Have You Been Pronouncing Gal Gadot Wrong?
Image by Getty Images
Image by Getty Images
Jimmy Kimmel does a lot of things right as reigning King of Late Night Television. He speaks out in support of Obamacare, adorably exploits children’s love of candy, and even hires writers who get themselves blocked by Donald Trump on Twitter.
But something he once struggled with? Pronouncing Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s name.
Last year on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Gadot had to educate the television star on how to pronounce her last name. With the movie that will likely turn that name (meaning “Wave of the Riverbank) into a household one slated for a Friday release, it’s more important than ever that that education be shared once more with the world. Lest, of course, you want to risk accusations that you’re not a true Marvel fan.
Although many mistakenly drop the T at the end of Gadot’s name, the actress is Israeli, not French, and her name is pronounced in the Israeli way, with a hard T at the end: Guh-DOTT, not Guh-DOH.
Gadot also reveals in the video that her parents changed their last name from Greenstein to Gadot. The reason for the change is unconfirmed but Kimmel suspects its because they knew their daughter was destined for big things and needed a fitting moniker to accompany her success.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter at @arr_scott
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Pennsylvania Jewish groups condemn ‘genocide’ slogan on Gisele Fetterman’s charity
-
Fast Forward A Republican senator called Chuck Schumer ‘Fuhrer’
-
Fast Forward The Ben of Ben & Jerry’s is asking Unilever to let his ice cream brand go
-
Fast Forward 80 years after Auschwitz, kosher food will be sold in its town of Oświęcim
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.