[Closed] Words you've always pronounced incorrectly

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."

It is fun being Antipodean. A colleague of mine always loses it when I say "decade" he hears "dickhead" (Scotland). So I work this in whenever I can, including a very serious work conference about serious security stuff. Lots of people in NZ have decks of which they are particularly proud. There is a whole Aussie comedy sketch about it, NSFW but I will try and find it.

I think message should be pronounced mess-ahhge, like a massage. Actually, sausage sounds better like that too.

@Cougar

How would you pronounce "?

Frank Bruno’s Boxing

French counting

Sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, sixty ten...sixty sixteen, sixty ten seven, sixty ten eight, sixty ten nine, Four twenties! four twenties and one, four twenties and two...

I'm sort of impressed really...

Sounds like you need clarification.

😃

Two words I mispronounce regularly are:

statistics = stastistics

fritillary = flitillaly

I can say them properly if I speak really slowly, but if I try at normal speed they just don't come out right.

Also, I say skel-ee-t'l – taught to me by a prof of muscle physiology ... most people seem to say skel-eh-t'l – which seems quite sensible based on skeleton. Finally checked the dictionary today and, if I'm understanding the phonetic symbols properly, it seems that both are fine.

and that his how “99” Flake came by its name.”

The apocryphal story I heard was the the 1/2 flake without a wrapper was item 99 on the sales sheet that Cadbury door to door trade sales used to use to reorder stock when going to news-agents, confectioners and so on back in the day  Head office noticed there was one beach front shop ordering way more than every one else in the country and a lacky was dispatched to find out why, and he saw the owner of the shop sticking them in ice cream cones...Light bulb moment: Star is Born

hmmm unless I’ve forgotten, I would’ve just called this an “inverted comma” back in the day. Bit of a mouthful, but it’s an example of something I’d read or type but never actually say in conversation! Probably just call them “quotes” these days I guess. What did you call them?

We had no idea what they were called, so we named them after the noise your pen made writing them. So they were duh-duts. Eg, "LOAD duh-dut duh-dut" Years later with the rise of the Web it turned out that this was pretty common, kids across the land had regional variations. Dit-dit, dot-dot and so forth.

SRAM

@Cougar ha, had no idea, very imaginative! 🤣

I don’t even know if it’s wrong but Mrs F always laughs when I say “I’m going to (tu)the shop” whereas she insists it is “Going too” which just sounds pretentious to me. Like somebody thinking they sound posh when it just sounds daft. Then again she’s from Cheshire and I’m from West Yorkshire.

Clearly I’m right on this one. Going too would be like saying “I’m going as well the shops” that’s just madness.