Mispronunciations

Mr Marston

Anyone ever have any words that you may have read a hundred times, only to find one day in conversation that you have been saying it wrong in your head for years?

Happened me the other day; hyperbole. I thought it was "hyper-bowl". Felt like an idiot when corrected. Another one that happened me. I was in America and I was talking to some chap and I said I'd love to go to "Yoze-might" one day. He said he'd never heard of it but there was another spectacular national park called Yosemite that I should go to. I copped my mistake and decided not to inform him of it.

A friend of mine was trying to say something was the epitome of something. "Epi-tome" he said.

So... anyone else got any examples? Might save me from doing it again.

amacachi

"Ask" is pronounced as it's spelled, there's no reason to swap the last two letters when saying it.

old_aussie

Never heard of Yozemite, but i have heard of

Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States

recylingbin

Mr Marston wrote: »

Happened me the other day; hyperbole.

Er, you were right.

KeithM89_old

How hard is it to say 'hospital' right?? its not 'hostible' :mad:

Saila

KeithM89 wrote: »

How hard is it to say 'hospital' right?? its not 'hostible' :mad:

it is when your 4 though

abouttobebanned

recylingbin wrote: »

Er, you were right.

Hi-per-bo-lay

mojesius

I'm always confused about 'issue'. Is it pronounced ish-ue or iss-ue? RTE news presenters say iss-ue, but I'm wondering if that's just for the sake of being pretentious. I say ish-ue, the way you say tissue. Is that roysh?

Saila

paging grammer police, come in her.

Neadine

Frequently hear people talking and use the word pacific instead of specific, really bugs me. Also have a bit of a pet peeve in relation to bad grammar.

Have occasionally started reading a thread and clicked out because of poor grammar :eek:

Maybe I was an English teacher in a previous life!

Mr Marston

old_aussie wrote: »

Never heard of Yozemite, but i have heard of

Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States

Ahh, thinking in phonetics got the better of me.

Fixed.

mikemac

vay ick el

Seems fine to me but others do it differently

Ren old instead of Ren o

Solphadeine

recylingbin

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Hi-per-bo-lay

Misread.
Thought he was saying hyperbole was incorrect spelling and hyperbowl was correct.



Time for be methinks

abouttobebanned

Sweet dreams kiddo

Sardonicat

Hang Sangwidge?

Used to pronounce epitome "eppy-tome" as a runnig joke when a teenager. But it became so ingrained I forgot that it was the wrong pronunciation. Left red faced, a few times.

Was at a poetry reading once years ago, full of arty-farty gob****es who pretended to "dig" it all. But their bluff was called when the proprietor of the place hosting the event qouted Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Goal" and no-one copped it. To make matters worse, he pronounced "Reading" as in reading a book.

Hate the way Jo Frost pronounces acceptable "assceptable" "That behaviour is NOT assceptable, onto the naughty step!"

amacachi

KeithM89 wrote: »

How hard is it to say 'hospital' right?? its not 'hostible' :mad:

I don't know if you're from Dundalk or just got here recently and it's driving you mad already. :pac:
Another classic in Dundalk is adding a D or a T to the end of "cousin".

Neadine

Sardonicat wrote: »

Hate the way Jo Frost pronounces acceptable "assceptable" "That behaviour is NOT assceptable, onto the naughty step!"

Oh, yes. Don't watch it very often but the first time I noticed I sat there for ages after waiting for her to say it again, just to confirm that I wasn't hearing things. Really annoying. How could you get that wrong?

Doc

I have heard specifically pronounced Pacificlly quite a few times recently by different people.

KeithM89_old

amacachi wrote: »

I don't know if you're from Dundalk or just got here recently and it's driving you mad already. :pac:
Another classic in Dundalk is adding a D or a T to the end of "cousin".

Here since birth (sadly) - i could fill a book with all the stuff you hear in Dundalk
"Watcha awwwn about??" (what are you on about)

"if yiz fall of da wall n break ur leg, dont cuming running 2 me"

Sardonicat

Doc wrote: »

I have heard specifically pronounced Pacificlly quite a few times recently by different people.

Can you be more Pacific, Doc?

up for anything

Illuminous instead of luminous. For example, she was wearing an illuminous yellow dress. Gah!

Sardonicat

Ownded instead of owned.

policarp

Malapropisms are mispronounciated...

Esel

Neadine wrote: »

Frequently hear people talking and use the word pacific instead of specific, really bugs me.

Doc wrote: »

I have heard specifically pronounced Pacificlly quite a few times recently by different people.

Some people have a problem saying words beginning with 'sp'. It's not a mispronounciation thing really, imo.

Best one is 'peculate' - it's a separate word meaning 'embezzle'....

BopNiblets

Phuket with a F sound, wrong!

flash1080

BopNiblets wrote: »

Phuket with a F sound, wrong!

F*** it, I can't believe I've been saying it wrong all this time.

Pherekydes

Saila wrote: »

paging grammer police, come in her.

I'm ready. Where is she?

Gone West

I deliberately mispronounce "pronunciation" sometimes.
pron -ounce- ei a tion
Most people don´t even notice :pac:

Terry

pickarooney

up for anything wrote: »

Illuminous instead of luminous. For example, she was wearing an illuminous yellow dress. Gah!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/illuminous?r=75

Pherekydes wrote: »

I'm ready. Where is she?

Have a competition to see who can pronounce your user name.

ClutchIt

Saila wrote: »

paging grammer police, come in her.

*Grammar

OldGoat

The Antipodes is Antip-o-des and not Anti-Podes

Snakeblood

I was confused because I'd read from a very young age, but never heard the word Ronday Voo, so I pronounced it rendez vuss.

Well, Rendezvous. But you get what I'm saying.

Oh, and Segue. I have a long and embarassing conversation in my memory about that being pronounced 'Seeeg' rather than 'Segway'

jmbkay

I remember a teacher pronouncing the name Penelope, like antelope. I corrected her that it was Pen-el-opee and she didn't like it. I was 11-12. Smartass!

jmbkay

Recently heard. Disencourage instead of discourage.

GreeBo

Dick-shone-airy
its Dick-shone-ree!

Oft-en
its Ofen.

Also, people who dont distinguish between Of and Off.

Thigh-land.

Promac

Southern Irish people tend to pronounce silent h's in words like Thailand and Thomas.

I'd disagree on dictionary but it can be pronounced either way, depending on personal preference.

GreeBo

Promac wrote: »

I'd disagree on dictionary but it can be pronounced either way, depending on personal preference.

One is UK English the other is American...
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/dictionary

sensibleken

Mr Marston wrote: »

Anyone ever have any words that you may have read a hundred times, only to find one day in conversation that you have been saying it wrong in your head for years?

Happened me the other day; hyperbole. I thought it was "hyper-bowl"

Yeah I only found out a year ago that its not hyperbowl. In fairness ive never heard the word outside America. waffle was far more prevelant.

The_Conductor

For all intents and purposes- being mispronounced as 'For all intensive purposes'........:)

Marcus.Aurelius

Promac wrote: »

Southern Irish people tend to pronounce silent h's in words like Thailand and Thomas.

I'd disagree on dictionary but it can be pronounced either way, depending on personal preference.

Expats are the worst, I've met people living in towns in Thailand and they still can't pronounce the name of the town, no matter how long they've been there.

The same goes for a lot of expats living here.

MazG

Promac wrote: »

Southern Irish people tend to pronounce silent h's in words like Thailand and Thomas.QUOTE]


The 'h' in Thomas is silent? News to me! I think some Irish accents tend to drop the 'h' sound more often than put one where it doesn't belong. For example; 'Tanks very much', 'I don't tink so' etc...


Technically more a grammar error than a mispronounciation, but 'should of' baffles me. I've only noticed it in the last few years, who decided that 'should have' could be replaced?!

Sykk

I once helped my uncle jack, off a horse =/= I once helped my uncle jack off a horse.

Choose your comma's wisely!

Gran Hermano

'Fil-um' instead of film.
Get thee back to your hedge school.

Promac

Sykk wrote: »

I once helped my uncle jack, off a horse =/= I once helped my uncle jack off a horse.

Choose your comma's wisely!

That should be capitalisation:

I once helped my uncle Jack off a horse.
versus
I once helped my uncle jack off a horse.

cherryghost

Cin-em-a

not

Cim-en-a, god damnit

ScumLord

Pretty much any computer related term, the problem is I could be saying it my way for years before I'd get to hear it said by some one who knows how to say it.

MazG

Gran Hermano wrote: »

'Fil-um' instead of film.
Get thee back to your hedge school.

Oh yeah! Fillums... I love them

For years I pronounced voluptuous as 'volumptuous'. I have no idea where I got that letter m from, but it made sense in my head at the time.

I used to say 'often' too, until someone pointed out that you don't use Lenor to 'soften' your clothes in the washing machine. I still get people giving me funny looks when I say 'ofen' though... as if I'm some sort of uneducated hick!

Snakeblood

MazG wrote: »

Oh yeah! Fillums... I love them

For years I pronounced voluptuous as 'volumptuous'. I have no idea where I got that letter m from, but it made sense in my head at the time.

I used to say 'often' too, until someone pointed out that you don't use Lenor to 'soften' your clothes in the washing machine. I still get people giving me funny looks when I say 'ofen' though... as if I'm some sort of uneducated hick!

Good lord. I thought you were wrong about soften until I googled. I have learned.

Promac

I dare say you could include most of the Dublin accent if you're including "fillum".

MazG

Snakeblood wrote: »

Good lord. I thought you were wrong about soften until I googled. I have learned.

Google - the great educator of our times....