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.

Words your parents pronounce/use that drive you CRAZY!!!

632 replies

Notsurehwhattdo · 12/12/2023 20:25

My parents say ON-velope. Rather than EN-velope. Cin-a-MAR, rather than Cin-a-ma.

Slightly differently, they also say 'trod on' rather than 'stepped on'. I know it's not incorrect, I just hate the posh way they say trod and think it's a horrible word!

All the above drives me crazy! Aaaaarrrghhhh

Inspired by the theatre thread!

OP posts:
enchantedsquirrelwood · 13/12/2023 08:33

DataPestle · 12/12/2023 22:58

Some of these are funny or understandably frustrating, like Germably for Jeremy or abso-yootly, but other posters are upset about perfectly normal pronunciations of the time: “Nazzy”, “peter bread”, “Ibittsa”, “onvelope” and “darter” were all perfectly usual ways of saying Nazi, pita bread, Ibiza, envelope and data at a certain place and time. I wonder if it’s because we don’t hear many voices from the past, these days, and dialect is becoming so globalised and flattened so if we hear someone say it differently to us we’re ashamed of their error?

If you listen to old Agatha Christie plays, the characters all talk about “an ‘otel” - it sounds so odd now, but I wouldn’t say they are embarrassingly ignorant. I really enjoy the range of pronunciations in conversations with a range of ages/areas (although “cargigan” does make me absolutely gag, to be fair).

I think some of it is regional too. My dad was a jazzy Nazzy, but he was from Lancashire and pronounced it with a short a because of that. I probably did until I started learning German. I am not sure there are any regional accents in Germany that would pronounce it with a short a but I could be wrong!

enchantedsquirrelwood · 13/12/2023 08:43

I used to have a boss who said Arch Lever file

I was sitting here trying to think why that was wrong. And then it dawned on me. I am a bit slow this morning Grin

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/12/2023 09:00

Lammveg · 12/12/2023 20:40

Slightly off topic but close enough...

DD is getting her first few teeth and my mum says 'awww look at your toothy pegs!'

The control needed to not scream is immense.

😱 - it’s toofy pegs!

OP, what on earth is ‘posh’ about saying ‘trod’? It’s only in your head. It’s just the entirely inoffensive past tense of ‘tread’.

QueenOfMOHO · 13/12/2023 09:05

Pragnant instead of pregnant, to be fair, he had previously suffered a stroke .

DH says "dump" instead of tip or recycling centre.

QueenOfMOHO · 13/12/2023 09:07

soundsys · 13/12/2023 02:44

Liverpool?

Wigan.

motherissueshelp · 13/12/2023 09:07

Modren - modern

Dezember - December

Cannot remember my SILs name and will continually mispronounce it despite us all being close.

Drives me mad

hookiewookie29 · 13/12/2023 09:12

My Mum says oction instead of auction,and reaching instead of retching!

ElsieMc · 13/12/2023 09:16

My late dm had family in America in Miami. Only she pronounced it My-Army. I used to wonder what she was going on about.

DappledThings · 13/12/2023 09:21

DH says "dump" instead of tip or recycling centre.
That's normal isn't it? I say tip more often but wouldn't bat an eyelid at dump.

Furiousfive · 13/12/2023 09:31

My mum is learning Italian and makes a point whenever we go to a cafe (in the UK) and order food to ask for a 'panino' rather than 'a panini'. I know it's technically correct as panini are plural, but it makes me cringe.

She also puts on a bit of an Italian accent when asking for a panino and a cappuccino...

IthinkIamAnAlien · 13/12/2023 09:33

This is about changing times. You'd never get a job if you didn't speak proper (which is what these quoted parents are doing) right through to the 80s.
Look up some kids tv, Follyfoot Farm was a popular pony series (it's on YouTube) in the late 70s, the accents of the actors are hilarious but normal for the time. 😁

Cocteautriplet · 13/12/2023 09:33

Mum says ‘pitza’ instead of pizza … nails down blackboard!

Inthebleakmidwinter2 · 13/12/2023 09:34

IrresponsiblyCertainAboutSexualDimorphism · 12/12/2023 21:58

West Yorkshire.

See also Brattford/Bradford.

Interesting! The person I know who says this is from Dorset though.

ChristmasTreeMagic · 13/12/2023 09:37

My mother says 'mooo-zli' instead of muesli and solFadine instead of solpodeine - both used to drive me crazy but now I think it's a bit endearing & I'd miss it if she stopped

TheFeistyFeminist · 13/12/2023 09:53

I've picked up some regional variation as I'm a largely RP speaker and my husband is (gasp) Northern.

I think eggsams for exams is in that category.

My mother was raised London-but-snobbish and says things like Onvelope and Cinemarh. Despite her best attempts at making me have a telephone voice I say ENvelope and Cinema (short a).

Then there's the category of "silly things we say differently in our family" like kipper tie for cup of tea. Thank you Jasper Carrott.

ManateeFair · 13/12/2023 10:00

My mum, for reasons none of us can fathom, pronounces 'coupon' as 'queue-pon'

Hughs · 13/12/2023 10:05

coldcallerbaiter · 13/12/2023 03:34

My mum thinks dildo is a word like silly-billy and says don’t be a dildo to my kids, who in their teens are hysterically laughing…

Friend's mum thought twat is the same as twit and was mortified when she called the vicar a twat and he gently put her straight.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 13/12/2023 11:20

I say on-velope. I've never heard anyone say en-velope! That's wrong.

Unless you say 'on-ve-lopp', you're just as wrong. At least fully Anglicising it to en-ve-lope makes sense for an English speaker.

The "en" in "envelope" is pronounced "on", as is the "en" in "en route" and "en suite". These words are from the French language.

Yet if you use 'en-suite' to mean a toilet/bathroom attached to a bedroom when talking to a native French speaker, they won't have a clue what you're talking about - unless they're already familiar with this (French-sounding) English term.

Mine says home and bargains ? And I still can't work out if she's right or not haha

I wonder if she's confusing it with B&M Stores? I have to be honest, the two shops are so similar that, to me, they are interchangeable; I always have to stop and think which one I'm talking about.

Mum says (whilst watching tv) "oh he just fisted her" as a pp said, rather than punched.

My mum thinks twat is the same as twit. No matter how many times we correct her. Still, the teenagers enjoy it 😀

Those are hilarious Grin

Still, David Cameron made the exact same mistake once with twat/twit - when talking about Twitter, he commented (on air) that "Too many tweets make a twat", believing that twat is an innocent family-friendly word, just like twit.

Also, David Dimbleby once said on Question Time that Margaret Beckett (who was on the panel) 'had been fingered' over some controversial issue. He meant it in the sense of challenged/criticised, maybe 'fingers have been pointed' - but the almost-silent reaction from the audience was golden! Margaret herself didn't know where to look either.

Also makes me cringe when people who aren't French pronounce 'restaurant' with a French accent (sort of like 'rest-raw'). Always sounds so pretentious.

My mum is learning Italian and makes a point whenever we go to a cafe (in the UK) and order food to ask for a 'panino' rather than 'a panini'. I know it's technically correct as panini are plural, but it makes me cringe.

Why is it pretentious to pronounce a French word in the French way? Do you talk about people who drive a Renolt or a Pyoojiott - or an Ordi, for that matter?

Similarly with Italian, it just adds fuel to the 'Little Englander' mentality when we adopt a foreign word, but then think that we're too important (or too stupid, as the rest of the world then assumes) to use it properly?

I'll bet, if you heard a German talking about the world-renowned playwright 'Villiam Shar-kes-pay-AHR-ruh', you wouldn't think they were just 'not being pretentious'.

How do you feel about the many (baffling) English-speaking people who will refer to the owner/proprietor of a restaurant as a 'restauranteur' (however they pronounce it) - when there is no 'n' in the French word in the first place?

Half of this thread is criticising people who don't pronounce a non-English word correctly and the other half is upbraiding them for doing the opposite!!

Tuth paste
Tuth brush

It's tooth. Two oos make an ooooh sound

You mean the same as in look, book, (unless you're a Scouser), rook, soot, foot, moor, door? Would you describe Delia Smith as a very 'gooooohd cooooohk'?

DH says "dump" instead of tip or recycling centre.

That's a perfectly normal variation of 'tip'. If you Google my town name followed by 'tip' or 'dump', the first result for either of them is '[my town] household waste recycling centre'.

It's also the source of the old dad joke "Where does the Lone Ranger take his bulky rubbish? To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump." Grin

My Mum says oction instead of auction

So does David Dickinson, who has spent decades of his life in making a very successful, high-profile career around the world of auctions.

I think it's mainly down to his Cheshire(?) accent, but I'll bet that many a Bargain Hunt and Dickinson's Real Deal fan has heard the way that the respected expert pronounces it and has thus questioned/changed their own instinctive pronunciation from the more common 'ORK-shun'.

Incidentally, one of the most common and irritating mispronunciations you hear all the time is (ironically) the word pronunciation as 'pro-NOUN-see-ay-shun'!

WhyamIinahandcartandwherearewegoing · 13/12/2023 11:25

Sauvblanctime · 12/12/2023 22:54

My mum says fisted instead of punched 😭

This is wonderful - just love mums 🤣🤣🤣

Jifmicroliquid · 13/12/2023 11:31

I think it might be a north/south thing but I say exactly how it is spelt, where as I hear people from the south say “ezzactly”

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 13/12/2023 11:34

WhyamIinahandcartandwherearewegoing · 13/12/2023 11:25

This is wonderful - just love mums 🤣🤣🤣

They're (often) fabulous!!

I also lament the way the wonderful word 'biff' has fallen out of common usage. 'Biffed' is to 'punched' as 'fib' is to 'lie' Grin

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 13/12/2023 11:41

One of my East-Midlander DGMs used to pronounce soup with two syllables - as 'SOO-up' - as well as the very common (for the region) 'code' instead of 'cold'.

"Come on, let's finish us soo-up before it gets code".

All of my DGPs would also add 'n' instead of 's' to pluralise the word 'pair' i.e. 'two pairn' rather than 'two pairs'.

crozzfit · 13/12/2023 11:42

My mother used to call KFC JFK

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 13/12/2023 11:47

Jifmicroliquid · 13/12/2023 11:31

I think it might be a north/south thing but I say exactly how it is spelt, where as I hear people from the south say “ezzactly”

It's odd, though, as there are people on this thread who are criticising those who say 'EGG-zit' for 'exit' - presumably they are opining that 'EX-it' is correct; however, I've never heard anybody in real life say anything other than 'EGG-zact' for 'exact', even though exit and exact both use the 'ex' sound followed by a vowel?!