Home Forums Bike Forum Mispronunciation

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 79 total)
  • Mispronunciation
  • CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Overheard in the lbs the other day,

    “I’ve got a Giant Deffie.”

    I shot him dead, obviously.

    Bregante
    Full Member

    Someone on here did that when he was telling me about his borrowed road bike a couple of years back. I didn’t tell him because I thought that would be funnier.

    Didn’t you Craig? 😆

    orena45
    Full Member

    Sounds like one those people who pronounces ‘Dyfi’ as ‘Diffy’ 🙄

    geoffj
    Full Member

    I overhead someone pronounce scone rhyming with phone and another rhyming with gone 🙄

    *It rhymes with loon, if you were wondering 8)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scone,_Perth_and_Kinross

    bongohoohaa
    Free Member

    Bindun’

    ….and I will still say Deffy.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    How about “Alfine”?

    I say it as “Al feen” or “Al fine” but I’ve heard it pronounced “Al feen ay” (admittedly by an American so it probably doesn’t count)

    Non-biking words: clique is pronounced “cleek” not “click” and I’ll deffie anyone who says different 😆

    chickenman
    Full Member

    Yes Geoff, but you spoilt that by not use a capital!
    There used to be a Scone Recycling Centre in the eponymous hamlet. 😀

    ocrider
    Full Member

    whitestone – Member
    How about “Alfine”?….
    I’ve heard it pronounced “Al feen ay” (admittedly by an American so it probably doesn’t count)

    If it was broken beyond repair, it would be correct.:-)

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    See Geoff, all this time and you’re still an Incomer. 🙂

    smatkins1
    Full Member

    Schwalbe seems to cause a lot of people problems.

    RoterStern
    Free Member

    ‘Shram’… where is the h in SRAM?

    pinetree
    Free Member

    Schwalbe as Schwabble
    Mondraker as moondraker
    *edit* SRAM as Ess Ram

    These, along with loads of others I can’t remember atm, should be punishable by death. The excuse of “that’s just how I say it” is frankly unacceptable. You’re not pronouncing it an alternative way; you’re clearly just too thick/lazy to read and pronounce it correctly, and are therefore too stupid to live. Goodbye.

    Best one I ever had was a customer in a bike shop I used to work in; he came in looking for a bike for his son (about 2-3 days before Xmas)
    Him “Yeah, hi, I’m looking for one of they ‘bummkss’ bikes for ma boy”
    Me “Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean”
    Him “you know, one of they bummkss bikes for doin jumps an that”
    Me “err… Is it a particular brand you’re after?”
    Him “Aye, it might be, actually”
    Me “oh right, how do I spell it?” *looking on the computer*
    Him “B.M.X.”
    Me “ah…”

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    Camp-ag-nolo.
    Campag.
    Campy.

    I suppose more stw specific…

    “I drive an oddy”

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    I’ve heard Jalfrezi pronounced “Jal-fri-ah-zi”

    Very odd.

    nealglover
    Free Member

    I’ve heard someone say mispronunciation, but said it as.. mis-pronounce-iation

    chickenman
    Full Member

    Schwalbe? Swobble? Shvaalbeh?
    much easier just to into a bike shop and translate it as “Do you swallow?” 😈

    callmetc
    Free Member

    Guilty of ess Ram.

    Sram just doesn’t make sense in my head.

    ScottChegg
    Free Member

    Some woman at work pronounces ‘anglepoise’ as a french word.

    She thinks it makes her sound clever.

    It doesn’t.

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    orena45 – Member
    Sounds like one those people who pronounces ‘Dyfi’ as ‘Diffy’

    Easy to do given the daft rules on pronouncing Y’s in Welsh.

    On that note, (not being Welsh I do mispronounce the names loads despite spending a year in Wales)… I’ve never understood the pronunciation of the word Y (as in The). Y Wall, Y Mynydd for example. Y for The is ee, ih, or uh? Ditto where the Y is between words, like Coed-y-Brenin. (just giving bike examples here 😀 )

    RustySpanner
    Full Member

    Scottish mountains.
    Not a clue.

    I usually just nod and point at the wrong one.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    @deadkenny

    The Welsh Y is about halfway between the e in “tee” and “then” sound but with a bit of “u” in it except where it’s the next to last syllable in a word when it’s “uh”. So

    Ysgol => uhskoll
    Ysbyty => eesbuttee
    Mynydd -> mun eevth

    Apologies to native Welsh speakers, it’s quite hard to transliterate the vowel sounds into how an English speaker would say them. The above is a reasonable approximation and depends as much on where in England you live, ysbyty is almost “hisbutty” without the initial ‘h’ to me for example.

    philwarren11
    Free Member

    Afan. The “f” is pronounced as a “v” people.

    alpin
    Free Member

    Bianchi pronounced “bian-chi” rather than “Bian-key”

    YT Tues… Not pronounced like the abbreviated Tuesday, but rather Tu-es. “do it” in German

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    @whitestone – yeah I got the difference between last and other syllables for Y. It’s just the Y on it’s own as a word.

    Y Mynydd – The Mountain (I think) – Ee Mun-eevth, Or Uh Mun-eevth ? I’ve always said Ee.

    I got very weird look trying to say Glyncorrwg to a local 😀

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Yes mynydd = mountain. To my ears (old and not very good at the best of times) it seems to depend on the following word: y Ddraig (the dragon) would be more like “uh thraig” to me but most usages seem to be somewhere between a short “err” and “uh”.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    I heard a bloke in a bike shop say “Scrabbly” for Schwalbe – I don’t think he was having a laugh. Always Scrabbly for me now.

    Dakine anyone ?

    pondo
    Full Member

    Not strictly a mispronunciation but I worked with a woman who told me about her friend who’d had a car crash, a collision with an argonaut. You’d think they’d have been easy to see, rowing up the high street.

    Man, she was so dumb.

    TooTall
    Free Member

    I moved to the US. Then Persil moved to the US. Did ANYONE pronounce it this way? NO!

    OmarLittle
    Free Member

    Asked a clubmate a couple of weeks ago how the order for his canyon aeroad was going – he told me he cancelled it due to delays and was instead getting a Trek Mad 1 now!

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    If we’re talking Americans, one that gets me is Nissan pronounced Neeee-san.

    However if you hear how Japanese pronounce it, it’s more accurate than Brits do it. Less of the long E though, just Nessan said quickly. Not Ni-ssan as in Ni, the Nights who Say Ni.

    Then Americans… Hundy (Hyundai). But again, they’re kind of closer than Brits who say Hi-un-day. Proper pronunciation is more He-yunday. Not Hundy though.

    MrSalmon
    Free Member

    Trek Mad 1

    That’s a good one 🙂
    I’ve heard ‘Schwabbly’ a few times as well.

    Best non-bikey one though, and not a (mispronunciation as such I suppose) has got to be ‘pacific’ for ‘specific’.
    It never fails to amaze me when I hear it, because I can’t understand how anyone who has ever heard pacific used the right way (which must be everyone) can use it in that context and not wonder how it makes any sense.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Americans often stress the final syllable, e.g. garARGE rather than the UK style where the leading syllable has the stress: GArage

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    I’ve heard ‘Schwabbly’ a few times as well.

    My LBS (and therefore all the regulars in there) all use Schwabbly in an ironic fashion after a genuine enquiry from a customer.

    Many years ago we had a customer asking about the new Pew-Joe bikes. Eventually worked out that he meant Peugeot. 🙄
    I think I must have heard most of the possibilities for Marzocchi and Bianchi too after years in a bike shop.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    Bontrager: by all accounts the man himself pronounces it ‘bon-tragger’

    monkeysfeet
    Free Member

    Used to work with a scouser who proudly told me he had just bought a Ford Orion Guy-ah. (ghia). 🙄

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    Any thoughts on this place?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maesycwmmer

    whitestone
    Free Member

    micey coomer is probably as close as I can write it in phonetic English

    philwarren11
    Free Member

    Mice urr cum-ma. That’s how I’d say Maesycymmer. Shithole anyway.

    Y Mynydd, again, I’d pronounce it ur mun-ittthhh certainly no eeees in the second part. Depends where your from tho.

    I live in Treorchy, Rhondda. Quite a difficult one when saying your address over the phone.

    wiggles
    Free Member

    I get loads of these in work…

    Had a guy ask what “loom” is as someone said the tyres he bought are great for “steep and loomy trails” (he meant loam).

    had a good laugh at the though of a tyre designed specifically for the conditions in a textiles factory.

    jimoiseau
    Free Member

    One I was thinking about the other day, how do you pronounce Topeak?

    Like the verb “to peak”?
    Like “toe-peak”?
    Like “top-eek”?

    BTW Persil has been pronounced like that (with the emphasis on the last syllable) for years, but with a throatier R, as it’s French for parsley.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 79 total)

The topic ‘Mispronunciation’ is closed to new replies.