfrom a language where 99 is 4_20_10_9

[@boptillyouflop]

@@headkraber Only the final s in guet-apens is silent in French tho. U is needed if you don't want to have Jet-apens, and "en" is a nasal vowel which is very much pronounced in French... of course English doesn't have nasal vowels though so the result is messed up.

[@dragskcinnay3184]

​@@headkraberyup, French silent letters are stupid. Although, to be fair, English has some pretty bad ones too

[@swhite7929]

I'm French and it took me like a full minute to understand what the word even was because of how it's pronounced in English lmaooo

[@ragequazar]

tbf he did straight up just pronounce it wrong, he didn't add the "en" sound in it, he just said it like aw.

[@markgaumee]

3:00 "and did you burn the witch afterwards?" 🤣🤣

[@giantWario]

That's the problem with a language that has Germanic, French, Danish and even some Celtic influence. Every combination of letters in English can make three or four different sounds depending on which language that word comes from. Like you can laugh at us French but ''guetapens'' actually is spelled exactly how it's pronounced as far as we're concerned.

[@xdeathcon]

I think at the national level, language origin is probably the most useful thing you can ask because of this. I was only good enough to get to regionals once, and even there, they ask you these ridiculous words you wouldn't possibly be able to just know unless you have a photographic memory.

[@TheLobsterCopter5000]

Explain Mille Feuille then? Why does ille sometimes make an ill sound and sometimes an ee sound?

[@docomega7862]

​@@TheLobsterCopter5000as a french myself, the best way you can look at it is that french pronounciation is lazy. When several voyels follow each other, we fuse them into a into sound instead of pronouncing each one

[@giantWario]

@@TheLobsterCopter5000 It's not about the ill, it's about the eu before it. Eu in French makes an ø sound but eui makes an œ sound. Yes I know it's weird but it is actually consistent.

[@onedova2298]

​@@giantWariowhat does ø and œ sound like

[@Hugo-kt8hm]

As a French person, I'm amazed that this word exists in English. By the way it's actually two words, guet-apens :)

[@jazzy4830]

Derived from French, but the resultant output is a single word in English that is apparently pronounced horribly in the US.

[@OmniscientWarrior]

Why would you be surprised? English is known to hack things from other languages and art one time the French did what they could to mess English up in attempts to keep the people stupid in hopes they could maintain control.

[@zanido9073]

If they pronounced it properly it wouldn't be that hard to spell. Idk how you go from guet-apens to getapaw, it's like they didn't even try.

[@ArjunTheRageGuy]

@@zanido9073 Or how the word is spelled is how it should be pronounced as well, like how tf does this word "colonel" have the pronunciation of "kernel" and not "co-lo-nel"?

[@jazzy4830]

@@ArjunTheRageGuy Colonel's weird pronunciation is the fault of the French, (who got the word from the Italian for a column of soldiers) two L sounds was deemed harder to pronounce than one R and an L, so the word degenerated into it's current pronunciation. The English pronunciation of lieutenant as "leff-tenant" is also bemusing.

[@General-Z6]

"This is why nobody likes the fucking French!" Had me dying bro😂

[@Fokkas]

I was waiting for "That is correct" after asking if they burned the witch

[@nothinghere7694]

bro that “witch” line killed me 😂

[@AlienEditsMemes]

Bro may have entered a spelling bee in English but he choose to speak facts

[@robbymounce5764]

“WhAt He SaId” “That’s CORRECT!” lol! 🤣

[@musicLover-tj6ry]

Lesson learned. Cannot watch your videos and put my son to bed at the same time 😂. Instead of sleeping, he laughed because I couldn't stop.

[@TaurielTheElf]

And this is how I learn that spelling competitions are a thing that exists. Thanks, Zach!

[@loafylovebit9964]

…WHAT?! Theres only two ways you got this far in life without ever, EVER realizing this was a thing: -Number One, you had the most depressing childhood since you’ve never seen a cartoon in your life, cuz believe me a spelling bee was overly used as some dumb plot driver. -Number Two: Your clearly an alien and your home planet realized how stupid things like a spelling bee are and chose not to implement it into their society remotely. These are the only two possible explanations, any other reason is a blatant lie and will not be heard.

[@TaurielTheElf]

@@loafylovebit9964 Or option 3: I'm from a country where words are spelled the way they sound and the cartoons I watched didn't involve American kids in school. Ice Age and Scooby Doo ain't got no spelling bees, son.

[@methatis3013]

​@@TaurielTheElfgive him a break. They don't learn other countries exist until they're 26

[@someonerandom704]

@@loafylovebit9964 Most other languages spell words how they are pronounced. They also change the spelling of loanwords to make them easy to pronounce. Spelling competitions are pretty rare outside of English-speaking countries. Imagine trying to do a spelling bee in Spanish, for example.

[@axiezimmah]

Probably only in English because every other language is usually quite consistent in the spelling so it would be boring to watch

[@notsevens1]

im convinced zach star is a funny person (dude i love your skits soooooo much)

[@zan1971]

The most accurate explanation of the spelling bee to any person ever lol

[@purplenickname]

The one and only guy who unironically used that word once in his lifetime about 500 years ago is gonna be so happy now.

[@Terminarch]

No kidding. I did a spelling bee in middle school. The little girl before me got "schoolbus" or some shit. I got fucking PTERODACTYL!

[@reverseflashplays8615]

Him giving up and just saying the alphabet was too jokes

[@punchboxnet]

As a spelling bee champion from NYS this is painfully accurate for most people that get lucky in their spelling bees lmao

[@panda4247]

apparently, it's An alteration of Middle French d'agais apensés, corresponding to aguet (“ambush”) + past participle of apenser (“conceive of”).

[@its_not_nate]

"And that's why nobody likes the fucking French" killed me 🤣🤣🤣

[@luar_RVM]

Rest in peace dude 🙏

[@guy4036]

“Is the past tense got a paw” 😂

[@ironfistgaming8945]

0:59 that bwaaadabababa is pure GOLD

[@NaudVanDalen]

Spelling bees would be so easy in the Netherlands. All native Dutch words are pronounced exactly as they are written.

[@stratonikisporcia8630]

True for all languages that are not French or English ngl

[@gamerx3071]

@@stratonikisporcia8630 Eastern languages: *laughs manically* (But seriously Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic are dumb AF)

[@CaptainDogFood]

"Can you spell it?" "No." "Exactly. Cuz it's not a word." Made me laugh.

[@jawz9455]

As a wise man once said "Igowallah!".

[@CynicalBolt314]

Ah yes, from the famous country of 'Skurup'

[@2MeterLP]

The worst part is that "get a paw" would make perfect sense for a trap/snare.

[@metriacantho]

i love how he asked what the past tense is even though it's a noun💀

[@rat.cheese]

ngl, love how everything just ends with being shot

[@dbro1205]

3:00 was so funny, best moment in the video

[@aliadosmc]

Facts 💀

[@oilycheese4805]

this was truly a guetapens

[@CrispyParrot]

Couldn't help but audibly laugh in the bathroom stall at work 😂

[@HeKenMars4Ever]

This is literally how it goes. Like the judge is so focused on this one person and making them spell the word and all the other people are there listening and when this dude gets ONE letter off, the other kids are like OOH OK and go off of what the first dude said, change a letter and boom, they win or they lose and then the next student takes a try. BUT little do they know that the kid at the very end, who is also a middle child so he/she NEVER is noticed, is googling these words as they are. handed out and when everyone else is out for some dumb word like guetapens (idk if i spelled it right) this dude has the answer RIGHT there cause he took advantage of the situation

[@NastassiaEvans]

I won 2nd place in the spelling bee when I was in grade school. I misspelled banjo😂 After spelling all of these long complicated words I’d never heard of, I misspelled banjo with a g. As soon as g came out of my mouth, my mouth flung open in horror. Such is life😂

[@horushyperion76]

*banjo strumming*

[@alexforce9]

I think your brain was in "hard words" mode so when it come to an easy one you relaxed for a bit and that was the moment of your brain fart lol.

[@DageLV]

i just find these things weird. itd be so easy on our language. Did you guys have... dictates? Teacher reads a book chapter in front of the class and whole class has to write it as fast as they can as accurately they can, spotting the commas, the dots, new lines and so on, for about 40 mins straight, by just listening to how it sounds? Here everyone does them at school, no exceptions unless you're deaf probably. Then you get graded from 1-10 on how well you did.

[@benmaiorella6296]

I DID THE SAME THING AT MY SPELLING BEE but for me the word was "Lumberjack". but same deal of saying g instead of j

[@amyhouck7247]

I got out on banana. I was secretly relieved.

[@bedro_0]

When you invest all your skill points in speech and none in bullet resistance

[@9024tobi]

The 'pens' part would kill me i think, gueta is the same as the musician so that's kinda doable if u know him xd😅

[@hkayakh]

0:20 he’s not wrong. He said “U e” so he’s right

[@yasininn76]

I wanna see the spelling Bee with either A a Scottish man with a HEAVY accent as the one who says the words to spell or B French

[@brawlingjosh112]

Its like forecastle being foe-cstl

[@Doomzdeh]

Reminds me of when I was asked to spell “Wednesday” when I was 7. How was I supposed to know that it’s spelled in such a different way than it’s pronounced? I almost rioted on that one

[@urrandomrandom9022]

It s impressive how the ending song has some attack on titan sounds in it and the last guy s name in the list is Jaegar.

[@lozzar1069]

The english dictionary is basically 10 different people who got jealous of the first guy who coined a word so they just mashed some letters together and made up some stupid convoluted rules in its pronunciation and forced everyone to follow those rules

[@nevnoble7966]

“What he said” “That is correct” 🤴🏻”first try”

[@pewnit]

I love how it links back to the latest video

[@Zxy_227]

Of course he didn’t get it first try, bro didn’t use the Magic Foot technique

[@Odyssey1337x]

As someone who won my public school spelling bee, and then won my regional bee from ONLY kids from public schools I can 100% relate. For those wondering I made it to round 3 and misspelled the word “rayonnant”.

[@abalakrishnan4152]

As someone who competed as finalist, this is too accurate! English is such a stupid language that I am part of a non-profit where you DONATE FOR ME TO TEACH SPELLING BEE COMPETITION STRATEGIES!!! However, studying for the spelling bee gave me more than just knowing how to spell. As a current high schooler, I now have a really strong work ethic and decisionmaking skills all thanks to the hours of spelling bee prep I did in middle school. Btw the donations go to ppl who cannot afford a college education, and the foundation is called NorthSouth Foundation if you wanna donate.

[@jazzy4830]

You could have learnt those skills by obsessing over something productive or useful instead. It also sickens me to learn that people would give to this charity when there are people starving on the streets and dying of cancer.

[@abalakrishnan4152]

@@jazzy4830 It sickens you that more people from the slums of India (same ppl on the streets and dying of cancer) will get out of poverty, get a college education, and give back to the slums they came from?.You sicken me!

[@jazzy4830]

@@abalakrishnan4152 It would be more useful to teach them almost anything other than how to spell obscure and almost unused words which so few people know that using them will actually degrade the effectiveness of their communications.

[@infinitely_intuitive]

As a speller who competed in the national bee for three consecutive years, I can confirm this is accurate.

[@jasoncollins5504]

There was a reason I never got in spelling bee, Now as far as I know there never were any spelling bee's in my schools, But if there were I know I would have thrown that microphone at the judge in anger, I had severe anger issues. 🤣🤣🤣

[@blunttraumaairsoft1]

Your comedic timing has improved, great work as always

[@Zombie-lx3sh]

As a native French speaker, it's a well known word but English butchered both the spelling and the pronunciation.

[@teamofone1219]

Even my phone doesn’t know what the fuck a Guetapen is and even outlines it as incorrect and can’t find any replacement for it.

[@icommitdie8756]

“what he said” is such a power move

[@mediaaccount8390]

I guess that little guy fell for the getapaw, and it was all over.

[@jigglypuffdude]

Came back to this video, suddenly had the urge to search up the 2012 spelling bee, and found out that he was in fact being serious when he said a 14 year old spelled Guetapens to win the championship

[@wingnightbackwards]

I tried to predict what would be said after he gave the word and I was off I was thinking "guetapans, W-T-F, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

[@chutspyro8087]

as a french person myself i would have gotten this one wrong...

[@antonionnam6594]

Was in his moment after T. Till it all went down hill. It's the patience of the judge for me

[@estelian5959]

Fun fact : in the original french word, it's actually guet-apens, with a dash in the middle. So that was the easy mode we saw here. Also, what in the world did you english-speaking people do to this word for the pronunciation to end up like this?

[@demonic_myst4503]

The english who spoke french were rich nobles from normandy a people who while spoke french were priginaly vickings

[@swiftroph]

As a french speak, it's not pronounce "Getapaw" it's pronounce "Getapan".

[@lunabob-ie5qx]

sometimes languages steal words from other languages, badly

[@jangschoen1019]

thought it would be ä^n

[@Goyam0_0]

G - obvious U - aeiou E - abcde T - obvious A - obvious P - Obvious E - abcde N - abcdefghijklmn S - Homicide

[@JosaxJaz]

Haven't laughed at one of your vida this hard in a while

[@chrisjackson1889]

0:03 When I look at the world today

[@therealms-9320]

relatable

[@funfactor4528]

"And did you burn the witch afterwards" had me rolling 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@lowonskillz1605]

It's funny how they use french words in the national spell bee of america

[@OmniscientWarrior]

We have a lot of French words. We actually have a bunch of of words that will mess people up or the stupid people will be offended by (sadly some of those words are mispronounced by the people giving the words), like cwm, Niger, nigah, moot, maude, slav, slaven, and slavin, to name a few.

[@Kozkayn]

America and England are the only countries with a language so horrible that knowing it is not only a competition, but a prestigious event that defines people as geniuses.

[@FaeTheMf]

Damn that’s ending was really like America during the Industrial Revolution

[@kektagonb3469]

All spelling bees should be done like this so you better know the words or you embarrass yourself until you finally make it

[@awesomesquidyt]

This and the parenting like KZbin TOS video are probably my two favorite Zach Star videos this man is genius I love it

[@Mutrax4706]

i love how when he gets completely clueless, he just guesses the whole alphabet, letter by letter till its right tho best part definetly when he ends the kid who gets it right, and somehow gets the reward for "first try" himself

[@timbuktu8069]

I hope I'm not the only one who googled this: Guetapens, a word that's almost never used, means "ambush" or "trap." It comes from the French word that means "to lie in wait for." It's pronounced as it would be in French, get-uh-PAHN.

[@OmniscientWarrior]

With a feint n sound.

[@duckymomo7935]

Spelling be words are never used or extremely rare Like Smaragdine which just means yellow emerald colored

[@Mythmasyer4728]

@@duckymomo7935 htf is that a word?

[@narthex1681]

That's not how you pronounce it in French

[@globalincident694]

also it is more commonly spelt guet-apens

[@BTemplar]

Omg you have to make this a series

[@rodrigoqteixeira]

At least portuguese is actually consistent with spelling (mostly, but not as far as THIS).

[@Xeit]

"And did you burn the witch afterwards" holy shit so true. Like what else are you supposed to do? xD

[@jatexgamerzvlogs1721]

He might legitimately be my spirit animal

[@nonzz3ro]

Even if they told me the language was French, I probably would have guessed there was a double t in there

[@quadmium5422]

fun fact, that word in french would be pronounce something like GET A PAN but without saying the N and the end

[@Jojo-ig1hd]

You’re a really funny guy, your videos are always a guilty pleasure for me.😂

[@sharif47]

I find it funny when the example sentences for these type of words look really awkward... like you can tell that they just replaced a normal sounding synonym from the sentence and called it a day.

[@raven06010]

I love how when zach's playing the little kid he has to look at the spelling irl because even zach couldn't memorize the spelling

[@JohnsonJohnsonJohnson-j6r]

There's an old story of a king. The king had issues writing so he hired people to write for him, those people were payed for every word they wrote. Once they realised this, they began writing a bunch of letters that didn't make sense and since tbe king had issues with written words he just went with it. That's how we got the french language

[@OmniscientWarrior]

There is limited credibility to the plausibility of the story but nothing proving it.

[@redcoder09]

It's ironic you misspelled "paid" in this comment section

[@JohnsonJohnsonJohnson-j6r]

@@OmniscientWarrior well the story is not real as far as I know. Its just for fun and honestly screw the French language. It's such a mess