Words I Don't Know How To Pronounce..

may try it out next time I go there, although I don't want to buy another one

Ve haff vays of making you zay it (but God knows what reaction you'd get at the Garden Centre )

ma'am
see, I said it is possible

Just double-checked with DH just in case I am going dotty (quite possible)

He says: 'Lootenant's American ma'm!!'

DD2, who is 'into' all those types of foodstuffs, calls it 'Fal*aff*ul' with the emphasis on the middle syllable.
or 'Fal*aff*le' ?

sorry, DaphneBroon!

Thank you DaphneBroom
I will have to practise it, Vygella, Vygella, as in Volskvagen

Jalima My father was in the Navy and he always said that the Navy pronunciation was loo-tenant.
Jackyb
DH was never a lootenant commander!!!
And all the male members of my family were RN too, never heard them say loo-tenant
In fact, they are allowed to use the title after retirement and I don't know any lootenants, only leftenants.

Perhaps in the Wavy Navy?, certainly not in the RN.

I know everybody says "Wye-Jeel-ia" but there is no reason for it as there is no "i" before the final "a".

Weigela. . The genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel
As a German he would have pronounced his name "Vygel"(hard g) and NOT to rhyme with "Nigel" so we should by rights cal it "Vygella"

I thought it was fal-AFF-ull but I daresay someone somewhere knows better.

I've now found a You-tube www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lvn7iDQrqA of someone saying it (over and over again - you can definitely have too much of a good thing)

Well I still don't know how to pronounce falafel. Is it FALafel, falAHfel or what? Or is it felafel, even?

I thought it was Wij-eel-ia . Amazing what you learn on here.

Reading this thread has been fun, and I've only just come to it so I have a couple of comments on stuff that is way back.

Nelliemoser complained about the use of phonetic signs in dictionaries. These are necessary because they are international. Don't forget that foreigners use those dictionaries, too, and the phonetics are standardised. Transliterating them into an "English" pronunciation would have to be based on a standard pronunciation, which, as we have well established here, we do not have!

Segue is often used on the radio - when one subject leads into another.

Jalima My father was in the Navy and he always said that the Navy pronunciation was loo-tenant.

--

I suppose it is all right if people say words as they are written but I do cringe when someone on the radio (usually a young, educated type) says "indicktment" or "Harbing-er".

And what drives me absolutely mad is CONtribute, DIStribute. On Woman's Hour, Jenni and Jane are even saying it correctly to these people - conTRIbute, disTRIbute (again young educateds, who only know long words from books), and they still reply with DIStribute and CONtribute.

The wageelia pronunciation brings to mind Chris Packham on Springwatch deciding that Gyr Falcon with a hard G should be pronounced ger with a soft G.

Jalima - Since here in Norfolk on the other side of the country we also tend to say 'he was layd in bed'(slight accent difference), are the grammarticians wrong? Perhaps 'he was laid in bed' is correct and 'he was lying' is wrong!

Thank you, however, I may carry on calling it wageelia (except at the Garden Centre)
with a hard 'g' to make it even worse

I am attempting that one - Pweejeelez?

I though it was whyjella - to rhyme with Nigella.
But who knows?
There are smoe strange place names here. A nearby village is called Clermont Pouyguillès - one person suggested Clermont Pooey Goolies, I say Poogles.

weejeela here and at our UK garden centre.

I've just looked it up, jalima and apparently it is \wī-ˈjē-lə\ (I think that translates as why-jee-lah)

I usually call it wageelia Elegran
and I know that is not right!

I did Dumpling

I usually need 2 goes at saying 'advertisement' . I always seem to put the stress on 'tise' rather than 'vert'. 'Advert' is much easier.

When I taught EL, I'd just ignore the phonics bit because I have the remainder of a south-west accent and often didn't say it the same as the phonics. However I probably had the only group of people in Switzerland who knew how to say Edinburgh properly

I've never known how to pronounce the pink-flowered shrub called weigela. I settled for wiggler.

I notice some Bristolians say 'I was led in bed' or 'led on the sofa' instead of 'I was lying in bed'
Led where, I wonder?

Bellanona my Dad always used to say cotton easter despite knowing how it was really pronounced - I still think about it every time I say cotoneaster. It's also down to local accent I am originally from Yorkshire but lived in Middlesex (Surrey) for many years (I also worked in an office dealing with contacts all over UK) so my accent moderated, now I live in Devon & my accent has reverted to Yorkshire & I am often asked where I come from as I obviously am not a Devon native