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?

Place names are so easy to get wrong. I said I was going to visit Frome (frowm) and the lady (local) laughed and said it’s froom. I wanted to die on the spot.

Controversy: I stress the -tro-, but young uns seem to stress the -con-.

Succinct

DS(15) was doing biology revision the other day and came to ask me the difference between benny-gin and mally-gant tumours. Took me while to work out what he was asking!!

My dearly departed Nan loved the Grand Pricks on the telly 'Grand Prix' .

A few on here I didn't know (Fanshaw?!) but thankfully I've never had to say them out loud.

I read celeriac before hearing it and said celery-ac.

Also the name Nathaniel in my head was Nathan-eel.

I always want to say cash-ay for cache too.

I had a lots of them as a child, but one I still have to correct myself before saying it is submarine, in my mind it's still Sumbarine!

I used to pronounce ‘Bourgeoisie’ as ‘bwour -gheese’.
It took a long time for me to hear someone use and pronounce it correctly 😳

@midsomermurderess

I struggle with 'rural', the 2 rs in quick succession and the u seem to give me a bit of a speech impediment.

I've noticed that it is easier to pronounce in the RP way as opposed to my northern roots way.

ie, in Lancashire we would normally say 'roo-ral' but 'rour-al' rolls off the tongue a bit easier i think.

My own voice is a mixed bag and I interchange frequently.

@2020in2020

I pronounced “misled” as “My-zuld” had only ever seen it written down and not said out loud before! My family never let me live it down and now we always say it that way

Yes! I still read it as this sometimes. I can't get my head around it.

Its like there are two different meanings for me so the same word is pronounced differently depending on what I'm reading. I can't even explain the difference, my brain just thinks it and reads it as my-zuld in certain situations.

Awry is another one. Just thought it was pronounced as spelled.

Subtitles on the tv made me realise a lot of my mispronunciations.

As for northern pronunciations, many people pronounce poor as 'poo-er'.
I find it difficult to pronounce this as 'pour' is much easier. Has one less syllable anyway!

I do love the way many Yorkshire people say coat : 'cort'.

...I'll get mine

Mischievous pronounced mis-chee-vee-us all the time. It’s on the year 5/6 statutory spelling list and the person who did the spelling wall display in my school spelt it wrong! Took me a while to spot it too!!

I love that others have mentioned epitome too! For me, I have been reading it in my head as “eppy tome” forever, as it is a legit word as well as epitome that I will say outloud correctly. I only found out there weren’t two different words meaning the same thing when I was 40!

Misled as mizzled, awry as aw-ree. I can remember a reading test at primary school and I pronounced 'wholly' as 'wolly', not 'whole-ly'.

Do people still pronounce psychiatrist like in older tv shows?
'sac-ire-trist'

I'm more familiar with 'sye-kaya-trist' these days.

@Spanielsarepainless

Misled as mizzled, awry as aw-ree. I can remember a reading test at primary school and I pronounced 'wholly' as 'wolly', not 'whole-ly'.

mizzle is the official word for light, dreary rain in Cumbria!

I used too pronounce xylophone as ex zy la fone

@Qwill

‘My MIL says gillet as in fillet for gilet 🤦🏼‍♀️‘

Oh god I do this too! How do you pronounce them then? I say them as jeelay and feelay.

@Qwill, are you American by any chance? Jee lay, with a shj is how I’d pronounce gilet in the French way, but a fillet steak in the UK is pronounced fill it with no French pretentions!

As a child I had read this word male VO lent, and heard the word mal EV olent and hadn’t realised my mistake until reading aloud in English classes in secondary school.

A fellow student in university stood up and presented their project on ASS-kites. Took a while to work they meant ascites (uh-SY-tees). Everyone was cringing for them as every second word seemed to be ascites. They were probably a good example of someone who'd only come across the word through reading.

@RichardMarxisinnocent

For years I thought awry was pronounced awe-ree. In my teens and early twenties I used to read the Guardian a lot and I recall reading it in there quite a bit. I knew what it meant, but I had however never heard anyone say it. Years later when I did, it took me a while to realise that it was actually the same word.

Awry is the one I’ve been mispronouncing, as awe-ree, up until a couple of years ago too.

Albeit is pronounced 'all-bay' in my head. I have to really think about it to get it right. I blame that on speaking French. Albeit should just be written 'all be it'. It would make so much more sense.

Also struggle with 'ethereal'. I mentally pronounce it 'eth-uh-reel' when I read it.

Con TROV ersy and CON troversy are UK and US as well, I think? But the US version is taking over. Same with ad VERT isment versus advert ISE ment.

I have never been comfortable saying 'mare' instead of 'mayor'.

It doesn't matter if it's correct, it feels wrong!

Frome. I thought it was like From. Ha, I can't say I forget how I was corrected already.

@Shinyandnew1

Plus the places:

Belvoir Castle
Bicester
Magdalene college
Caius college

Others like this

Glyndebourne
St John as a name
Beaulieu
Cholmondely
Alnwick

I love these

I had been mispronouncing GIF and meme until not so long ago. Scotland had lots of weird pronunciations, one of my favourites is Kirkcudbright (ker-coo-bree)