To think you don't pronounce it Grem?

[NapQueen]

It's Grayum. Or Grayam. Or Graem.

Why pronounce Graham/Graeme as Grem?

The same person also says Restrawww instead of Restaurant.

And Ay-Mex. It's Amex. It's written on the bloody thing.

[EmmaWoodlouse]

I found the mention of "Dobbies" very interesting. A long time ago I worked for this company:

www.192.com/atoz/business/paignton-tq4/garden-centres/samuel-dobie-son-limited/9164cb1a6df848a82886e42b7a5c91d9f8d93920/comp/

spelt Dobies, pronounced Dobies - with a long O. We used to get people phoning us up and pronouncing it Dobbies and I thought they were just daft.

Over the years I've seen quite a lot of mentions of "Dobbies" online and thought, oh I get it, they must be spelling it wrong because they pronounce it wrong. It's only now that I've thought of checking and actually discovered there are two different firms with almost the same name. How weird is that, two different people with almost the same quite unusual surname going into the same quite unusual line of business?

[MerchantofVenice]

Yes kate I think it is different with a Scottish accent!

But I think the original point (ages ago!) about Montana was an American poster implying all Brits muck up the middle bit, not the ending, making it Montarna when itought to Mon-tanna. But simesomeone made the mistake of using the phonetic rendering 'mon-tanner' which seemed to open a new can of worms! I just meant that most of us do know it has a short not a long 'a'...

[MerchantofVenice]

(realise that I have essentially typed a load of gibberish there with all the typos. ..)

[EmmaWoodlouse]

merchant, I think if you want American posters to understand what you mean by "ar" (a long a), you have to spell it "ah". I've been caught out by that a few times!

[MerchantofVenice]

Oh I see! That makes more sense now.

[WanderingNotLost]

As-oss. Originally the website was called As Seen On Screen.

[BartholinsSister]

I've noticed Gordon Ramsey dropping the middle syllable out of restaurant, he says 'restrunt' grrr you'd think he would know better.

[Katedotness1963]

Apologies! I seem to have got the wrong end of the stick and made it more confusing than it should have been.

[KoalaDownUnder]

Bartholins YESSSSSS - Gordon Ramsay drives me bonkers on Kitchen Nightmares with saying 'restrunt' every 10 seconds! Arrrrgh.

Is 'restrunt' a dialect thing, or just a 'him' thing?

[Beeziekn33ze]

Lorry driver in a Shropshire village was trying to deliver to Hug-hees. I was able to tell him he'd arrived at the Hughes farm! Or Hews ...

[GarlicMistake]

Thanks, Wandering!

[GarlicMistake]

Hug-hees

[LemonBreeland]

I'm in Scotland and most people here say Dobies, drives me nuts.

DH and MIL pronounce restaurant as restawrong. Since when does it end in a g sound?

[CotswoldStrife]

Dobbies is a Scottish firm originally, perhaps it should have the long O

DH worked for a company with facilities in Michigan, an American friend of ours put us right with the pronunciation - Mishigan.

I am trying to pronounce restawrong - are they trying to pronounce it with a French accent? Res-tour-ron? I can't get a g in there either!

Parents can be a rich vein of mispronunciations. Amaze-on, for instance.

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

I hate to say this as one of my best mates is a Graham, but it is an irredeemably naff name. Right up there with Nigel and Kevin for me. If i were called Graham and somebody pronounced my name 'Gram' like what Americans do, I'd be grateful.

Gram Parsons was a cosmic drug fuelled dude who invented alt-country, whereas Graham Parsons is the sort of name that a Mondeo driving accounts clerk from Woking has.

Grahams of the world: start calling yourself Gram! You have nothing to lose but your dorkiness.

[DerelictMyBalls]

People I know who work at Asos call it Ay-sos.

[dementedma]

My pet pronunciation hate is the word sixth, which TV presenters pronounce as sikth. I shout at the TV for that one.

I have a vair posh friend who pronounces really as rarely.

[TallulahTheTiger]

And then there's the good old Scottish Karl/Carol pronounciation. I was always mocked at school if mentioning Dr Kennedy from Neighbours!

[CotswoldStrife]

Or film pronounced fillum.

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

I know a year eight class who wrote all about 'brawmides' in their chemistry homework. Their teacher had a very strong Yorkshire accent (the school wasn't in Yorkshire) and hadn't actually written the word down in the lesson

[GarlicMistake]

That's brilliant, Polka