Things that you thought were said differently

[BabyLlamaZen]

When I first read Harry Potter I thought it was 'hermy-own' - was gobsmacked when I heard how it was pronounced when the films started coming out! I also thought mirror of Erised was pronounced 'i-rye-sd'

@lootsharks , not in mine! I can't really describe it, maybe that Wonder sounds like "wunder " and Wander has a softer O? I grew up in the north west then moved to the south as a mid teen

Wonder is pronounced wunder and wander is pronounced like a magic wand so it's wander.

I thought they would both be one-der.

That reminds me of the Tom Hanks film 'That Thing You Do', where the band it revolved around called themselves 'The Wonders', but spelled it 'The One-ders' to look a bit more cool. The problem was that everybody always called them (and comperes introduced them as) 'The Oh-NEE-ders' !

@EatsShootsAndRuns

Wonder is pronounced wunder and wander is pronounced like a magic wand so it's wander.

to me they are both wand like magic wand.

I used to say reeohjar and kwagmire... I still blush at my ignorance

I always struggled with halcyon and read it as hal y con as a child.

Do you mean it isn't kwagmire? That's what I say. What should it be?

@turquoise50
Thank you! I really appreciate the time taken to explain - that's so interesting.

For what it's worth, I've always said "forrid" although I've never questioned why!

Ofc quagmire is kwagmire what other way is there of saying it fgs? Please don't try and tell me it's kwOgmire because it really isn't.

Quagmire? Giggity.

(family guy joke)

This thread is the best thing I've read in lockdown.

I adore language and think dictionaries and thesaurus' are the best books on the planet.

I'm loving the fact that people are being re-educated about pronunciation and learning new words, welcome to the world of language. Once you've entered it's really hard to leave, new words bring such joy.

I adore language and think dictionaries and thesaurus' are the best books on the planet.

Only the ones that don't forget to include the word 'sausage'

Learning about the facts of life from a book, I thought pubic was public and penis was pronounced pen-is

I think kwag mire and kwog mire are like the word either. Both pronunciations are acceptable.

I shall return interfrastically......

Same here. Hermy own for Hermione until the movie came out.

I thought Calypso was callie posso.

I also just found out about Arkansas actually being pronounced Arkinsaw within the last 6 months. I thought they were two different places.

@ladybee28 I love 'glove department' it sounds so official 😂

I've always said PRIV a see for privacy but more and more I'm hearing PRIVE a see which has me questioning my pronunciation.

Same with ad VER tis ment I keep hearing ADVER tize ment. I say the first one.

Pronunciation/pronounciation I know it's the first one but often see it written as the second one.

Watching the Borgias, there’s a character called Chezzaray... took me way too long to realise his name was Caesar.

I still don’t understand why segue is pronounced segway. It’s not like we say leagway on tongway. No, I’m not having it.

I’ve just remembered a friend’s Mum who couldn’t say Foccacia.

She used to say;

“pass the fuck..fucka...no wait...the fuck-OH..no FUCK-AY, it’s AY isn’t it? The Fuckay...no that’s not right. Let me look at the packet there. What are you all smirking at? Don’t be so bloody cheeky. Do you think it’s funny I can’t pronounce posh things? I’m not Italian! Right. PASS THE FUCKERCHEEUH. NOW.”

Talking of focaccia Namechange I was in the staff room a few months ago and someone asked another member of staff what she was eating and she replied fowca cheeah. It took me a while to figure that one out I had to turn round and look.

@kittyhello

I've always said PRIV a see for privacy but more and more I'm hearing PRIVE a see which has me questioning my pronunciation.

Same with ad VER tis ment I keep hearing ADVER tize ment. I say the first one.

Pronunciation/pronounciation I know it's the first one but often see it written as the second one.

PRIV a see is the UK pronunciation PRIVE a see is the US

For advertisement, similarly

Ad VER tis ment UK
AD vertize ment US

Thanks for that MillicentMartha it's probably to do with having a lot more exposure to American tv/TikTok/YouTube etc. My dc say bug instead of insect and truck instead of lorry.

My DS is the same. He said vayce for vase the other day. 🙄

Wonder and wander are different in normal people's accents

I know, I'm so provincial (sigh)

I remember when I was little our school had a display of homophones and I couldn't work out why "hour" and "our" were appearing next to "are"...

And there are people who use the phrase "one and done" because it rhymes [mindblown]

(we'd better be careful or we'll all spend the rest of the night muttering pork-fork-pork-fork to ourselves)