Name: Conan & Jordan Schlansky Face Off In A Linguistics Test (Feat. Luke Ranieri) | Conan O'Brien Radio
Uploaded: 2025-07-22T16:51:59.000Z
Duration: 12 min 21 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

You're constantly correcting my pronunciation and I think you're errant.

I decided to bring somebody in who actually knows about linguistics and I believe you're a big fan of his YouTube channel. I'm talking about Luke Ranieri.

Well, I don't know how familiar you are with my dynamic with Jordan Schlansky, but for many years now, he and I have sort of like the coyote and the roadrunner. We've been at war.

We disagree about a lot of things. Jordan is constantly correcting my pronunciation of certain words. There are times where I'm convinced he's wrong.

He thought instead of tango, the word was tongo.

I don't know where you weigh in on that one, whether it's tango or tongo.

Well, in Spanish, it's tango, but so that's a short ah sound and a short ah can go either towards ah. Oh, I know. I know it could be tango, but it's not. He was saying tongo the way Tarzan would Tarzan would name a fellow ape. Hey, tongo, come here. Would you agree that tongo would be incorrect?

It could be tango a quicker. I accept that, but I will not accept tango.

I like your Spanish pronunciation when you said tango. That sounded good to me.

As for English, I think you go a lot of ways.

OK, would you just please agree with me before we proceed that tongo T-O-N-G-O with a long.

No, I never spelled it T-O-N-G-O. It's El Tongo. It's El Tongo.

I didn't make the word up. I'm only reciting it.

Luke, there's no shortage of Spanish speaking people in this town.

You've got you've got a celebrity here. You've got one of the few men on earth that can currently speak Latin, both classical and ecclesiastical. And you're asking about Spanish.

We have 10 people in the building that speak fluent Spanish.

Luke, you're wasting this man's time. Would you say tango or would you say tongo? Tongo sounds too much like thank you. That's all we need. Thank you so much.

Now, before we continue, I'd like to know how to pronounce your name. Is it Luke Ranieri or is it Ranieri? What do you prefer? So in English, I do Ranieri. And in Italian, it's Ranieri. I think Ranieri sounds better.

I like it fine. And how do you go with Luke? Are you Luke?

Like Luke, I am your father. That would please my compatriot here is a big Star Wars fan.

Do you go with Luke or is or just Luke? I have a brother and I call him Luke.

You're not going to divide us. We have a preexisting relationship. Do you understand?

You're the odd. I see where you're trying to go with this. I'm going to spoiler alert right now.

He and I are aligned. We may have small differences like any human.

Well, gentlemen, later, we may have a chance to test this with a little bit of a competition.

OK, now there are some words I think you and I have spoken before. You'll often give me what you say is the correct Latin pronunciation of certain words.

Or names like Julius Caesar. We say Julius Caesar. And what do you say, Jordan?

For classical Latin pronunciation, I think that's very good.

Now, do you think you're not going to win here? I see where you're trying to go. Keep trying.

No, but now is it perfect? No, of course not.

Is it better than what you throwing out of that pie hole? Of course it is.

So my speaking is hurling things out of a pie hole.

I have a real agenda with this man. If we have his time, I have questions.

OK, I know you have bits that you have planned.

I'd like him to I'd like him to rattle off every astrological sign in Latin.

I'd like you to tell me how to pronounce Tyrannosaurus Rex in Latin.

OK, all right. OK, I'll take care of you.

I'm going to blow past the astrological signs because that's just cheesy.

And you're probably going to use that on some dating website.

Tyrannosaurus Rex, what would be the correct way to say Tyrannosaurus Rex?

Tyrannosaurus Rex with a classical Latin pronunciation.

Let's say you're talking to a kid and you just want to say, oh, and let's go to the museum.

Jordan, when he's talking to his kids, he's going to say, do you want to come see a Tyrannosaurus Rex?

And so your kids are never going to see a natural history museum in their lives.

Brontosaurus from the word bronte, meaning thunder in Greek.

And of course, the saurus means a lizard or a reptile.

Yeah, well, now you learn something new and and you could for the rest of your life.

I don't know your birthday because I don't want to know your birthday.

Maybe after 30 years, it's time that you learn these things.

Why don't you test us on the pronunciations of historical Greek and Roman names?

Do you think that's maybe a good test for the both of us?

What we're going to do, we're going to play a little game.