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 😂

I thought lascivious was pronounced with an extra I as las vicious.

@SinnerBoy , I'd have said Uljum, so thanks for mentioning it. I've been laughed at for saying Bellingum.

@peachescariad , I thought Welsh people said year as ear (donkeys' years). What's wrong with tuth-paste?

Z is pronounced Th in Spanish. So it’s chori-tho.

Apparently layer and lair are not pronounced the same? The former has two syllables while the latter only has one. I have always used the one-syllable pronunciation for both - as does Mary Berry, and surely she knows how to pronounce it correctly?

Another voracious childhood reader who grew up in the 70s/80s with the limited media of the time. The word that I remember is the name Phoebe. I read it in a book as Fo-ebby and didn’t figure it out until I heard the name in real life for the first time at university.

@Sparthan , as long as people know what you mean, and you know that they're spelt differently, I wouldn't worry too much. Clearer enunciation helps clarity.

TV cookery presenters aren't generally the best examples for clear enunciation.
Delia Smith says Hoo Moos, but most people don't. A tv chef says brushetta despite having (and being vocal about having) italian heritage.

I’m Irish and pronounce the word film - filum. I was in my early twenties when an English friend pointed it out to me.

This is quite common in Irish and northern English communities. Film (fil-um), spoon (spoo-wen), school(schoo-wel)… lots of one-syllable words are pronounced with two syllables.

@peachescariad I spent a long time trying to figure out the name of a friend’s perfume, Youth Do. Do what? I thought.

Dew for me has a y after the d. Dyew.

But I was picked up at uni for sosp’n, tuth and more.

Growing up near Bristol as I did, my parents and friends all had Bristolian accents to a greater or lesser degree and so of course did I. So for years I pronounced creosote as creassault and hold all (the type of bag) as haw daw. Pale Ale was pelell, almonds were awmunds and camera was camraw. Also earings were yearings and ears were years so for example "she had some pretty yearings in her years". It was this latter one that was pointed out to me by a work colleague when I was in my late teens.

OMG yes sosp'n! 😆

My sister thought quiche was kweechy.

I thought Jamiroquai was jammyrocky - in my defence, I'd never heard them be announced on the radio or anything, I'd only ever seen their title written down.

I still don't know how to pronounce mangetout. Mange-towt? Mangehtoot? Mantou?!

Z is pronounced Th in Spanish. So it’s chori-tho.

Not in Latin American Spanish. The Z is pronounced with an "S" sound, no T sound at all. Cho-REE-so.

@eandz13 , mangy-toot. Monzh-too is about the nearest.

mange·tout

[ˈmɒ̃ʒtuː, mɒ̃ʒˈtuː]
See definition of mangetout

English pronunciation of mangetout mangetout How to pronounce mangetout UK /ˌmɑːnʒˈtuː/ US /ˌmɑːnʒˈtuː/

Chorizo is Spanish. So it’s tchor-eetho or tchor-eeso (tch like in catch)

KirstenBlest · Today 11:29

For those who don't know, Ulgham is Uffam!

I'm a native English speaker.
When I was young I met the word 'Hebrides' in a school reading book. I had heard it pronounced on the shipping forecast on the wireless, but I was thinking Heb-rides to myself. Fortunately it wasn't my turn to read and someone else got it right and that's how I learned to say 'Hebry-dees' when I see 'Hebrides'.

I say 'keenwa' now but for a while, when I first met 'quinoa' I said 'quin-oh-a' to myself. Then I suppose I heard a TV cook speak the word.

Fiery - having read the word and was pronouncing it Fee-ry - was corrected by a smug adult in my early teens.

However, I now pronounce it correctly but still read it in my head as fee-ry when I come across it on a page.

Also why is it not firey if that's how it's pronounced. It's still the same 5 letters in a slightly different order with the added benefit of actually having the word fire right there.

You can tell I'm still not over that smug sod correcting me like I was a bit thick.

Misled and awry for me too. With awry it wasn't till I was watching something on tv with subtitles a couple of years ago that I realised I'd been pronouncing it wrong (thankfully in my head when I read)

I still read them wrong in my head.

When I was young I tended to say 'halycon' in my head, when I was reading. Then I opened my eyes and realised the c came before the y and my days became hal-sy-on days. I've just looked for 'halcyon' in the dictionary - Pocket Oxford - and it says a halcyon is a bird fabled to calm the sea at winter solstice and breed on a floating nest. There are things I know now that I never knew before.

I checked before posting. I've heard people say Aln Wick for Alnwick, and secretly smiled.

I'm from a part of the UK where place names are often mispronounced, and there's no point in correcting people.

It's really irritating when, for example, someone who fancies themselves as a whisky buff go on about an Eye-lay blend, despite me saying 'It's Eye-la' each time, then them accepting being corrected by someone else.

Must be me.

How do you pronounce Alnwick please?
DS once gleefully announced that the next room to ours was 'ock up id' having only read the word and never heard it said.
I've always said pro nounce iation.

Annick, @sproutsandparsnips

pronunciation - there's no 'noun' in it.

@Stressyfab.
My father was a clergyman. That really made me laugh! Love it.

It's only been in the last couple of years that I corrected my pronunciation of hyperbole as I had only ever seen it written.
I had been pronouncing it hyperbowl. Oops.

Hygge