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Twitter Users Are Sharing The Words They Thought They Were Pronouncing Right But Were Wrong The Entire Time (31 Tweets)
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Everyone keeps telling you that you should be a writer and that you’re an ace at literature. It gets to your head. You start believing your own hype. And that’s the moment that somebody tells you that you’ve been completely mispronouncing some of the words you’ve learned from reading. Embarrassing? Yup! Something that’s happened to a lot of us? Double yup!
When Andree Lau asked Twitter to share some of the words they’ve been mispronouncing the entire time, people responded with gusto. And their answers are amazing and bound to make you giggle. Scroll on down and upvote your fave pronunciations, dear Pandas. If you feel up for sharing, let us know what words you’ve been saying wrong in the comment section (personally, I’d been saying ‘Hermione’ like Viktor Krum until Book 4 of HP).
"Pronunciation is hard even for native speakers, especially when it comes to less-common words like “epitome.” I’ve known lots of people who learned words by reading, not by hearing, and so had no idea how they were pronounced. But for people learning English, pronunciation can be a real nightmare," Lisa McLendon, the News and Information Track Chair and the Coordinator at the Bremner Editing Center at the University of Kansas School of Journalism, told Bored Panda. Read on to learn more about chaotic English pronunciations, Pandas.
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I bet JK Rowling included that scene just to teach readers the correct pronunciation.
According to McLendon, the English language has words that are spelled similarly but pronounced differently (for example, bomb, comb, and tomb), as well as words that are spelled differently but sound the same (like peek, peak, and pique). "Plus, English has a lot of words that have silent letters, which can be confusing," the language expert explained.
We wanted to find out if the rules governing English pronunciations were a lot different than those found in other languages. McLendon stressed that in terms of how spelling reflects pronunciation and vice versa, English pronunciation is "a lot more chaotic."
McLendon detailed: "English is a Gallic overlay on a Germanic base, plus it has borrowed liberally from languages all around the world throughout is development. So when a word comes into English, where it comes from, and when a spelling gets standardized all affect how a word is written in relation to how it sounds."
McLendon noted that other languages may not be exactly "spelled like it sounds," however, they have set patterns of how pronunciation doesn't correspond with spelling.
Before you start feeling bad about making mistakes when it comes to English, it’s best to remember that the language has errrr ‘some’ irregularities when it comes to spelling and pronunciation. That’s why just reading or just watching English TV shows is never enough!
The poem ‘The Chaos’ by Dutch writer, traveler, and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité (aka Charivarius) perfectly illustrates the disconnect between spelling and pronunciation.
The poem includes around 800 examples of irregular spelling and you can read it right here. Better yet, declaim it out loud for everyone to hear! But be careful not to break off your tongue, native speaker or not.
Hyperbole and parabola come from the same Greek roots so why didn't they stay the same (either hyperbole & parabole or hyperbola & parabola)?
English words mainly derive from old German and Norman French. While pronunciations of all 3 languages have changed enormously since 1066, it’s English that stands out with its unreliable pronunciation and very varied spellings for identical sounds.
According to The English Spelling Society, the consistency of English spelling started getting corrupted after it was reinstated as the official language of England in the 15th century.
The bible wars of the following century also meant that English consistency was thrown off course even more by foreign printers. Allegedly, there hasn’t been a coordinated attempt to try and remove all the corruptions in the English language. This is why some foreign students still find English to be a chaotic and beautiful headache.
Haha, my grandmother and I used to think it was that too. My mom corrected me, but I think my grandma still thinks it's "fox"...
:O Omg, same! And then I was like. "Mom, is it auto-spy report?" and she was like "No..."
OMG I once read it as "chah-ohs" in school when I was asked to read something aloud and I had the smart girls laugh at me until I played it off as a joke and on purpose mis-pronounced other words as well. The rest of the class high-fived me later because no one really liked that particular teacher and they thought I was doing it to annoy her.
Mine was 'Colonel'. I still don't understand how or why it is pronounced 'Kernel'.
My mom still says all-bite and i can't convince her that it's wrong 🤷🏻♀️
Lol, Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z probably messed up every kids' pronunciation of fajita.
When I am being sarcastic about someone's LACK of subtlety, I use sub-tull on porpoise.
Ain’t nobody asking the real questions though: carmel or car-a-mel?
I say both oddly enough butit should be car-ah-mel. It is not a silent a.
Thank you!
If im not mistaken the former is the american pronunciation while car-a-mel is how the brits say it.
Mohammad Ammar what
sararehnmark Good response!
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Mohammad Ammar easy
I pronounce it care-uh-mel, because I am from the south United States, and WE SAY IT CORRECTLY, unlike the NORTH, who say it CAR-MUH-L
Congratulations, you are correct.
Ooooo, Pa-con or Pee-can.
Pa-con
I say Kah-ra-mel :)
Aragorn II Elessar haha
This question gave me the hump (camel with an R added). Surely carmel is a name?
Mary Peace haha
gadgetlala -
In the Netherlands it's fashionable to give shops English names, which are immediately butchered by us. A shop called "Action" becomes A,C,-tion and "Cool cat" becomes Coal cat. I guess someone could make an entire topic about this.
Don't feel bad, we Americans have been butchering the Queen's English for 244 years.
Actually American English is more like older English. After u guys left England the fashion for French words continued and that's why British spellings have the letter u and are more French ie check vs cheque, jewelry vs jewellery etc.
Yes, old English says Ve Hi Kl I am sure. Americans steal whatever they can from other countries. Best I heard was Jesus was American HaHaH
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why would American's care about Queen's English. Even in Germany we make fun of the british and how pathetic it must be to have ruled 1/4 of the known earth to being stuck on an island smaller than Michigan. The states make the UK look like a JV country.
Ik las vroeger minister als mini-ster en bommelding als bommel-ding....
Llewella easy
islandharper love
@Llewella en Hoi: Zo schattig!
That's like place names in America: Montpellier, VA (Mount PEAL-yer), Versailles, PA (VUR-sails), Mount Desert, ME (Mount Dessert), Topanga, CA (Toe-PAIN-guh), Tucson, AZ (TWO-sahn), Poway, CA (POW-way --> should be pronounced Pawiiy), etc.
Arkansas and Kansas- I always thought it was "ar-kansas", and Arkansas was a different place!
Cabbage Cat
I have never heard anyone say "coal cat" for Cool Cat or butcher Action... It does get a more Dutch pronunciation with shorter A's by some.
Rissie haha
For years, I thought daquiri was pronounced "duh-queer-ee". My only experience with the word was that there was a sorbet at Baskin-Robbins named after it.
Kahlo Smith what
Daiquiri, like the drink? Apparently I still can't spell it.
jordanembryo Good response!
Ain’t nobody asking the real questions though: carmel or car-a-mel?
I say both oddly enough butit should be car-ah-mel. It is not a silent a.
Thank you!
If im not mistaken the former is the american pronunciation while car-a-mel is how the brits say it.
Mohammad Ammar what
sararehnmark Good response!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Mohammad Ammar easy
I pronounce it care-uh-mel, because I am from the south United States, and WE SAY IT CORRECTLY, unlike the NORTH, who say it CAR-MUH-L
Congratulations, you are correct.
Ooooo, Pa-con or Pee-can.
Pa-con
I say Kah-ra-mel :)
Aragorn II Elessar haha
This question gave me the hump (camel with an R added). Surely carmel is a name?
Mary Peace haha
gadgetlala -
In the Netherlands it's fashionable to give shops English names, which are immediately butchered by us. A shop called "Action" becomes A,C,-tion and "Cool cat" becomes Coal cat. I guess someone could make an entire topic about this.
Don't feel bad, we Americans have been butchering the Queen's English for 244 years.
Actually American English is more like older English. After u guys left England the fashion for French words continued and that's why British spellings have the letter u and are more French ie check vs cheque, jewelry vs jewellery etc.
Yes, old English says Ve Hi Kl I am sure. Americans steal whatever they can from other countries. Best I heard was Jesus was American HaHaH
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
why would American's care about Queen's English. Even in Germany we make fun of the british and how pathetic it must be to have ruled 1/4 of the known earth to being stuck on an island smaller than Michigan. The states make the UK look like a JV country.
Ik las vroeger minister als mini-ster en bommelding als bommel-ding....
Llewella easy
islandharper love
@Llewella en Hoi: Zo schattig!
That's like place names in America: Montpellier, VA (Mount PEAL-yer), Versailles, PA (VUR-sails), Mount Desert, ME (Mount Dessert), Topanga, CA (Toe-PAIN-guh), Tucson, AZ (TWO-sahn), Poway, CA (POW-way --> should be pronounced Pawiiy), etc.
Arkansas and Kansas- I always thought it was "ar-kansas", and Arkansas was a different place!