Pronunciations you had wrong!

[WeirdArchitecture]

I am ashamed to admit that I previously struggled with 'froth' and actually pronounced it 'throff' .....there needs to be an eccentricity emoticon, I'm not that daft, I promise!

I also know someone who until her late 40's struggled with 'canopy' and pronounced it 'canape'.

DP was convinced that Moët was 'moway' as opposed to 'mwett/mowet'.

I had also previously pronounced the composer Saint-Saëns as 'san sayens' as opposed to the correct 'sahn sonz'...or something.

Anyone have any amusing ones to share?

@KloppsTeeth

😂 glad it wasn't just me. I feel it should be hyphenated

Sooo many people mispronounce Omicron by calling it Omni-cron, even heard a dr on the news say it that way

@IsThePopeCatholic I suspect the controversy on controversy is an Americanism.

I naturally stress the tro too but since moving to America it's CONtroversy, along with aDULT, gaRAGE, etc

I can't believe no one has said 'anemone' yet!

Oh and I have it very good authority (my friend is a well regarded etiquette expert) that while it's correctly Mo-ët & Chandon if you're dropping the '& Chandon' then it's definitely OK to say Mo-way.

Just another trip up of our class-ridden mongrel language

I, however, without fail pronounce it 'de Chandon'

(*Or even Mow-ay )

I always remember the utter horror and the actual physical shudder my mum gave when I once said “park-et” floor when talking about the parquet in our old dining room 😂 I was a teenager I still can see the look on her face!

My Dad's family are Bristolian and have very strong accents. They have a tendency to put an "L" sound on the end of words which in in an "A". So my Dad had sisters named Veral and Hildal and his Mum was Eval!
I remember a TV programme where they took a poster into Bedminster in Bristol and asked people to read it out loud.
"Can you read this to me?"
"The Carl Rosal Operal Company"
"The Carl Rosal Operal Company?"
"Yes, that's right"
"It says "The Carl Rosa Opera Company"
"Yes, that's right"
They just couldn't hear that they were putting the "L" on there!

Linky din for LinkedIn (Not me, someone else!)

I remember aged eleven reading aloud in class and referring to the chaw-furr.... I was probably one of the best read kids in the school but had never heard the word out loud until someone laughed and gleefully corrected me it was show-fer rhyming with sofa....

(Chauffeur was the word)

Also knew a guy who could not get his tongue around tsunami. Always said TUSami.

Husband has been guilty of epitome, hyperbole and also strangely, pen-GU-in.

On the latter he refused to believe me that most people say pen-gwin, and I had to find an example of David Attenborough on YouTube as it was the only person's opinion he would take on it!

Turns out his mum used to get it wrong and therefore him and his sister also. Mum and sister realised many years ago, corrected themselves and no one thought to tell him! 🤣

Several in my family ask for a slither of cake when they want a small piece, instead of sliver. Even after many years of correcting and ribbing they still find it hard to say the right word. We now all say slither deliberately

@Calandor

Not me but DP recently pronounced amethyst as ah-mee-thee-ist. Made me giggle.

I say bury wrong. I pronounce it as buh-Ry not berry. No idea why but it's stuck now and I just always say it that way.

Nah, your pronunciation of bury is good. You'd fit in fine in Bury.

Kirkcaldy, really Kirk oddie.

Was famous for linoleum so was pronounced as "what's that smell?"

@Bytrgrewd

I’ve just thought of more I’m unsure about - it may be a case of RP/regional. ScAllops or scOllops? AquOtic or aquAtic?

But I’m sure I’ve heard the shellfish pronounced scOllops and the water pronounced aquotic. 😆

Lol at Kirkcaldy being described as 'pretty and artisty' - glad that one has been cleared up.

Surprised no one has mentioned Kilconquhar (Kinnuchar), also in Fife.

I pronounced vehemently in my head as ve-HEM-ently for years. Crops up a lot in Enid Blyton.... also pronounced Gwendoline from Malory Towers
as Gwen-doh-leen for quite a long time.

First time I ordered sea bass in a restaurant I pronounced it as in double bass.... and was corrected by (slightly pretentious) boyfriend at time which was embarrassing!

@Turtleoo

Several in my family ask for a slither of cake when they want a small piece, instead of sliver. Even after many years of correcting and ribbing they still find it hard to say the right word. We now all say slither deliberately

Slither sounds better though. Like its so small, it could slither away.

I remember thinking what a weird name Peen-lope was. I wasn’t very old though.

My Dbro was a voracious reader when very young so often came across words he’d never heard spoken. So he’d come out with e.g. ‘I know it was you, so you needn’t denny it!’

Not to mention Gribble-ayter (as in The Rock of) which we still say in this family.

Another great thread on here recently. Some of this I am guilty of and have made me and OH chuckle. I pronounced integral wrong for ages at the amusement of OH. I said in-tegral rather than in-teg-ral! Belvoir castle has blown my mind. I would have said English, spelling, pronunciation was most words was a strength of mine clearly not 😂 OH is a historian so do know lots of words come from the Normans, French, Latin etc etc. But wow Belvoir castle!

*of most words haha - I have just woken up!

@timestheyarechanging

In I'm SE London so know that Sydenham is pronounced Sid-num but has some friends up from Portsmouth who pronounced it Syd- en-ham bless them! Sounds better actually!

Wait, I live here and everyone I know says Syd-en-ham!

Is it like allegedly Marylebone is said “Marly-bone” but in reality everyone’s started saying it as seen.

For ages I thought it was pronOUnciation.

My husband pronounces aficionado with a hard k sound in the middle ( it’s a soft sh)

@WhatICallMyUsername

DH says beeth instead of beef. No idea why

He also says pacific instead of specific. Had a big conversation with DS about the correct pronunciation of it and he had no clue it was actually aimed at him

I used to pronounce quinoa quin-oa

Had a Home Economics teacher who used ‘specifically’ a lot ( trying to think why now !) and pronounced it ‘pacifically, with a whole class of girls twitching every time she did it.

As a kid I thought WH Smith was Whismith ( the 'Wh' bit as in Whip) and use to tell my friends I'd got my strawberry scented erasers in Whismith, couldn't understand why no one had heard of it.

The singer Sade for me was Sadie
Persephone was Percy phone

I've lived in Italy a long time, so some of the more modern British words I only know with the Italian pronunciation, example gigabyte, I was surprised to hear it pronounced as gig-a-bite, I only know it to rhyme with key, so gee-ga-byte.

Incognito is good one, I realise now I say it in the Italian way, I have no idea when I switched, so 'inconyetoe', the gn is the same sound as the 'ny' sound in canyon, so there's no G sound. Same for Gnocchi.