[Closed] Words you've always pronounced incorrectly

My wife keeps saying olcut instead of occult. She has a degree in English.

Not quite the same but, in rugby, I always thought a term used was the "game line" whilst it's actually the "gain line" ...... which is quite obvious really!

Not pronunciation as such, but I always read hyperbole as hyper-bowl, and ethereal as e-thu-real, and have to correct myself.

I'm also mildly intrigued as to why Mrs Molgrips talks about the occult so much...

Nomenclature. But nobody really uses it so I have been getting away with it!

MrsP had some telly on where they referred to 'Foilage' which I expected to be shiny metallic material for hat making, but it turns out they mean 'Foliage' as in green leafy stuff (or plastic imitations thereof).

Oh and when I'm reading I always read 'lieutenant' as the Americanism 'lOOtenant' then correct myself and hate myself a little bit more for getting it wrong again.

Not me, but ones that I often hear.

Tri-Ath-A-Lon. - Where that extra a come from? it's Tri-Ath-Lon

Regardless of Bush Jnr, it will always by Nu-Clee-Ur.

Oh, one that I always have to re-read...

Larvea is pronounced Lar-Vee not Lar-Vay.

But then I'm married to Canadian, apparently I can barely speak English

My wife keeps saying olcut instead of occult

Are you sure that's what she's saying to you?

I've loads, as exactly said: kid who read a lot of grownup books. I dunno "segue" written took a while to connect with "seg way" spoken.v

“Larvae"...

My dad always used to pronounce yacht as yacht rather than yot. A lot of people swap tender for tenter when on tenter hooks which has it's derivation from stretching animal hides or cloth. True fact!

hyperbole

Oh and when I’m reading I always read ‘lieutenant’ as the Americanism ‘lOOtenant’ then correct myself and hate myself a little bit more for getting it wrong again.

I fell foul of this due to American films when I need to ring the navy years ago (brother had had an incident) and ask for Lieutenant So-and-so. It's 'lef-tenant' we're the British Navy was barked at me 😂

I wouldn't care I knew the difference, but it was quite a stressful situation

I’m also mildly intrigued as to why Mrs Molgrips talks about the occult so much

Common topic of discussion in our house 😉

She has a deep understanding of stories, literature and imagery; actual text not so much.

My grandma used to say "reservoy" for reservoir. Maybe partly a regional thing?

Some words are tricky though:

patina - pa-tina or pat-in-a

Mandatory - man-day-tory or manda-tory

I had an ex-girlfriend who couldn't say denim - she'd say dem-nim

No excuse!

The first (fairly lame) example of my own I thought of was “inventory”. I learned the word inventory from 1980s text adventures, I read it as “in-VENT-ry” – a near-homonym with infantry. Today I hear people on YouTube and podcasts saying “IN-vnt-ory” and whilst I know they’re right it makes me twitch.

Oh and when I’m reading I always read ‘lieutenant’ as the Americanism ‘lOOtenant’ then correct myself and hate myself a little bit more for getting it wrong again.

I am incapable of pronouncing "the water in Majorca don't taste like what it ought to" correctly.

I listen to audible loads, and am left wondering if these professional narrators are completely stupid (saying completely the wrong word out of context) or if it's part of Audible anti-piracy tactics (so they know where/when a books been pirated).

Hyper-bole, say what you see...

I can say it right, but I can't read it right:
Quay.
I cannot read that word as "kee", even when I typed it just then my head was saying kway.

Apparently I pronounce 'no' incorrectly, as my kids never understand me when I say it.

quantitatitititve,

also qualitatititive

and pilates arrr me hearties. That one's deliberate though.

I cannot read that word as “kee”, even when I typed it just then my head was saying kway.

I do this with some words, too - I think it's almost a way of spelling them right...?

Bloody American films

YouTube is a source of alternative pronunciations too: the other day my eldest asked which "rowt" (route) we were taking. 😖

wasnt all that long ago (a year or two) i read

"to all intents and purposes"

I always thought it was

"to all intense purposes"

which, i appreciate, makes no sense at all, but it didnt come up often enough for me to appreciate it.

For me it is 'crisps' - I often add an extra 'sps' or two - 'crispspsps'

I never understood why Anti-po-dee-un described someone from the anti-poads. Why have two different pronunciations for words with identical etymology? Oh.

A friend at school went through a stage of overusing eppy-toam (to mean 'best' or similar). It took me ages to realise he meant epitome.

I've heard football commentators pronounce debacle as debber cull. Presumably having read it loads but never hearing it.
I don't know which way to say cornice either, even though my work usually has one on top.

I’ve heard football commentators pronounce debacle as debber cull.

Everton fan I assume?

Always enjoyed how Aussie commentators pronounce the "maroon" team in the Origin games, "the muh rohns".

I can't pronounce Dalglish, never could. Comes out dangle eesh.

One I wish would be pronounced differently is omnipotent. I'd like it to be omni potent. Essentially two words. Gives you a far better understanding of its intent than the current pronunciation.

Living in Central Scotland, there are many "u"s added to words (girul, filum, etc.) and swapping of "i"s for "ai"s ... gairul for example. Also, dropping of hard consonants ... butter ... jeepers, it's not bu-er.

Belvoir

Fungi.
Fun-guy, fun-gee*, or fun-jee?

*Like key, but with a g
Or ghee, if you cook with butter.

Tallpaul Full Member
Belvoir

https://imgflip.com/i/69ulrv

Not me but two examples which grate:
- ask pronounced as axe
- specific pronounced as pacific

northernsoul

YouTube is a source of alternative pronunciations too: the other day my eldest asked which “rowt” (route) we were taking. 😖

Maybe he's getting into woodworking?

Demonstrable / demonstratable.

I cannot read that word as “kee”, even when I typed it just then my head was saying kway.

I have this with sword. I'll say "sord" but I'll read it as sword.

Fungi.
Fun-guy, fun-gee*, or fun-jee?

*Like key, but with a g
Or ghee, if you cook with butter.

Sounds like you need clarification.

YES!! exactly the example I was thinking of when I clicked the link 🤣 Being an 80s computer nerd

I'm going to regret this as a thread derailment of "what do you call a barm cake?" degrees but,

How would you pronounce "?

I am incapable of pronouncing “the water in Majorca don’t taste like what it ought to” correctly.

It... doesn't taste quite how it should?

I can’t pronounce Dalglish, never could. Comes out dangle eesh.

This is easy, it's what you go get when you take your hound for walkies.

Sounds like you need clarification.

🤣👍

specific pronounced as pacific

I do it the other way round on purpose, no on knows where the Specific Ocean is. Also, repository and suppository. Working on a project at work that uses a data suppository at the moment, I'm pretty sure some of the Romanian coding team have picked this up now. Oops. 🤣

Also, vegetables as veg-ta-bules just because it winds my missis up.

Bruschetta

manitou
marzocchi
schwalbe
tbh Ive no idea whether I pronounce them correctly or not

Female character in harry potter her-me-own
That well known irish name sigh-oh-ban too

Always enjoyed how Aussie commentators pronounce the “maroon” team in the Origin games, “the muh rohns”.

I turned on the Super Rugby game on Sky on Saturday and took about 10 minutes to tune into the way the Antipodean commentators were pronouncing absolutely normal words.

Bruschetta

WTAF is that?! 🤣

the Antipodean commentators

Another one for Zilog,

The first time I ever came across that word was a boxer in a ZX Spectrum game (possibly Frank Bruno's Boxing?) whose name was Antipodean Andy. It was years before I discovered it wasn't anti-PODE-ian, I just thought it was a random nickname.

That well known irish name sigh-oh-ban too

how is a word spelled Siobhan pronounced Shevhaun. And how do you get Ee-fa from Aoife, and don’t get started on the weird ones like Grainne  (Graun-Yuh if you’re wondering) .

Don’t tell me they don’t do it on porpoise

Wow. That aged badly.

how is a word spelled [etc]

They aren't English names.

"Quixotic"

As it's derived from Don Quixote (key-oh-tay). I always assumed it would be pronounced similarly. Apparently it's "kwiks-otic".

I pronounce "bruschetta" correctly but am apparently the only one to do so, which makes me feel like a right plonker when ordering it.

They aren’t English names.

well quite. The reason "english" is so difficult to learn/speak is that loads of words come from different languages with completely different 'rules'* for pronunciation

*more guidelines tbh

They aren’t English names.

Neither are Aaron, Edward, Dominic, Benedict, or Gerald.

Touche (It's pronounced Too-Chey, not Too-Sch)

WTAF is that?! 🤣

Plenty more where that came from (including Siobhan 😁)

https://www.youtube.com/c/PronunciationManual/videos

I always say donimo instead of domino.

They aren’t English names.

but how did they get to us? aaron and shiobahn are both apparently hebrew origin, but if aaron came down through greek latin etc to us but siobahn took a branch line of language....?
(I dont know the answer but Im presuming its something like that)

Aged 12 a pair of school mates were involved in an argument, that eventually dissolved into "You're stupid." "No you're stupid. "You're stupider." "Well, you're the epi-tome of stupidity." Took a while for him to live that one down.

Then I had to persuade a well know British shakespearean actor in his 60s (famous for his beautiful voice) that the word was not "Main-i-acally" but rather "Man-i-acly".

And lastly I can never say "vigilante" on the first go, always comes out as "village aunty". So much so that I've actually pitched a film off the pun. Sadly it's never gone anywhere.

There’s only one work I can never get right, which is Scalextric. To me it’ll always be Scalectrix. Hasn’t really held me back in life to be honest.

well quite. The reason “english” is so difficult to learn/speak is that loads of words come from different languages with completely different ‘rules’* for pronunciation

And then our American chums sometimes ignore the origin of the word and just go with phonetic pronunciation. Like penchant which all good forumites will know is derived from French and so is pronounced "pon-shon" but ends up as "pen-CHant" in American English.

See also Des Moines the state capital of Iowa

Touche (It’s pronounced Too-Chey, not Too-Sch)

And it's spelt touché.

but if aaron [etc]

But is that pronounced ahh-ron or air-on?

See also Des Moines the state capital of Iowa

And Noter Daym college.

Thanks to BW III I can’t read England, funny or hospital correctly!

Misled to me is my zelled, like when Peter Mandelson my zelled parliament, as in parley a ment.

well quite. The reason “english” is so difficult to learn/speak is that loads of words come from different languages with completely different ‘rules’* for pronunciation

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead—
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose —
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart —
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

🙂
The ough was exactly the example I was thinking of.

Ventriloquist. My wife is absolutely convinced that such a person is a venTRELokwist. The presence of the 'I' in the middle of the word doesn't register with her at all. I suppose it was how she heard the word as a child, and therefore it just always comes out like that.

Also.

Why is there no U in forty, and why is there a P in raspberry

There’s only one work I can never get right……..

Turns out there are two.

A mate of mine calls poppadums ‘pompadums’. Where he gets the M from I’ve no idea, drives me spare.

I don’t know if it’s a Bristolian thing, but >50% of people I know pronounce Wetherspoons as Witherspoons.

Chipotle (how is that actually pronounced?)
Buoy (boo-eey anyone?)
Mnemonic (always said as mnemenemenemenemenenomic)

marzocchi

Yeah! Everyone I've ever heard say it (apart from a LBS fella long time ago) says Marzocky
Now, back in the days they had some forks called Zokes... which tells me it's Morzohkey.

(but nowadays people just say Fox or Rock Shox 🙂 )

Why is there no U in forty, and why is there a P in raspberry

While we're going down that rabbit hole, why are the numbers eleven onwards not just tenty-one, tenty-two, etc, like all other numbers after 20, 30 etc?

For creakingdoor

While we’re going down that rabbit hole, why are the numbers eleven onwards not just tenty-one, tenty-two, etc, like all other numbers after 20, 30 etc?

just be happy we dont have to ask for four twenties a ten and nine when we want an ice cream with a flake in it

Homage. I know it should be O-maaaaaj and not Hohmij, but always think that sounds too pretentious.
@desperatebicycle - thanks for that. After the full 10 minutes I'm sure it's still wrong though.

ice cream with a flake in it

Apparently called a 99 because the roman numerals for 99 is IC (icy).

I learnt German and have a few English words I struggle not to pronounce as German. Like Lauder = "Louder", "worst" = "vurst", and others just in a camp German accent.

Kinda related, my school German teacher pronounced Poem as "Poy-yem". "Po-em is right? Thought it was just her, then met MsJimmy and she says "Poy-yem" too.

Kinda related,

Ie, just a little?

Watch out for... great
(They rhyme with... straight

Like shit they do. Maybe if you're 200 miles south of here.

And... card and ward,

They do though.

I don’t know if it’s a Bristolian thing, but >50% of people I know pronounce Wetherspoons as Witherspoons.

See, up here it's pronounced "the house of ****s."

Chipotle (how is that actually pronounced?)

Chipot-lay.

Buoy (boo-eey anyone?)

If you're American.

Apparently called a 99 because the roman numerals for 99 is IC (icy).

Nice. And, bollocks. (-:

https://www.cadbury.co.uk/your-question-answered?q=where-do-product-names-come-from

"In the days of the monarchy in Italy the King has a specially chosen guard consisting of 99 men, and subsequently anything really special or first class was known as "99" - and that his how "99" Flake came by its name."