Words you realised you pronounce different or wrong?

[heartbroken22]

What words have you realised aren't pronounced the way you pronounce them? How did you find out? Tribute was pronounced try bute by me. Only realised when a child corrected me 😂

Adroit. I want to pronounce it as if I'm French (a droite - to turn right). I'm not even any good at French so no idea why.
Also the misled thing.

I’m disproportionately happy that others have the same problem with misled.

Biggest one was Hermione from Harry Potter. I’m from a working class/benefits childhood and no one I knew had a name like this. Lots of Sally’s, Michelle’s and Kelly’s. But Hermyownee? Never heard it said out loud until I was in the cinema. My middle class step mum laughed her arse off when I mentioned it after the film. So embarrassed still.

Whenever I see misled, I am reminded of an episode of Stepyoe and son when the dad pronounced it as mizzled. I always say mizzled now for the memories and fun.

Meme.... I pronounced this as meh-meh to much hilarity. Meem.... Yeah, I don't get it.

Mine too! And Felicity was Feely City.

I also did Bible readings in church from a very young age and once pronounced 'refuge' as 'refugee' - then told my parents there was a misprint! I hadn't come across the word refuge but must have known about refugees from the news.

As a young teenager I tried to tell a group of older feminists that I was enjoying reading Gin Ecology by Mary Daly.

I too thought my-zled and miss-led were separate words for years.

Still trip up on 'hegemony'

RE with the Headmistress. "Please Miss G-E what's a whore?" "It's pronounced hore and it's the sort of woman your mother would not want you to grow up to be".

LadyOfTheCanyon · Today 07:08

Quinoa

Apparently, it's not "keenwah," as I was told by a lady from Bolivia, when I was trying to find it in Sainsburys!

I pronounce Chinese places (Beijing, Sichuan, Guangzhou, Shanghai) and Chinese personal names correctly, which has often led to a confused look or a doubling down of the mispronunciation. I find it really frustrating, because almost all of the sounds in Mandarin are also present in English so it's an easy fix for people. Oh well!

I still recall with horror the sniggers as I repeatedly read aloud in class the word "whore" pronounced like war. I clearly had no clue but the teacher let me say it several times before she corrected me.

My daughter rather cutely read out the word "mature" when referring to cheese pronounced like nature, and the poor girl has never been allowed to forget it 15 years later !!!

I pity anyone learning English as a foreign language!

It's actually named after a botanist called Fuchs (German name - pronounced "foochs") so you were onto something!

Hyperbole
Archipelago

And I thought I was wrong with harbinger but i was right!

I had no idea until very recently that Maurice was Morris. I think it's Beauty and the Beasts fault.

We have a few in our family that friends have mispronounced and we say them as a joke now but I'm always appalled that if anybody heard us they'd think we didn't know the correct pronunciation.

Sach-ett for sachet
Herr-e-dattery for hereditary
Paroka for pakora

Also people who say "That's not the correct pronounciation"

Anemome. I always want to say anenome. Meh - close enough 😂

I have a similar problem with remuneration. To me it's renumeration. I don't know why.

Nepo baby the first time I saw it written down only to be corrected by a teenager.

Not exactly a word but I'm never sure how to pronounce Cos, the shop. Coss or coz?

Same with remuneration. In fact, I think I only realised it was a different word with a different meaning some time in my 40s.

Misled I thought was mizzled, awry was orr-ry

Not specifically focussed on words, but being Scottish, my misunderstanding of how English place names are pronounced is a course of much hilarity to my DH and ILs.

I've yet to meet someone who can tell me why, if you follow the rules regarding the "Cesters": Bicester, Gloucester, Leicester, Towcester etc., etc., Cirencester is not pronounced "sir-en-ster"? Baffled me for years, and led me to think that they were two different places.

However, I do feel people's pain when trying to pronounce Scottish place names.

English words with a Gaelic or Celtic origin have always been a problem. It was only recently that I found out that the word "samhain" is not pronounced Sam Hayne, but is pronounced "song", without the elongated "G" sound at the end.

I always wanted to pronounce tribunal as tri bun er al, like funeral.

Me and DP had the biggest row of our relationship over whether it's remuneration or renumeration - at 7:30am, on our way to the train station. Classy.

I was right, its remunration

These are all so lovely :) I love it that people can laugh at themselves. @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER and @Fromage - thank you so much - you have both given me a laugh out loud moment at work!

For me the never ending battling in SE England (where I currently live) is the pronunciation of yoghurt. I say yo-gurt, following the same protocols used in Yo Sushi, Yogi Bear, and yoga, yet everyone here appears to say yog-gurt, and all look at me strangely. I keep trying to learn the different pronunciation, but so far have failed miserably.

@BabyYoshke , it is doo-ur. It doesn't rhyme with sour.

Furlough - hadn’t heard of this word until the beginning of the pandemic and pronounced it “fur-loghhh” like “Lough” (I’m from Northern Ireland). A friend gently pointed out it was “fur-low”