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?

@Pemba

What about the name McGrath? I have known people (from Ireland) with this name, and they answered to 'mac-grath' with the 'th' at the end and it didn't occur to me it could be said any other way. Then there's the comedian Rory McGrath.

But recently my DF told me that it should be Mac-Graah. All to do with some Australian rugby player or something. Confused. Can anyone explain?

I deal with lots of people with Scots and Irish heritage - it's usually Ma'graah (the 'c' sound is very fleeting) with the ones I have encountered who have that or similar Mc/MacG- names. But there are some who have given it up as a bad job and just go with the English phonetic pronunciation and some for whom that happened so long ago that the pronunciation changed before they were born, as well as names that were Anglicised in either an attempt to not be noticed as being of foreign origin due to racism/xenophobia or because the census official wrote it down as it sounded to them (+/- the subject of the census not knowing how to spell it themselves).

My grandmother's surname was translated into the direct equivalent to avoid identification as being Ashkenazi or just as an immigrant family, what with the press stirring up 'foreigners coming in and taking English jobs and homes' stuff at the end of the 19th century - some things never, ever change - as was her first husband's, my grandfather's was written phonetically as it didn't make sense to a monoglot/low literacy population and became absorbed into an easily spelled English sounding name instead.

Thanks for the explanations! So it's likely that the Irish family McGrath that I knew were actually 'McGraah' as they had not long moved away from Ireland. They perhaps felt a bit diffident about explaining to people the correct pronunciation of their surname. I feel ignorant now! If they'd have just said I would have pronounced it the right way.

But it's possible some others, maybe their families left Ireland quite some time ago, just decided to adopt the anglicisation? Like that comedian.

I see where they're coming from as I use DH's - (foreign) surname and more often people get it wrong than right. But when it's someone like a call centre worker who you will probably never speak to again I can't be bothered to correct them. If it's someone you have regular contact with I would always politely correct them though.

Agree with NeverDropYourMooncup about the way Mc in McGrath is said too.
With regard to Mahoney, the ones I know say Ma-hunney as a pp said, but if they say it quickly they sort of skip over the middle syllable, or just give the merest hint of it, so it does sound like Maa-nee. If they say their names more slowly though, the middle syllable comes back

As a child I struggled with pronouncing meringue. First came across it in a book and settled on MERR-in-goo. I couldn't quite tell what it was from the description and decided it was some impossibly rare dessert or cake that only rich people could get and was entirely unrelated to my mums once a week treat from the local bakery that was called a merrang.

And I still ponder maniacal. Is it mann-EYE-ackle? Or MAIN-ee-ackle?

My colleague has been referring to a child
called Niamh as ‘Ni - Amph’ since she started school. When we were all talking about ‘Neeve’ she presumed we meant a different child entirely

There is a street near me call lynwick street. It is pronounced linnic street - similar to how Alnwick is pronounced annick rather than with a hard w. So so so many people say Lynne Wick Street, even one friend who after I say it correctly never seems to pick up the difference.

@NellyDElephant

My colleague has been referring to a child called Niamh as ‘Ni - Amph’ since she started school. When we were all talking about ‘Neeve’ she presumed we meant a different child entirely

At work once I "corrected" a name in the database. The lady was listed as Neave and I quite confidently assumed the person entering the data did not now how to spell it correctly so I changed it to Niamh. We write to the lady and she phones up to say we have her name wrong and it is spelt Neave. She was spanish I think and it is a spanish name. So much for my superior judging of a colleague who had entered it in the first place

The ‘Hermes’ posts reminded me of the estate agent who called Damocles Court Damockles.

I’ve always pronounced aubergine or-bergine because I thought the au was like aura. Only recently discovered it’s oh-bergine.

And I still ponder maniacal. Is it mann-EYE-ackle? Or MAIN-ee-ackle?

Mann-eye-ackle

There's no 'i' after the first 'a'.

@Susu49

And I still ponder maniacal. Is it mann-EYE-ackle? Or MAIN-ee-ackle?

Mann-eye-ackle

There's no 'i' after the first 'a'.

I think the problem is than there's no 'i' after the first 'a' in the word mania either, but it's still pronounced main-ee-a.

• that, not than, sorry

It's because of "maniac" isn't it? I always struggle with maniacal.

@LizzieAnt I wondered who'd pick up on that

I had a Dominic in the reception class I was teaching. The number of times I called the poor boy 'Donny Mick' was ridiculous.

We use the platform "passle" at work for blog posts. Today we had a meeting and were discussing "passles" and one of my colleagues called them parsels. Everyone else at work calls them pass-ells.

As for Mahoney - I had a colleague called Mahoney and he pronounced it as it is written. However, he was Australian.

@Susu49

And I still ponder maniacal. Is it mann-EYE-ackle? Or MAIN-ee-ackle?

Mann-eye-ackle

There's no 'i' after the first 'a'.

Both, either?

Not sure maybe depending upon who you are talking to.
Same as Caribbean, the emphasis is different to different people.

To stay almost on track but diverge slightly, everyone I know up north says garage with hard gs almost garridge even. And I say it kind of French with softer gs like garaje. But the funny thing is they never correct me, I never even notice their version and occasionally I'm called posh. So the conversation goes"awww our Dave was in the garaje all weekend, I barely saw him" replied with "what was he doing in the garridge all weekend then"
I've recently noticed it and now I get garaje into many conversations for fun.

I definitely had epitome and misled wrong like pp. Also like pp I think it came from reading a lot.

Also another one, occupied, as seen on old school toilet doors when in use. Somehow I thought it was oh-cup-eed. I think I knew the word occupy but occupied was different

Dear people, Moët is not pronounced Moway, pls stop saying it this way! The ë is a closed e, like in echo. And the t is mute.

For foreigners or non British English speakers proper nouns like Debenhams, Tottenham, Edgware, Greenwich are a bit of a challenge to pronounce correctly.
One name I don’t know how to pronounce though is Bognor Regis.

@PegasusReturns you are right, if I pronounce correctly femme, Clarins, Hermes, via, I get the look as if I am some kind of idiot!

@Trainbear

Kirkcaldy, really Kirk oddie.

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

I think it's what's that fucking smell? 😂😂😂

Dear people, Moët is not pronounced Moway, pls stop saying it this way! The ë is a closed e, like in echo. And the t is mute.

I will continue to call it that, as a pp said everyone else does and it's easier to be perceived to right than actually right sometimes 😆

@Softywalky are you sure the t is mute?

I have been saying it mowett. Your comment made me unsure but a quick Google seems to support that.
^
...^

"The correct way to pronounce it is ‘Mo’wett’.
Moët is indeed French champagne and was founded in 1743 by Claude Moët.This is where it gets confusing. Moët was born in France in 1683; however, his name is not French, it is Dutch, which is why it is pronounced thus, says Helen Vause, public relations spokesperson for Moët & Chandon in New Zealand."

Kirkcaldy is Kirk-caw-day

@LizBennet

Vietmanese. I can say Vietnam no problem, but not the longer word. Broad. I always prounouce it as b-road rather than b-rawd.

I struggle with Vietnamese too. I always end up saying VietManese if I don't concentrate hard. I only learned I'd been misnaming it a couple of years ago. I'll be 51 this year🤦🏻‍♀️