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“What’s A Word That Someone Horribly Mispronounced That You Still Remember?” (30 Answers)
Interview With Expert
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!
More info: Improve Your Accent | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My wife still says "Rhino-saurus" every time she tries to pronounce "Rhinoceros."
To be fair, her way is better.
Robert Trebor 1 year ago
Nose beast. A friend’s 13-year-old son was getting an overlarge nose (from his dad’s side) adjusted to his thin face (from his mom’s side). He was appalled to discover that he was getting a Rhinoplasty.
Martine Remmelzwaal 1 year ago
Some info for those that do not know; the "-ceros" in rhinoceros means horn, (and rhino means nose, so literally nosehorn (and that is what it is actually called in some languages)). You can find -ceros meaning horn also in triceratops, three-horned face, aswell as unicorn, onehorn (again, some languages actually call it that). And saurus means lizard, though I think a lot of people will know that.
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
RELATED:
#2
Ooohhh ooohh the "penglings" by Benedict Cumberbatch
Kimbowa 1 year ago
At first, I was confused. I guess that’s how Benedict Cumberbatch pronounces penguins or is this a painting of penguins by Benedict Cumberbatch? (“Penglings by Benedict Cumberbatch”) and isn’t Benedict Cumberbatch a great bunch of syllables!
Jeevesssssss 1 year ago
He narrated a BBC documentary - there was a short penguin clip and he mispronounces penguin 3 or 4 different ways in that one clip, it's fantastic.
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Upstaged75 1 year ago
He actually said peng-wings. Very funny. He'll probably never live that down.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
I used to call them pembims. Now my entire family does....
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Isabel Care 1 year ago
Penwings. Not just in a documentary also when he voiced the octopus in the Penguins of Madagascar adventure
#3
Worcestershire sauce. He said 'wash your sister ' sauce and I about died laughing
still tired 1 year ago
Isn't it pronounced woo-ster-shir sauce? Idk it's really hard to pronounce
Kate 1 year ago
TBF, nobody actually knows how to pronounce it. We're all just guessing and hoping for the best.
geezeronthehill 1 year ago
Thought it was 'Wooster'. I wonder how the people who live in Worcestershire pronounce it.
Eunice Robertson 1 year ago
RSA here. We just call it Worcester sauce, pronounced "Woo_ster". We also have a small town in the Western Cape called Worcester.
Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
We keep words like this in English so that we can detect foreign spies in time of war.
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.”
Jihana 1 year ago
Without the picture of Ferrero Rocher I would not have figured out what feral ranchers are.
OutspokenHBW 1 year ago
That would be a good name for spicy Jolly Ranchers.
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#5
Someone who thought the word "vicariously" was bi-curiously. "You're going on vacation with your friends? Wow! I'm gonna live bi-curiously through you!"
Michael Largey 1 year ago
No, what you heard was “Bye-curious”. She says “Bye” and then wonders what happening on your vacation.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
The woman in the picture doesn't really look as comfortable as she should. She needs one of those chaise lounge thingies.
#6
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
Wysteria_Rose 1 year ago
I don't know how people sat through that without laughing. I would have tried to stifle it to be polite but that's pretty funny to picture this serious training and here this woman goes "so about the potato phantom..."
Michael Largey 1 year ago
It was a potato phantom because those potatoes sure ghosted the Irish people.
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
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.
Ian Webling 1 year ago
A television announcer once pronounced the word "awry" as "awe-ree". It took me thirty years to stop saying it that way.
Ginger Grumpybunny 1 year ago
I saw it written before hearing it spoken, so for years I assumed that was how it was pronounced.
Load More Replies... Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
In elementary school, I came across the word 'misled' and understand from context that it meant to fool or con someone. But instead of mentally pronouncing it "miss led" as in being led astray, I decided it was my-seled, similar to weaseled. For another 2 decades I would say I got myseled out of this or that. I thought it fit pretty well.
Catharina Geerts 1 year ago
I have a sister who ALWAYS speaks some words of our dialect so wrong, it makes me cringe. And yet, after decades of hearing her talking like that, sometimes one of those words escape from my mouth too. ARGH!!!!
#8
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.
Camber Hollywood 1 year ago
This sounds like somebody who learned the word while reading. And he sounds smart and intellectually flexible for picking up on it so quickly.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
It's à French word, so the C is hard before A, O, and U, except that in that case it's written façade, with à "cédille" under the C, that makes it a S sound and not a K sound, so it's pronounced fassad. I know, I know, but then, you english-speakers, what about "tough" and "though"? Hmm?
Rahul Pawa 1 year ago (edited)
"'ough' becomes different sounds in: enough, cough, plough, hiccough, although, thought and thoroughly." - Tom Scott on YouTube.
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Nils Skirnir 1 year ago
Never down a person for knowing more words than they can pronounce. Especially In English.
Stannous Flouride 1 year ago
It's called "readerisms" or "Calliope Syndrome" (the latter pronounced "Calley-ope)
Martine Remmelzwaal 1 year ago
Reading the first part I thought/guessed you were talking about "vacate". And when in the second part you mentioned a building, I thought something about vacating the building would come up.
Brett Mittelstadt 1 year ago
in this gentleman's defence, fake people use the aid of a facade in order to get people to like them. So pronouncing it Fake-aid is probably more logical than how it's actually pronounced
Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago
Reminds me of this young science teacher I had in high school who pronounced "trebuchet" as "tre-bucket"
#9
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.
BrownTabby 1 year ago
In their defense, as a non-American I didn’t know the pronunciation until I saw a John Oliver segment about the restaurant chain, which he referred to as “America’s preferred over-the-counter laxative”.
Content Wombat 1 year ago
As a British person, chipotle took ages for me to learn how to pronounce properly.
Fraxinus excelsior 1 year ago
When I first saw it written down, I thought someone had spelled chipolata wrong. 😂
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Bored Templar 1 year ago
Oh oh! I have a friend who can't pronounce Subway; she always says: Sutway
The Other Guest 1 year ago
Puts me in mind of that old Jack in the Box commercial. My partner & I still call the pepper "chih-poodle" because of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN7IG6Pwlec
Sebby's Mama 1 year ago
Recently went on a lunch date and they pronounced it "chip-oat-uhl". Not the worst, except that they enunciated each part.
mommamarmar 1 year ago
My mom pronounces it chip-ole-tee, and I cringe very time. She might as well call a tortilla a tort-ill-uh.
Nice Beast Ludo 1 year ago
My sister pronounced guacamole like "wockamole" and me and my other sister never let her live it down.
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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
Had a friend that pronounced the b in "subtle." Was annoying as f**k.
WindySwede 1 year ago
And the 'L' in Salmon? I know I did until I realised this not to long ago..
James016 1 year ago
My wife pronounces the "L" in salmon but English is not her first language.
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Shadow 1 year ago
oooh! Thank you for this! I now know why I sometimes mispronounce it that way. I was in French immersion in grades 7-9. It's been years but I'll still occasionally pronounce some words as if I'm speaking French.
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 1 year ago
Right. People who ignore letters right there in plain sight need to see a psychiatrist.
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Wendell T Sasaki 1 year ago
I do not accept that some people see the 1st r in February as silent. Pronounced Feb-you-ary.
#11
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...
Marie BellaDonna 1 year ago
How is it these morons are always the ones who end up in charge?? Sigh...
Velveteen Worm 1 year ago
I feel like this is almost as southern as "warsh" Instead of "wash"
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Suzanne Miller 1 year ago
Speaking only for myself. I'd prefer to hear these mispronounced words than all the f**ck you's thrown around. I was always taught that the use of that word limits one's vocabulary.
Daft Mosquito 1 year ago
Absolutely correct! https://thecontentauthority.com/blog/interpret-vs-interpretate
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ynyrhydref56 1 year ago
"Where pacifically in the Specific are you going, Mrs D?" Sharon on Kath & Kim
#12
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.
David Martin 1 year ago
In high school, we were supposed to read segments of a story in turn, and my segment included the word redolent. When I got to that part, the teacher stopped me to explain "It's pronounced re-DOH-lent, not red-UH-lint". I knew better, but I said it her way. The next day, she announced that she has asked three other people, and that I had in fact been right
Philly Bob Squires 1 year ago
New-Cue-Ler instead of New-Cle-Err. Bothered the hell out of me. Especially when said by a scientist or the president (Bush).
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
In the new Disney+ series A (real) Bug's Life, Awkwafina narrates about "cocka roaches." I physically cringed. But then, it's from someone who calls herself Awkwafina.
"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
Pah-harmacist. I think about that woman a lot lol
shanila.pheonix_ 1 year ago
im sorry but i keep on imagining this pronunciation as a heavy Bostonian accent😭
Nice Beast Ludo 1 year ago
Hahahahahaha i think about that woman a lot...like every time you see a pharmacy
#14
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.
lily jones 1 year ago
I just did the thing where you say a word so many times it stops feeling like a real word... chi wa wa... chi whoo a whoo a..
Rachel Martin 1 year ago
I do that with spellings sometimes. Look at a word closely, and it looks wronger and wronger
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Reviewer UK01 1 year ago
School quiz, teacher asks the question to which the correct answer is Arkansas. We say that, she says no, the correct answer is Ah Kansas. Would not listen to any explanation. 30 years, still annoyed.
The Amazing Fluffernaut 1 year ago
Its not Ah Kansas, it pirate Kansas (ARHH-Kansas)
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Yeah, whatever, Brian 1 year ago
I love pronouncing it that way for fun. I Also say spec-tack-culls instead of spectacles and mur-dur-dur-er or mur-der-der-did for fun and I am starting to wonder if people think I'm cereals. Lol
#15
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
"It's ponunced nukular!"
Melissa Matusevich 1 year ago
Whenever I hear someone say, "nucular," all I can think of is a culur sky, as in a sky with no clouds. NuCLEAR, folks, nuCLEAR!
geezeronthehill 1 year ago
Eisenhower pronounced it nukular and blessed us with that atrocity for decades.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
My high school Chemistry teacher! Didn't matter how many times we told him it was wrong.
Callie Krisel 1 year ago (edited)
A lot of people I know say nuculus instead of nucleus and gibbeous instead of gibbous (including a teacher, although English was his second language) and it pisses me off
#17
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"
Multa Nocte 1 year ago
I find it ironic that the person who was complaining about pronunciation is also the same person whose spelling is amiss. 😉
#18
I work in the legislative/policy field, and my boss pronounces statutes "statue-ettes." It's wild.
Kimbowa 1 year ago
Statue (sta-chew) and statute (sta-chute) are so close and in spelling too. And by the way, statuettes (sta-chew-ets)are small statues. And some people are very statuesque (sta-chew-esk).
Robert Trebor 1 year ago
Don't forget about the Statue of Limitations. Or, if it is of short duration, Statuette of Limitations.
Load More Replies... 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.
#19
Girl in college:
Word -- "Annihilate"
Her pronunciation --- Annie - Hilly -Ate
#20
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.
WindySwede 1 year ago
"With a red crown I would draw the red queen, for obvious reason, for that pronunciation. With a Crayon, I would draw a heart to show how the school have failed you"
Multa Nocte 1 year ago
"None of the judges were happy with me smugly correcting the moderator." And she was surprised when she lost the competition.
LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago (edited)
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. I work in the language services field and think it is really smug and nasty to humiliate someone who mispronounces a word in public. Not everyone is a native speaker. Everyone makes mistakes.
Load More Replies... Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
My grandfather used to relate that Northern Irish footballer Danny Blanchflower hosted a tv quiz for kids, and asked the question "What do we get from a car?" The poor kid was baffled when the answer came back "milk".
Diana Wilcox 1 year ago
I grew up in an area where many people said crayon this way. It's not a mistake as much as a quirk of the local accent. Another common one was saying 'warsh' instead of wash. Crown v crayon threw me off often, but over time I learned to use context clues. And smugly correcting accents? Yeah, YTA. You probably would have been okay if you'd just asked for clarification without the attitude.
1 year ago
My mom would worsh the clothes and then reench them. She always wanted to go to HawaYuh.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
My fourth grade teacher in Texas really went overboard with her accent. In math questions she would ask, "how much do you like?" I thought she was asking for my favorite number or something; it made no sense and I always got the answer wrong. It took me years to figure out that she meant "lack" and it was her way of asking for the difference. She had other confusing phrases that she never explained.
Leesa DeAndrea 1 year ago
Just a regional pronunciation thing. Like some folks who will take a single syllable word & turn it in to 2 syllables.
#21
Ex girlfriend pronounced rhododendron as RaDonDaDron
Ginger Grumpybunny 1 year ago
Had a school teacher who pronounced it roddy- dendrun, which I thought was just her but I later heard someone else say it that way, so maybe it's a regional thing? Idk.
Anna Drever 1 year ago
We jokingly call them ruddy-den-drons. And orchids are awkwards. Just because we can. 🙂
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
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.
BrownTabby 1 year ago (edited)
This is a situation where the words “You can if it’s true love” are appropriate. (As in, if a date doesn’t work out, there are other reasons besides a small goof like that.)
Ervin Conn 1 year ago
Joan Rivers had a bit in her standup routine about her date asking for a giraffe of wine.
Leesa DeAndrea 1 year ago
A friend, who took French in high school & college, while at a dinner with her spouse & his business associate, pointed at an item on the restaurant menu and wondered out loud what cognac was. But she pronounced it cog-nack.
#23
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"!
Realistic Optimist 1 year ago
I'm in IT and don't mind this. Honestly, it just makes me think about how weird English is as a language.
GoddessOfChaos 1 year ago
Well, blame William the Conqueror for all the random French words in the English language lol
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This Face Believes You 1 year ago
I seriously feel called out, and a bit thankful, because I’ve definitely been pronouncing that wrong 😂
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Cynthia Souza 1 year ago
My dad spoke only French until he started school. He was raised in an orphanage run by French Canadian nuns. He grew up in Boston. Sometimes he had a French accent, sometimes a Boston accent. Sometimes both at once. He denied having ANY accent, which made my brothers and me laugh!
Kimbowa 1 year ago
I know it’s a French word. How is it pronounced in French? Do people speaking French say ka-shay or cash?
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
1. Cache is a place to hide or store something, like packets of data on a computer drive or a food cache at a campsite. It is pronounced "cash." 2. Cachet is a certain admirable quality or style and it is pronounced "cashay" from the French word.
Velveteen Worm 1 year ago
There is a restaurant abt 2 hours from my home town in a larger city called "Cache" and is pronounced cashay. It's a formal restaurant and is quite fancy!
#24
Coworker was saying stigmata instead of stigma. Multiple times. Also claimed to have a photographic memory. Irony.
Kimbowa 1 year ago
Too bad she didn’t have a phono-graphic memory or she would hear it pronounced correctly.
Philly Bob Squires 1 year ago
Not much on images but about 85% of my brain is song lyrics so maybe I DO have a "phonographic memory!"
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PattyK 1 year ago
Stigma is singular, stigmata is plural. So your coworker was correct if they were referring to more than one stigma.
Multa Nocte 1 year ago
"Stigmata is the correct Latin plural form for the word stigma, but the word is almost never used in this manner anymore." https://grammarist.com/plurals/stigma-stigmas-or-stigmata/
Load More Replies... Lady Gypsy Rain 1 year ago
Just a quick Google search to ask the difference between stigmata and stigma. Found out that stigmata is the plural form of stigma. So, could be boss meant what they said and this is unnecessary correction.
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
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.
Jeremy Kohlwes 1 year ago
We use CVs in the US too, but almost exclusively for academic professions.
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Lady Lava 1 year ago
That's understandable, in my opinion, as resume in the way she pronounces it, is actually an existing word, only with a totally different meaning... As a non-native speaker of English, spelling versus pronunciation often puzzles me. For example, why is recite pronounced as re-site and recipe as reh-se-pee?
#26
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.
Shawn Barry 1 year ago
list like these should start to dwindle as almost all people have smart phones therefore online dictionaries
#27
At a Chinese Restaurant and my coworker asked for General Toes. I still laugh about it to this day.
lily jones 1 year ago
Off topic but the food in the picture looks soooo good now I'm starving again
Realistic Optimist 1 year ago
General Tso's is probably what they meant. It's a chicken dish. Not sure about much more than that though.
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LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
He was likely trying to ask for a dish called General Tso’s chicken.
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yellowphantom 1 year ago
My son and his friend had a big discussion on how to pronounce "Szechuan", which involved spraying a lot of spit on each other.
Some people use pronunciation to assume people's level of sophistication. If a person pronounces a word or words incorrectly, that somehow reflects on their intelligence. Luke Nicholson says that such stereotypes are simply not true. "As I mentioned, sometimes it's impossible to guess the pronunciation of a word based on spelling alone," he explains.
#28
Friend pronounced "meme" as "memmay"
OutspokenHBW 1 year ago
I pronounced it as memmee for like 4 years before my brother told me it was meem. I read more that I talked to people back then.
Blue 1 year ago
But that's actually how it's meant to be pronounced... It's just everyone goes along with "meem" because everyone else says it that way...
Load More Replies... CD Mills 1 year ago
Having never heard the word meme pronounced before, I asked my daughter if she had seen a particular me-me... She corrected me...after she stopped laughing. But I can always laugh at her pronunciation of penguin which she somehow pronounces it pen-gue-in. She has said it this way all of her life.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago
"Meme" or "Memere," pronounced "Memmay" is a North American French word for "grand-mother." Plus, the word comes form a root usually pronounced, "mehmuh" (as in "memory.")
#29
Lingerie. She pronounced it lin-jeer-ee and argued with me over the pronunciation until Google stepped in with the correct answer lol
Marie BellaDonna 1 year ago
Sometimes I pronounce it like Jamie Foxx, when he played Ugly Wanda, on "In Living Color": "Linger-ee", lol.
Elden Yeah 1 year ago
Unfortunately I pronounced it this way until I was 17. Realized which word I'd heard went with these letters when I said it in in a group that was walking and everyone stopped and looked at me funny. :D
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Sue 1 year ago
I don't know why people double-down before Googling when called out. Everyone makes mistakes, but those who insist on making them & doubling down without checking are imbeciles. My ex insisted that New Mexico was in Mexico. He kept going until I looked it up, and then said, well that's what we call it in "my state."
The Original Bruno 1 year ago (edited)
Given how poorly "Lawnzhuray" fits into English phonemes, I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear this is many local accents. Like on Doctor Who when the doctor raved about "Fa-jittahs." That sounds so silly, but it was perfectly serious. I don't know if they pronounce it like a French word in the deep south, but it'd almost be weird to here of Blayntsh (Blanche) looking for lawnzhuray from N'arlins (New Orleans) to Battin Rooj (Baton Rouge).
#30
A former neighbour was talking about a movie she saw and it was called Malice - pronounced 'mah lice'.
I really miss her though.
Brian Droste 1 year ago
A lot of these words I would not know how to pronounce if I hadn't heard them pronounced over the years.
Nicholson also has a solid argument against prejudices about incorrect pronunciation. "If someone is mispronouncing a word because their first language isn't English, we should remember that they are clever enough to speak more than one language!"
#31
I worked in a breast health clinic and the scheduler would call people and confirm their "mammyograms."
She was also the kind of person to say "pacifically" in place of specifically.
Marie BellaDonna 1 year ago (edited)
Again, this is another one I use, but only in good fun. Sometimes I even say I have to get my "mammys grammed", lol. But then again, I am not a scheduler in a professional office, calling and speaking to patients that way...
#32
My ex-husband lived in a small town with no ethnic restaurants. He also went to college in a small town with no ethnic restaurants. So, we start dating and I take him to Mexican restaurant. He’s obviously very outside his bubble and keeps asking me questions about the menu. No big deal.
So, the waitress comes over to take our order and he orders a QUASA-DILL-A. The server and I just stare at him and then start laughing. I felt so badly for laughing but, I couldn’t help myself. I gently corrected him and he started laughing too. It became a running joke and is still one to this day…24 years later.
LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
Hah hah, this one does make me laugh. My family is from England and Scotland and my nanny would pronounce quesadilla like the man in the comments. I give her credit though as she really tried and wanted to learn.
SheamusFanFrom1987 1 year ago
I'd just stick with Kay-Sa-Dee-Ya like I stuck with War-Stir-Shy-Er sauce. At least if there's an error I can say I tried.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
If you're stilling sharing jokes with an ex-husband, it doesn't matter how you pronounce anything.
Jennifer Mathison 1 year ago
Kay-sa-DEE-ya (quesadilla) is how ppl around here say it. It’s two flour tortillas with cheese (and maybe other stuff) melted between them. Basically, it’s “queso” plus “tortilla”
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#33
A proctor at my son's middle school academic team meet, said "hyper-bowl," for hyperbole. He is 34 and it's never been forgotten.
Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
That's an exaggeration. In fact, it's hyperbole.
Load More Replies... CD Mills 1 year ago
As a child I would read every Reader's Digest I saw out in the world! {I was a weird kid} "It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power" was a favorite and they always gave the pronunciation key. I got in trouble for correcting adults on pronunciation even though THEY were wrong. I just wanted them to know the correct way to say it.
Ginger Grumpybunny 1 year ago
I loved those when I was a kid too! I still have a collection of old Reader's Digest magazines. I usually read everything in them but "It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power" was one of my favourite bits.
Load More Replies... #34
I've got a friend who pronounces "flamingo" as fallamingo... I thought she was messing around cos I often mispronounce words for fun... but no, she's serious...
Bored something 1 year ago
My daughter used to call them flimbos. She was about 4 at the time.
#35
Playing Taboo, you know the game where you have to give hints to a key word but there are words you are not allowed to use to describe it. This guy who nobody knew well at all was bombing and getting frustrated like we were all so stupid. I forget his clues but we surmised it was about drinking and alcohol. And time runs out. He goes "Ugh. Cog Nack!"
#36
My son said he had to do a poll-em for school. It was poem
In Kansas city Missouri there is a street names belfontaine, but if you ask for directions it is pronounced bell-fountain
Kimbowa 1 year ago
Here in Chicago we have a street Goethe. Ger-ta. It’s a hard one. People say Go-thee. lol We also have a North Avenue which runs east and west so you can say an address is south of north. Just funny to me. Lol
Scotira 1 year ago
Huh... 🤔 do you know the origin? Has it anything to do with the German poet Goethe?
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#37
Oh my poor younger brother.
One night out for a fancy dinner he decided the filet mignon was what he wanted to have. With a straight face he ordered the FLAMING YONG. Even the waiter struggled to stifle his laughter.
We still tease him about it to this day over a decade later.
Ace 1 year ago (edited)
Doesn't sound that far out from the rather exaggerated way Americans seem to use it. Confusing for French people though, cos here filet mignon is used for pork, not beef. A beef fillet or fillet steak ( double L and pronounced fill-it in UK English) is simply called filet de boeuf.
#38
Whenever my mother-in-law has difficulty breathing (she has asthma) she’ll say, “I can’t get air into my bronicles.”
First, it’s “bronchioles.” Second, no one says that anyway. Just say “lungs.”
My wife is a nurse and I have a minor in biology and we joke about our bronicles all the time.
Cam Schmit 1 year ago
lmao my dad who I loved more than anything, would chronically get the gender of pets wrong. It was if he was doing it on purpose. It was uncanny. Idk if it was some weird mental over-correction he was doing in his head like he never believed himself. I mean, he had a 50/50 shot, and was wrong 100% of the time.
Philly Bob Squires 1 year ago
My niece gets "Bronco-itis" so she occasionally gets a horse in her throat!
Sandy D 1 year ago
Lungs is wrong, though, if you have asthma. I have it, and a friend who has passed on also had asthma.every time she was experiencing breathing issues, she would tell me that she had to do a nebulizer treatment. She was completely convinced it was pronounced "nip-u-lizer". I tried explaining it to her, but she was stubborn and just claimed that a nebulizer and her "nip-u-lizer" were completely different pieces of equipment. At the time, my hubby, who has since retired from being a firefighter and emt for many years, true to explain it to her to no avail. So, now when I need to use my nebulizer, to remember my friend, I always refer to it her way, as my nip-u-lizer. Hubby does too
BrownTabby 1 year ago (edited)
“Second, no one says that anyway. Just say “lungs.”” No offense, but I outgrew my propensity for saying things like this about what words other people used when I was about six years old, as a result of adults calling me out for it.
Jasmijn 1 year ago
Great! So when do you think you’ll outgrow your propensity for telling that little story? You’re coming across as a bit condescending and it’s not a good look.
Load More Replies... #39
Guy walked into a liquor store looking for a wine for his wife "yes it has extra vaganza in it." The clerk kept being confused until the guy found it. Extravaganza!
#40
My Dad had an employee who pronounced “favorite” as “Fray-ver-it.” Every damn time!
Cam Schmit 1 year ago
poor kid i went to elementary school with pronounced "quarter" like quatter
#41
working as a server people used to pronounce chipotle in a myriad of wrong ways, but usually just “chip-olt” or “chip-ottle”.
one day a guy came in, looked me in the eye, and said “i’ll have the **chipeetle** burger please”
Ace 1 year ago (edited)
Or Chippy Otley, a fish&chip shop in a West Yorkshire town...
Load More Replies... Zaphod 1 year ago
Chipotle started in Denver in 1993. The first location was about a mile from my house. I love it. I was going to buy stock at their IPO in 2006. My uncle is a stock broker and said that he does not buy restaurant stocks, so I did not. Its IPO was $22. I could have bougt at $42 that day. It is $2,270/share today. My biggest regret!
Ace 1 year ago
Chip-ott-lee. Americans often pronounce the middle like the letter O, so chip-oat-lee. It's a type of smoked chilli pepper and a US tex-mex chain restaurant.
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#42
Knew someone that pronounced "stoic" like it rhymed with "oink".
My dad was the king of mispronunciation. The ones I remember are "galaxy" like "gal-AX-y", "avenger" like "AV-eng-er" and "lava" with a short a like "magma"
#43
A fifth grade teacher I was assisting in the lab had a student that didn’t know what a word meant. She said, “ what does co man deer mean?” She meant commandeer. I gave the correct pronunciation and definition to the student. This was a teacher who looked down on me as an aide. Another point for Floriduh
Camber Hollywood 1 year ago
A commandeer is the sort of deer you see frequently, not a rare deer.
#44
Nicotine. Knee-Co-Tie-N.
JoNo 1 year ago
It all depends where the emphasis is placed on the different syllables, similar to the word Aluminium being pronounced "A-loom-in-um".
T Smith 1 year ago
British= Aluminium. American= Aluminum. It's not just the pronunciation is different. We use 2 different words.
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What do you think ?
Content Wombat 1 year ago
I was told when I was a child to be gentle when other people mispronounce words as it meant that they had read them somewhere rather than heard them and "reading is a very special thing to do". :) x
Tyke 1 year ago
I agree except in the instance of my friend. She was properly screaming down a barmaid for about 10 solid minutes because the poor woman didn't pour her "proscetto" properly
Load More Replies... LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago (edited)
As someone who works in the language services industry, I think a lot of people expect me to constantly be a grammar Nazi. It actually really rubs me the wrong way when people correct grammar or mispronunciations in a way that hurts or humiliates the person who made the mistake. If you feel so obliged to correct someone please do it in a kind way and acknowledge that you also make mistakes. Heck, I’m supposed to be an expert in the art of translation and I still make idiotic grammar and spelling mistakes. Also, please remember that not everyone may be a native speaker of English or your native language as well.
Carrie Laughs 1 year ago
Plus, please remember that it's estimated that 1 in 10 people are dyslexic. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. These things can very much impact someone's pronunciation - my husband will add an extra syllable in some words as he doesn't 'see' them the same way we do.
Load More Replies...
Someone_from_the_Netherlands 1 year ago
Everybody who is (native) English should read: The Chaos Dearest creature in Creation, Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse. It will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye your dress you'll tear. So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer, Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it? Just compare heart, beard and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain, (Mind the latter, how it's written!) ... Google it!
Lady Lava 1 year ago
I have read somewhere that this poem is written by a Dutch man. Being Dutch myself and having had (and sometimes still have) my own struggles with the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation in English, I really feel this!
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Papa 1 year ago
I was an adult before I learned that colonel isn't pronounced the way it's spelled.
Ren Karlej 1 year ago
Indeed. Then there is the way we British say lieutenant as 'leftenant'!
Load More Replies... 1 year ago
I used to call fingers THINGERS until i read it in a book in the first grade. I was mad that no one corrected me. THINGERS and THUMB made sense to me though.
JayWantsACat 1 year ago
An old co-worker used to pronounce library "lie-berry" and strawberry "straw-brary" and I think about that way too much.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago
Cinnamaldehyde is the simplest, purest form of what gives cinnamon its scent and flavor. You might call it the least, still-functional part of cinnamon. Or the minimum cinnamon synonym. My organic chem professor hated me after I told him that one. He couldn't pronounce "cinnamon" for weeks because his lips kept getting " minimum cinnamon synonym" in'em.
SirWriteALot 1 year ago
People probably read it and never learned to pronounce it. What irks me more is the word-ization of abbreviations or acronyms ... like SEO is pronounced "see-oh", or "LOL" is pronounced "loll" ... I mean, nobody says "ibm" for IBM ... but as soon as it's speakable it is spoken. So annoying. Just es-tee-eff you dee-eff emm-eff
Content Wombat 1 year ago
I was told when I was a child to be gentle when other people mispronounce words as it meant that they had read them somewhere rather than heard them and "reading is a very special thing to do". :) x
Tyke 1 year ago
I agree except in the instance of my friend. She was properly screaming down a barmaid for about 10 solid minutes because the poor woman didn't pour her "proscetto" properly
Load More Replies... LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago (edited)
As someone who works in the language services industry, I think a lot of people expect me to constantly be a grammar Nazi. It actually really rubs me the wrong way when people correct grammar or mispronunciations in a way that hurts or humiliates the person who made the mistake. If you feel so obliged to correct someone please do it in a kind way and acknowledge that you also make mistakes. Heck, I’m supposed to be an expert in the art of translation and I still make idiotic grammar and spelling mistakes. Also, please remember that not everyone may be a native speaker of English or your native language as well.
Carrie Laughs 1 year ago
Plus, please remember that it's estimated that 1 in 10 people are dyslexic. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. These things can very much impact someone's pronunciation - my husband will add an extra syllable in some words as he doesn't 'see' them the same way we do.
Load More Replies... Someone_from_the_Netherlands 1 year ago
Everybody who is (native) English should read: The Chaos Dearest creature in Creation, Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse. It will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye your dress you'll tear. So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer, Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it? Just compare heart, beard and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain, (Mind the latter, how it's written!) ... Google it!
Lady Lava 1 year ago
I have read somewhere that this poem is written by a Dutch man. Being Dutch myself and having had (and sometimes still have) my own struggles with the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation in English, I really feel this!
Load More Replies... Papa 1 year ago
I was an adult before I learned that colonel isn't pronounced the way it's spelled.
Ren Karlej 1 year ago
Indeed. Then there is the way we British say lieutenant as 'leftenant'!
Load More Replies... 1 year ago
I used to call fingers THINGERS until i read it in a book in the first grade. I was mad that no one corrected me. THINGERS and THUMB made sense to me though.
JayWantsACat 1 year ago
An old co-worker used to pronounce library "lie-berry" and strawberry "straw-brary" and I think about that way too much.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago
Cinnamaldehyde is the simplest, purest form of what gives cinnamon its scent and flavor. You might call it the least, still-functional part of cinnamon. Or the minimum cinnamon synonym. My organic chem professor hated me after I told him that one. He couldn't pronounce "cinnamon" for weeks because his lips kept getting " minimum cinnamon synonym" in'em.
SirWriteALot 1 year ago
People probably read it and never learned to pronounce it. What irks me more is the word-ization of abbreviations or acronyms ... like SEO is pronounced "see-oh", or "LOL" is pronounced "loll" ... I mean, nobody says "ibm" for IBM ... but as soon as it's speakable it is spoken. So annoying. Just es-tee-eff you dee-eff emm-eff
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