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Words I Don't Know How To Pronounce..

(154 Posts)
gettingonabit Sat 02-Jul-16 21:32:40

Like tuberose, for example. Is it tuber-ose, or tube-rose?

Another one is aspartame. Is it aspart-aym? Or aspart-amee?

And don't get me going on pedagogy Is it peda-godgy or peda-goggy?

And pedagogical? I don't even want to go there!

And as for uranus- when I was a kid it was always your-anus. Cue giggles round the classroom..

It took me until I was in College to realise that epitome is not pronounced eppy-tome and to this day I don't know if segway and segue are the same thing.

Any more you can think of, o wise ones?

Elrel Sun 03-Jul-16 16:58:22

GJ - an elderly relative used to tell us all about her gastric stomach. Me? I guess I have a cardiac heart nowadays!!
US military seem to be responsible for nucular and negatory.

Mumsyface Sun 03-Jul-16 16:43:38

Nelly moser, you need to get a phonemic dictionary app that will say the words for you, or learn the phonemic alphabet.

granjura Sun 03-Jul-16 16:39:04

gettingonabit- oh I see, lol.

Nelliemoser Sun 03-Jul-16 16:34:52

gettingonabit I pronounce "tongue" as tong! why should it be "tung"? and does it matter? wink
I do tend to say las-ag-ne as a sort of joke but I know that is wrong. It does help with spelling though.

I think Quinoa is pretentious however you say or eat it. Too gritty for my taste.
My daughter pronounced bannisters as bunnystairs when she was small.

gettingonabit Sun 03-Jul-16 16:15:16

granjura I think nannymarge means ciabatta.

poshpaws Sun 03-Jul-16 16:06:27

I thought Segway was a piano brand? lol

Christinefrance Sun 03-Jul-16 16:04:46

Yes accept/except are so often confused as are diffuse/defuse
affect/effect. Malapropisms are great as in erotic/exotic and then there are Spoonerisms , isn't language wonderful.

granjura Sun 03-Jul-16 16:00:50

??? what do you mean?

Nannymarg53 Sun 03-Jul-16 15:56:17

My pet hate is Kee-a-batter! ??

granjura Sun 03-Jul-16 15:49:18

AGgain, 2 days after arrival in digs in London, needed some more hangers for the wardrobe (or is that cupboard?) - and went to the local shop and asked for 'cloff hangers'- the Indian lady just couldn't understand, and there I was gesturing to try and explain- and one little lady behind me said 'I think she needs some hangers for her clothes'.
That's how you learn a language, thrown in a the deep end, full immersion- get on with it until your head hurts and feels like it's going to explode- and then it all falls into place.

granjura Sun 03-Jul-16 15:46:27

malapropisms- love that word ;)

But again they depend on where in the UK you live (like the word 'tea' as in come for tea)- or American (as in fag, fanny, pants, etc)...

As a French speaker, always makes me laugh when my very posh niece always uses 'ménage' (household - as in the British 'ménage à trois') for 'manège' (horse riding enclosure).

The use of 'prostrate' for 'prostate' is funny. And so many more... One neighbours told me recently he was very worried because he had 'blood pressure' and I thought he would have to be a lot more worried if he didnt'.

Isn't language wonderful? (add an 's').

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 15:46:26

I like words though.

gettingonabit Sun 03-Jul-16 15:40:12

lizzy where I grew up it was "clors" too; so the singular HAD to be a clo".

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 15:34:44

My son used to think if you wore clows (clothes) then his T shirt must be a clow! It's just lazy speech, I suppose...

ONEphilrogers Sun 03-Jul-16 15:32:54

Awry - I always thought it was or-ree, but that was just my pronunciation gone awry

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 15:32:12

My children used to think I carried ham in my hambag. I got quite used to saying, "Pass me my hambag please (there's no ham in it...)"

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 15:29:49

From Liverpool you'd call it your tong, gettingonabit. My neighbour eats a sam-nidge while I have a sam-widge.

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 15:27:19

Thee-uh-tuh where I'm from, firmly in the north...

gettingonabit Sun 03-Jul-16 15:25:46

I don't know how old I was when I finally realised "tongue" is pronounced "tung" and not "tongyiew".

When I was growing up, chimney was always chimbley. Arthritis was always arthur-ituss.

icanhandthemback Sun 03-Jul-16 15:21:16

I'm just finding out how many words I say wrongly. shock Most of my mispronunciations are down to reading words without having heard them first. I still can't remember how to say "integral". Is it inter-gral, intee-gral or integ-ral?

My mother drives me mad by saying "ta-tics" instead of "tac-tics" and I drive my offspring mad by mispronouncing "theatre". I don't know why but I always thought it was "th-ee-eter" not "thee-ah-ter" and nobody has ever corrected me but my children!

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 15:21:09

My mother recommended tinned rataquill to me!

Indinana Sun 03-Jul-16 15:18:39

My dear MiL always used to say cerstificate, and talk of the builders now starting the 'second phrase' of the housing development. Her sister was another one - I remember being genuinely puzzled by the dessert she was telling me she'd had the previous evening. It was, apparently a 'merring-gyew'. It took me a while to realise she'd had a meringue grin

Bellanonna Sun 03-Jul-16 14:36:42

Ana yes, I'm puzzled too

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 14:31:05

Oh! The self check out in Morrison's says, "Morrison's More card excepted" and I always mutter back, "I think you mean accepted, my dear!"

lizzypopbottle Sun 03-Jul-16 14:26:59

This thread got me thinking about malapropisms. A dear friend once asked me to come and look at a sick goldfish that was looking very "emancipated" and mentioned someone always graviating towards someone else. My pet hate at work was science teachers who couldn't pronounce nucleus but always said nuculus. And I agree with another poster (sorry can't remember who) that people crate or cuh-rate nowadays rather than create. Some people say pacific instead of specific and I hate sickth instead of sixth!