Bocce is a popular game played with balls that originating in Italy and the word comes from the Italian language. Both the spelling and the pronunciation of bocce can be a little bit tricky for English speakers.
When you think about it, any time one language borrows a word from another, there’s always room for interpretation on how to spell the word in the new language…
Do you keep the spelling as close to the original language letters as possible? Do you spell it to make the pronunciation more clear in the new language? All very interesting tradeoffs to consider.
So, How Do You Spell Bocce Ball?
In the case of the word bocce, the clear convention in English is to keep the written English spelling identical to the spelling in Italian. However, it’s a bit difficult to say that only one specific option ‘correct’ given the language change tradeoffs mentioned above.
Correct spelling of the game ‘bocce’:
- bocce ball
- B-O-C-C-E B-A-L-L
Common incorrect (a.k.a. alternative) spellings of the game ‘bocce’:
- bachi ball
- bochi ball
- bocci ball
- bacci ball
- boche ball
- bocchi ball
- botchi ball
- batchi ball
- botchy ball
- bochee ball
- baci ball
- bocca ball
- boce ball
- botchie ball
- botchee ball
- bache ball
- bachee ball
If you’ve one of these incorrect spellings before, don’t sweat it.
I can totally see the logic for many of these options. You’re definitely not the first to go with one of these unconventional or alternative spellings – and most likely people knew what you meant if you spelled it this way.
One of the drivers of the spelling confusion here is due to pronunciation rules from the Italian language. In Italian, the letter combination ‘cc’ actually sounds like something that would typically be spelled with a ‘ch’ or a ‘tch’ in English.
So, the accepted spelling and the English pronunciation don’t match what a native English speaker might naturally expect.
How to pronounce bocce
Now that you know how to spell bocce correctly, why not learn how to pronounce bocce properly too? It’s worth knowing how to say bocce like an Italian, or like an American so you can understand both. One you get the pronunciation, a lot of the accidental spellings above start to make more sense.
Learn more about the game of bocce
If you’re looking to get started with this fun game, don’t forget to check out our recommendations for the best bocce ball sets so you can play bocce with friends any time!
