Are there any words you feel really awkward/self conscious saying?!

[ABlindAssassin]

For me it's 'gig'. I can't say it out loud without wanting to cringe/wince/apologise. It makes me feel really fraudulent!

Am I the only one? Does anyone else have words they just can't use?

Panties. Feels like I’m choking on a pair when I hear it or say it.

I know!! "I'm going to a concert" sounds like you're going to sit on a camping chair sipping pimms at Hampton Court.

Someone upthread suggested just naming the band. So now I have to google how to pronounce Rammstein so I can converse normally with my manager 😆

The name of the company I work for, which has is quite unfortunate as I have to say it about 20 times at day.

I might have to change jobs!

Another one for me is 'kids'. But then 'children' seems overly formal. Same problem with gig and concert 🤣

When folk say their dogs are their 'fur babies'

Sorry!

(I have two dogs, they are very much adored, but they are 'the dogs', or occasionally 'the boys').

Self love, makes me think of masturbating 🤮

I saw a jumper with self love club on it, so wrong

Awesome. Especially when said with a posh British accent. I find it really jarring.

Bruschetta

I can’t say ‘crisps’ it’s the sps which feels awkward! I end up asking for ‘cris’

Dickhead.

Which is unfortunate because I really want to say it sometimes, but I overpronounce it and it comes out sounding really posh and prissy... "Dick-Head". Wish I could be one of those people who just say "dick'ed" in a cool and casual manner.

I agree about 'gig'! Is that they we feel we're not cool enough?

@Ameanstreakamilewide I'm totally with you regarding that use of 'explore'. Yuck. It makes me picture the guy having sex while dressed as Indiana Jones!

‘Rural’: I find it hard to say. Those 2 rs so close together just throws me. It comes out sort of ooorwal. Luck I don’t live really rural, I guess😉

Me too!! I can pronounce my r’s, but rural is beyond me!

ibuprofen
schedule
lure
just not sure how to pronounce them 🤔

This! My MIL uses that word and I say 'It's a weskit!'. Gilet sounds so affected.

'Weskit' would make me feel so much more embarrassed than gilet! I find abbreviated words so hard to say, and like a previous poster feeling prissy at something, I'm like that with nicknames and abbreviated words. I remember reading "fo'c'sle" in one of the ransome books and being told somehow (or figuring out) it should sound like Fock-sle, but really meant forecastle, and I was never able to say it again. Luckily I mostly read to myself those days but I was still embarrassed in my head to say it. Like if it was a sailor, I should be using it

And weskit is like that too. It would sound ridiculous to say waistcoat properly, but I can't not. So I have to say gilet. Or better yet, padded vest jacket!

Nicknames similar. I wish people would say exactly what they want to be called; and ask someone to do just that, to get over the awkwardness.

As a young child I had a snowman soft toy which I was told was actually a hand muff. You hang it round your neck and put your hands in the furry snowman bit to keep them warm. I named it, innocently, 'Muff-Muff'.

I've lived in the house we're in now for over ten years and recently discovered the fact that Muff-Muff was hanging in the understairs cupboard and had been since I bought the house (I have no recollection of how or why it ended up there, but anyway...).

The next time I video called my parents, I opened the cupboard door, aimed the phone towards the snowman and said to them "remember this?". Both of them shouted in sync "MUFF-MUFF!" followed by laughter. Then an awkward silence.

😳

I tend to go with ‘body warmer’ rather than ‘gilet’. It’s what we all called them in the 80s, so I’m sticking with it.

Same with ‘nougat’. I can’t bring myself to pronounce it ‘nogaaar.’ I go for the bluff traditionalist ‘nugget.’

That's true, I only heard jeeeelay in about 2004.

Body Warmer is what it says. I will use that. If I ever need to! Never heard the word weskit.

That reminds me of a joke on 30 Rock, the character Jenna got a part in a film, Rural Juror and nobody could say it!

I struggle with ‘Lily’. I can’t move my tongue fast enough.

And don’t get me started on ‘Lily Allen.’ No chance.

I like the word purely because of a line in the third of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books. When Sam's dad sees him on his return from his travels, he doesn't approve of Sam's armour and says "What’s come of his weskit? I don’t hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no." It makes me laugh. Anyway, I only use it with OH's mum and it's a joke 😀

Penis. Such an ugly word.
Give me a good old willy any day.