Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Don't say it like that. Say it like this!

386 replies

ginnycreeper5 · 20/11/2014 15:32

Buffet

Booh fay sounds wrong and pretentious. It should be Buh fay.

(even if the first version is correct. it sounds wrong/stupid or stoopid

Which pronunciations annoy you?

OP posts:
Noellefielding · 27/11/2014 10:39

Americans are using the original English pronunciation of 'herb's so apparently they think we can 'shut it'!

PigletJohn · 27/11/2014 21:57

I say pee-arr-no since I found it annoys DP.

BomBomBom · 27/11/2014 22:32

skelington... Angry

Thumbwitch · 27/11/2014 22:51

Tisssew sets my teeth on edge, tbh. My ex-MIL used to say it in a very sibilant fashion - graaaah!

"haitch" is endemic in Australia. They even say it on the News. I'm trying to persuade DS1 to say aitch but it'll be a losing battle when every other child and teacher says "haitch".

MollyBdenum · 28/11/2014 10:49

I want to know more about how I shpuld be pronouncing wasp, lettuce and use, if wosp, lettuss and ewes are wrong.

Wasp to rhyme with asp?
Lettuce - I can't even think of an alternative.
Use and ooze as homophones?

NoLongerJustAShopGirl · 28/11/2014 11:04

they are not wrong..

Thumbwitch · 29/11/2014 03:30

I'm completely with you MollyB - no idea how else you'd say wasp, lettuce and use - especially use! And what's a "soft u" when it's at home? Confused

Squtternutbaush · 29/11/2014 03:46

My Great Gran shops at Semi-CHem. With a CH as in chicken instead of CH as in chiropractor.

My DH regularly mentions things he was "reached" in school...

Squtternutbaush · 29/11/2014 03:47

*teached

OneDayWhenIGrowUp · 29/11/2014 04:09

Has to sit through a technical sales presentation, where the rep kept saying "substainable" instead of "sustainable". It was at least 15 times in half an hour. Really hard not to giggle by the end.

Also a good friend says "Valentimes day", we did point it out to her, but she just can't stop doing it now, every year.

Pronouncing foreign things how they should be pronounced is a funny one isn't it. You sound like a philistine if you say ree-o-dja or taw-til-la, but like a pretentious arse if you say pie-eyya or Pa-ree. Can't win.

WhoLovesTheSun · 29/11/2014 04:32

Pfeff is right i think

pearpotter · 29/11/2014 04:55

Who says boo-fay? I've never heard anyone say it like that. If I did I would laugh.

pearpotter · 29/11/2014 04:56

My boss says skedule instead of shedule for schedule. bang

EugenesAxe · 29/11/2014 05:29

Hama - that's quite a Cornish thing, where my DH is from. I do get a bit shifty when I hear moosic, mooslee, toona and yes, definitely stoo. But then they probably hate my way of saying it (the non-regional, boring way), so it's horses for courses.

The regional peculiarities my DH comes out with are mostly endearing, except for a tendency to make days of the week dees of the week. As in, Satterdee, Toosdee (gah!) etc. These ones do really grate.

On a cuter note, DD (3) has started to say cubumber.

NorksAreMessy · 29/11/2014 07:46

GRRRR, this is not a good thread to read when you wake up...I am getting my peeve on Grin

The one that makes me throw soft fruit at the telly is an advert for moiSHturiser.
Grrrrrr

CakeAndWineAreAFoodGroup · 29/11/2014 08:02

I want to know more about how I shpuld be pronouncing wasp, lettuce and use, if wosp, lettuss and ewes are wrong

Wasp is wosp
Lettuce is lettiss
Use - this depends on how you mean use. If you want to say "I use xyz cream" it's ewes.

If you want to say "use of the fire exit is prohibited unless in an emergency" then use is pronounced yooss.

Bath path and glass are pronounced Barth parth and glarss. Smile

MollyBdenum · 29/11/2014 08:48

Apparently, it was the 'you' sound that everyone was getting wrong.

SorchaN · 29/11/2014 11:05

I have no strong feelings about whether scone should rhyme with stone or with gone, but the town Scone near Perth (Scotland) is definitely pronounced Skoon (rhymes with spoon)!

Jelliebabe2 · 29/11/2014 11:40

I've skipped to the end... Had anyone mentioned luxury?

Luck-shore-eee

NOT

And this makes my toes curl

LuG-shuree

Nothavingfunrightnow · 29/11/2014 11:48

listenin
talkin
takin
gruntin
munchin

It is fucking:
listening
talking
taking
grunting
munching

Occasionally fuckin, but then I reserve that right for when I am proper pissed orf!!!

Jelliebabe2 · 29/11/2014 12:43

Mil says sammiches! And Grain-ery bread.... Amongst other things! Grin

WandaFuca · 29/11/2014 20:32

SorchaN - that's reminded me. Some while ago I was watching some lectures on Medieval England given by an American professor. Lovely lecturer, knew her stuff, etc, but when she mentioned the Stone of Scone, she rhymed it with "gone". That completely threw me, because I got an image of all those monarchs being solemnly crowned, while under the throne were some bakery products. Grin

Noellefielding · 29/11/2014 22:56

Jelli Grin yes! Lugsharee! I think that is very easily done! I think I am that oral slattern wot says it!

We have all been in such a vat of American culture for the last however many decades (hmmm deckaids? d'caids?) and as someone who spent half their childhood in the USA I commit crimes against ga- rar - ges. Is that right or is the English one gar ridge? I can never remember...

cakeandwine Grin Grin re barth, parth, and glarss I remember as a southern Jessie marrying into a Northern clan of self-righteous flat-A-ers: When they heard my son say BARTH for the first time they rolled around in their flat caps and howled and bayed at the moon in a demented storm of Northern hysteria and derision! Poor lad! He only spoke like his mum!

onlywhenigrowup Yes! Yes! we were brought up with loads of French expressions that my mother's generation of presumably snooty social climbing strumpets used maybe unconsciously to demonstrate their continental je ne sais QUOIS! Grin.

my friend's very clever partner (from the Wirral I think, that's well Northern posh isn't it?) thought that my saying things like 'raison d'être' and 'savoir faire', not that I necessarily peppered conversations with such Franglais and drollery but still, some French expressions are bloody fine imho! He was abominated by me and I found out later after they split that he would hoot to himself like a Snob-owl at my simple reproduction of the parlance of my family and home.

I probably did sound like a tit but still, he was ridiculous too in LOADS of ways!

But of all the crimes ever I can never forgive plarrrstic when that a should be FLAT as a pancake: "plasstick".

manicmum6children · 29/11/2014 23:08

My did said ice criminal instead of ice cream but its not eye Kia it ikia

florascotia · 29/11/2014 23:23

This is going back about 4 pages, but 'it's yourself I want to talk to' would be perfectly acceptable here in Scotland.

Scroll down almost to the bottom of this brief guide to Scottish Standard English. It's listed there, under 'Non-reflexive use of the pronoun self'.
www.scots-online.org/grammar/sse.htm