To not realise I was saying this wrong...

[HelloBunny]

Stopped on the street today by a lady looking for a shop. She asked for the nearest “Shrov-Ski”.
Explained further that it’s a jewellery shop. I eventually cottoned on that she meant “Swaa-Rov-Ski”
Bit like “hyper-bole” with me as well... (until I heard it said on the News!) And the name “Beat-Rice”.

• have known

My mums wasn’t born in the UK and for years pronounced Peugeot Pee-oh-jot. She genuinely thought that was the pronunciation for years. We all still pronounce it that way now!

You’ve just made my day. I had a very poor standard of education and have spent all my life covering up the gaps with embarrassment. I did go to university but there is gaping knowledge, which I slowly fill as I age. Career paths were barred because of it. I am fluent in French and read the first 2 Harry Potters in French. I felt really stupid on discovering I was pronouncing Hermione incorrectly (to myself in my head) as Hermeeon. I’ve just realised I was mixing the 2 languages and had just ‘anglicised’ the French pronunciation by vocalising the H. Thus is my level of self-flagellation.

I only recently found out it’s pronounced Mo Ett not Mo Eh. It’s German not French.

Oops thought Moët was German, seems it’s Dutch.

It's not French, it's Italian.

@Fireballxl5 , I can’t agree that English largely consists of badly pronounced French.

A lot of it, especially more basic words, is from the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic root.

I once read that in Churchill’s famous ‘We shall fight them on the beaches….’ speech, there is only one word of Norman-French origin, and that is ‘surrender’.

@TheElementsSong thank you, it's fascinating.

I watched a lot of tv, still do. I think it helped me with pronunciation of words. 😆

@KirstenBlest ok I understand now. Yes I understand there is no w. It’s more of a mouthed, unvocalised w from myself as a native English speaker. I don’t think there are many or perhaps any naturally occurring words with w in them in French. Eg oiseau, which starts with the mouth in a w (in English) shape.

Love it!

When I read Harry Potter years ago in my head I read 'Her-my-own' every time.

And in Jaws I read sonofabitch as 'sonn-off-a-bitch' and had no idea what the word meant. Admittedly I was young at the time and son of a bitch wasn't commonly used in UK English. No idea why they just put all the words together into a single word!

Me too - luckily it's not a word I use often.

I used to say the word 'maniacally' incorrectly - I said 'maniac-ally' but it's meant to be 'man-eye-acly'.
My error was pointed out very to me very publicly in a meeting.

In my twenties I used to prounounce 'boucle' fabric as 'boosal' until a more sophisticated colleague corrected me - 'boo-cley'.

Yes you’re about right saying chi-poat-lay. I think saying chi-pot-al would be a misunderstanding of the original word in Nahuatl - which can often end in ‘tl’, such as ‘axolotl’. However in this instance the original Nahuatl word is chīlpoctli meaning 'smoked chili'.

I was talking to my teenage niece about Shein and was pronouncing it Sheen, up until the point she corrected me that it was Shee In. It's still sheen to me!

Ha ha I say Shine! Not that I say it much but in my head.

As a birdwatcher I hear the word 'Swarovski' a lot (they make the most fab and much-coveted birding binoculars and telescopes). Never once heard anyone say it any way other than 'Sworr-OV-ski'!

And Sean (Shawn) and Saoirse (soar shaw) are Gaelic based names just like Aoibh (eve) and often are not spelled the same in other languages.

Saoirse isn't Soar-shaw, it's Seer-sheh @Iseestupidpeople.

I thought it was Shein was pronounced Shine, rather than She-Inn or Sheen!

Or it could be Shane. So many possibilities when you have only read it rather than heard it!

No, it's Italian.
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dilettante

Yes to this.

Me too @Pinkittens but Google tells me it’s She-In. The original company name was She-Inside.

I think we as a nation have just collectively decided to permanently shorten Pret a Manger to 'Pret' and save ourselves the trouble of even trying.

So should Mackenzie be Mackingy?

I say val-lay for a parking attendant but pronounce the t for the servant in period dramas. Getting the car cleaned is val-ett-ing the car (t pronounced). It's a confusing mix, now that I think on it.

Reading the Harry Potter books as a young teen, Her-me-own (Hermione) was such a weird name to get my head around...couldn't get my head around it again when they started calling her Her-My-Oh-Knee in the movies 😂🙈