What would you say to a friend/colleague who pointed out, kindly

[MadameCastafiore]

That you were mispronouncing a foreign word?

Just wondered if I am touchy or this is another time when she says something to me and I should stand up for myself?

Hmm. But that could be construed as being patronising, could it not?

erm, hardly any point in not saying the word now as she will have worked out from the thread that it's her you are talking about anyway. what is the word?

God, I've been laughing at my dh for years for his inability to say sauvignon blanc properly. Occasionally I may even swear at him too.
It's rather trying to have a degree in another language as it is so irritating when peopel mispronounce words.
I have just winced through my dd's revision for a French test.
Doesn;t sound like any French I was taught.

yep that does come across as quite smugly patronising.

Can someone confirm the correct pronunciation of ciabatta? My mum and sister insist on calling it chee-a-batta whereas I thought its just cha-batta as the "cia" at the start of Italian words is what makes the "cha" sound? Am I right?

Sorry but this sounds patronising to me too.......I wouldn't have sworn at you but I would not have been happy about it.

I would have done what Sauvignonblanche said and somehow incorporated the word pronounced correctly in a sentence. Or I would have let it go.

Curly....apparently it's see-a ba-ta

Back to the OP, unless you REALLY didn't know what word she was saying then you were rude to point out her mistake. Just say it correctly next time you say it and she will "get it" then without being shown up by a know-all!!!

Shush -

GetOrf: "penne as in Sean"??!?!?!?!

You sound patronising. My MIL says "tagliatell." I don't correct her, I know what she means.

I would probably tell you to fuck off as well, like I did to the person who was telling me, very patronisingly, and wrongly, how to (mis)pronounce "chorizo."

Are you one of those ponces who asks loudly and smugly for a "panino" as well?

Curly, as far as I know you're sort of both right :) There is a definite 'y' sound in there and if you were to exaggerate it it would sound a bit like "chee-ya-batta" but Italians run those sounds very close together so it's more like "chya" as one syllable, rather than "chee-ya" as two syllables.

Penne as in Sean? Porn?

Yes, MIL calls Thai food "thigh food". Thought she was joking at first then realised she'd just never made the connection between the world Thailand which she pronounces correctly (i think!) and Thai food. I could never point it out but am always confused as to why she cant "get it" when we say we went to a Thai restaurant. Later on in the conversation she'll refer back to the thigh food.

She is lovely but not very worldly-wise!

If the 'you are stupid' subtext came across in the 'kind' correction then that would be very irritating.

I'm imagining something like this:

Colleague: 'I'm making tirmisu tonight'
OP ' Do you mean tir- a -misu?'
Colleague 'Oh fuck off you stuck up cow'

If it went like this I'd say that the OP was being very patronizing and unnecessary and that the colleague had a bit of a potty mouth but was quite normal to be irritated.

Getorff have you seriously come across someone who pronounces penne as PORN!

Or have I been mispronouncing Sean all these decades...

Was it bruschetta?

Ok I get it I'll just ignore it next time.

Oh and I'm not a ponce, evil, smug or rude just thought she would rather say it correctly than sound stupid pronouncing something wrongly. I would rather someone point out to me if I was pronouncing something incorrectly.

i think she meant sean as in sean penn (sp?)! not pronouncing penne as porn like sean (shawn)! although i am from NI and sean and porn are not remotely the same in pronunciation.

So if I came up to you and said 'you know it's pronounced penne, like sean (which I still can't figure out)' you'd say thanks?

I doubt it. You'd probably be embarrassed and therefore defensive.

Which is what she probably was.

'thigh' food?
Bless her. How do you keep a straight face?

Gilets get a mangling don't they?
Beloved by jaunty middle aged Per Una types who have no idea how to say the word properly.