Mispronounced words

[PuffPuffSea]

I have embarrassingly only just realised that "ballache" isn't pronounced ballash... obviously I know the word ballache but I'd always pictured it in my mind as two words or at least hyphenated.

Are there any words that you mispronounce due to only having seen it written down and not said aloud?

Place names aren't really in the same category as regular word mispronouncements imo.

If you've never heard of a place eg Towcester there's no way you could somehow know how to pronounce it by magic, that's not a surprise.

The same is true for a lot of the other words already mentioned, segue, of course people will get that wrong unless it's pointed out.

All of this is forgivable, what is not is the American pronunciation of aluminium - how on earth do they explain that.

WillowySnicket: "I always read 'banal' as bay-nel. My DH creased himself laughing and said it was 'buh-nahl'"

"Creased lauging". What a delightful person he is. Too difficult for him just to tell you it has a different pronunciation? "Bay-nal" wouldn't be too unusual a pronunciation of banal (even if it's not the correct one).

Often 'incorrecty' pronounced words, that people get snooty about is down to accents. (Don't know is banal is one of these words. It's just that happened to be the first post where I registered someone being snooty.)

Pass-tees are also nipple covers

'Expresso' for the coffee drives me nuts!

As a kid I pronounced meringue as merring-gyoo and thought they were a type of fish.

@PattiStanger Aluminium is the British spelling. Americans spell it aluminum which was the original spelling/pronunciation so really they're right on that one..!

It's often that the word derives from another language so most people have to learn how things are said

Quinoa was the first thst sprang to mind, but I learnt these along the way in my life:

Beauchamp, lived in Acton Beauchamp)
St John, (miserable cow on the phone at work one day when I was about 18 'educated' me
Belvoir - Jilly Cooper Novel .... and now live nearby

Though I doubt any Saint Johns actually pronounced themselves bloody Sin-Jn

@ivegotthree

I think Red is right. At least, the dictionary says disorientate.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disorientate

Sorry, @ivegotthree, misread your post. As you were.

it's remunerated

Well, that's my mind blown! Every day is a school day...

I was well into my thirties before I realised that the US states of Arkansas and Arkansaw were the same place.

And thanks to this thread I'm aware that I do pronounce biopic and myopic to rhyme, but I don't know which one I'm mispronouncing.

Anemone.

I thought Dory and Nemo were wrong and I was right. It had always been anenome for me.

Re: St Pancras- my boss, a highly educated Londoner always calls it Pancreas and when a young colleague said "erm", she said everyone knows it's Pancras- but proper Londoners say Pancreas as a sort of in-joke.

I agree that the insane pronunciation of some place names can't really be included in these lists, and nor really, can foreign words. We can't want to bash Delia over the head with her own frying pan for saying "chorizzo" (which she does) unless we do the same for people who don't say "Paree" or "Barthelona"

‘And thanks to this thread I'm aware that I do pronounce biopic and myopic to rhyme, but I don't know which one I'm mispronouncing.’ It sounds like you’re pronouncing them correctly then? (Or am I saying them wrong?)

Biopic is bio-pic, not bi-opic to rhyme with myopic.

It took me many years to realise that what I read as eppy-tome was the same word I had heard people say - and used myself as ep-ih-toh-mee (epitome.)

I did correct one of my Dutch colleagues recently who was talking about arshitektiture, to point out it's a hard c(h) in architecture, which he seemed to take on board, but had since forgotten over Christmas - I didn't point it out again yesterday.

@outcomethewolves

Apparently its bio-pic and my-op-ic, but the American is bi-op-ic (according to the Cambridge and Oxford online dictionaries).

I have to mentally prepare myself to not read / say advertisement as advertise-ment.

I’ve only ever heard biopic as bi-opic. I’ve never heard anyone ever say bio-pic. How strange!

@Lovingbenidorm

What did I say that was funny?!

I hate it when people say drownding instead of drowning. My husband, who is a dr found out yesterday that it's inset day not insect day🙄

As a child I loved the 'Legend Of Sleepy Hollow' I was a teen before I realised it wasn't pronounced
Leg End.

A friend of mine refers to the pub chain as Witherspoons instead of Wetherspoons. It makes me seethe

Insect day? Haha! What did he think was happening on insect day?

@BookMeOnTheSudExpress

I'll agree on the place names, but I think our language has too many root languages to disapply foreign words. I mean, chauffeur is a French word by origin, but if I heard it pronounced with a ch as in cheese by an English person I would consider it a mispronounciation.

I've no idea what goes through that boys brain. He thought when I used to say Jeez Louise I was taking to myself because that's my middle name, not because it's a well known phrase. He knows no sayings/song words at all 😂 caught him yesturday singing this world is on fire instead of this girl is on fire. He thought it was just a really dark song 🤦🏼‍♀️😂

@BitOutOfPractice both my parents do it, drives me madb