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The Wrong Way To Say It: 27 Mispronunciations People Still Recall
Language can be weird sometimes. You usually find that out when learning a foreign language. Suddenly there are different sounds and a different-looking alphabet. You have to bend your tongue in ways you didn't even think was possible. Not to mention that words aren't spelled the way they're written.
So it's no wonder people make mistakes in pronunciation. One Redditor had an idea to ask people what's the most memorable incorrect pronunciation they've heard. And the people delivered – from "penglings" to "Cog Nack" and "poll-em" instead of "poem."
To know more about why we mispronounce words and why some words are harder to pronounce than others, Bored Panda reached out to accent coach Luke Nicholson. He's the mind behind Improve Your Accent and a member of the International Phonetic Association. You can read our conversation with him below!
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#1
My wife still says "Rhino-saurus" every time she tries to pronounce "Rhinoceros." To be fair, her way is better.
Mispronouncing words is a natural part of learning a new language. It's a common occurrence even for native speakers. This time we'll discuss the English language and its phonetic aspects in more depth. But keep in mind, we can apply similar logic to the other languages of the world.
Our expert on English phonetics is Luke Nicholson. He has been teaching English learners how to communicate more clearly for over 10 years. Nicholson teaches a summer course in English Phonetics at the University College London and is also the creator of Funetics, a website that focuses on languages other than English
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In 2017, Luke became the UK Freelancer of the Year. He has also spoken for a variety of media, from BBC Radio London to the Rosetta Stone podcast. His goal is to provide high-quality teaching materials for British English pronunciation.
Nicholson says that people mispronounce words for different reasons. "If someone hasn't been exposed to a word in its spoken form, they may guess the pronunciation based on the spelling," he explains.
#4
It’s Christmas time, which means lots of chocolate ads. Friend of mine informed us that his favorite chocolates where the “feral ranchers.”
#5
We had a training at work, taught by an outside organization. The lady was talking about the Irish potato famine. Except she kept calling it the potato phantom. She did this at least five times
#6
An old colleague once claimed she was ‘unindated’ with work. Now i have to say ‘inundated’ ten times in my head before out loud because that has ruined me for life.
Sadly, spelling sometimes can be your worst enemy, especially in the English language. "Unfortunately for English learners, English spelling doesn't clearly reflect how we pronounce words today," the accent coach says. He gives one example: "We spell 'lamb' with a 'b' because we used to pronounce it, but we don't anymore."
#7
Facade. Worked for a guy that was an "intellectually overconfident" type, to put it in the most civil way I know how lol. He kept using the word and had obviously never heard of it until he read it somewhere. Kept pronouncing it "fake-aid". He would go on rants about "fake" people and use this to describe their personalities. It was really cringe inducing. Eventually the stars aligned and we were together on a business trip, I saw a building under construction. "That place is going to have a really beautiful facade", I said (it genuinely did) and there was no response but about a month later I overheard him using the word and saying it correctly. So whatever.
#8
When I worked at Subway, I asked a customer what kind of dressing he wanted, and he said, "do you know, uh, chipotle?" Which he butchered so badly I heard it as "do you know a cheap hotel?" So I told him, "yeah, down on 39th Street" and we were both thoroughly confused.
People who are learning English are not the only ones struggling with having to pronounce words differently from how they're spelled. Native speakers can fall victim to this too. "Who could deduce that 'wind' (the movement of air) and 'wind' (as in winding up a clock) are pronounced differently?" Nicholson observes.
#10
My old boss. Escaped goat : scapegoat Interpretate : interpret Pacifically : specifically Every. F*****g. Time. In front of some clever people before he would introduce me to carry on with the presentation...
#11
Extracurricular as "Extra Kickler". The bad part about it is that it was one of my high school teachers. We even starting calling him The Midnight Kickler what kickles at midnight.
"Guessing pronunciation from the spelling is even challenging for those who speak English as their first language," the accent coach reiterates. "Place names are particularly troublesome." He gives one interesting example: did you know that "Cholmondeley" is actually pronounced "CHUM-lee"?
#13
My high school girlfriend travelled with me to visit my family in SoCal after graduation. We were playing Trivial Pursuit and it was her turn to read the question. The question was something like "which south american king ruled with a chihuahua?" Only she pronounced it as "cha-whoo-a-whoo-a". It took a good 30 seconds to understand what she word she was trying to pronounce. And a good 30 minutes for my entire family to stop laughing. We still joke about it to this day.
#14
20 years ago my wife and I were behind a woman at Target at the register. She began arguing with the cashier over the price for an item, and after a few rounds back and forth loudly proclaimed, *"I ain't no mathematic, but I ain't no stupid neither!"* We still use that whenever the "math don't math" on something. I was, for reference, a mathematics major.
Are non-English speakers doomed then? "For those who don't speak English as their first language, there may be sounds they find tricky to pronounce," Nicholson explains. "For instance, the Spanish language doesn't have a distinction between a 's' and a 'sh' sound. This means English words like 'sash' may be mispronounced by Spanish speakers."
#16
When reading an award at a US Army ceremony, the Personell clerk was reading "He is a fine outstanding soldier all his peers should seek to emulate", he pronounced it "eliminate"
#17
I work in the legislative/policy field, and my boss pronounces statutes "statue-ettes." It's wild.
#18
I was in a miss teen type of pageant & during the panel I was asked, “if you were handed a red crown what would you draw?” I had to ask the moderator to repeat the question & with a chuckle, I asked for clarification on if she meant a red “crown” or did she actually mean a red crayon. None of the judges were happy with me smugly correcting the moderator.
Those to whom English is a second language most often struggle with how to pronounce the 'th' sound. Surprisingly, we can find the sound in other languages spoken in Europe as well. "The 'th' sounds in English (like in 'this' and 'thing') are found in a few other languages," Nicholson says. Among them are Icelandic, Albanian, Welsh, and Greek.
#20
It was a brunch time first date at a restaurant fancier than I’m usually comfortable with. Was looking to get a little buzz to take the edge off. I pointed to the mimosa carafe that was on the menu and asked if she would like to share one. We were in agreement that it looked wonderful so when the server came over, I confidently declared that we would like the mimosa care-a-fay. The server laughed. My date laughed. I was mega embarrassed. We dated for about a year and a half after this incident and she would occasionally ask if I’d like a care a fay of whatever liquid was in close proximity. TLDR: Carafe is pronounced more like giraffe. Definitely don’t say care a fay on a first date or ever.
#21
Working in web development, there was *one* person on my team who consistently mispronounced the word "cache". Drove me nuts. It's one syllable, folks, not two! "Cash", not "cash-ay"!
Unfortunately, the 'th' sound is not that common in other languages. "This suggests they could be trickier to articulate," the accent coach tells Bored Panda. "For those speakers who don't have the 'th' sounds in their native language, the English 'th' sounds might be tricky to master."
#22
Coworker was saying stigmata instead of stigma. Multiple times. Also claimed to have a photographic memory. Irony.
#23
My Mom back in the 70s used to pronounce a "resume" for work a resume(re-zoom) as in resuming work. It made sense to her.
#24
Co-worker got charged with DUI. He was writing down the facts to show his lawyer and he asked me "How do you spell so-vi-it-e?" He was saying sobriety but with a V instead of a B. I told him I thought it was S-O-B-R-I-E-T-Y. He told me that was wrong "cuz there is no v in it." I told him there wasn't a V in sobriety and he said, "Then why is it pronounced so-vi-it-tree? See there is a v in it." I gave up and told him he was right and I had no idea how to spell the word.
What's interesting is that Nicholson advises not to stress too much over this. "This isn't actually that important," he says. "Many English speakers in the UK actually pronounce the 'th' sounds as 'f' and 'v' instead. So 'first' and 'thirst', and 'sliver' and 'slither' sound the same."
#25
At a Chinese Restaurant and my coworker asked for General Toes. I still laugh about it to this day.
#27
A former neighbour was talking about a movie she saw and it was called Malice - pronounced 'mah lice'. I really miss her though.
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