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

[Notsurehwhattdo]

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!

My dad says 'nothing weird or wonderful has happened ' every time we're on the phone and it does my head in. Several times a week for a decade.

That reminded me of George Costanza's gym teacher, who deliberately mispronounced his name. So, he'd call George Can't-stand-ya.

My father in law pronounces it like stiff-coat.

I mean...🤷🏻‍♀️

My Dad's from Dublin, and says fill-em.

I’m not sure where abouts you’re from but in the UK it should be tope like rope. It was more the aggressive nature she said it with that took me back more than anything but in hindsight that was the very least of her issues.

No, they're not pronounced the same at all!

Mc is pronounced like 'muc' but shorter u sound.

Mac, is obviously, pronounced 'mac".

Just don't mix up the spellings. Once, I spelt a hospital consultant's surname Mac instead of Mc and his medical secretary got quite short with me! 😂

My PIL like to use the N word and have called me it in occasion 🙄😞

Ffs, that’s shocking. So sorry @Underthesea65.

I’ve never heard it pronounced like that, except if people can’t pronounce “th”. It’s Keith-ley.

My mum pronounces puberty ‘POO-berty’ and cumin like ‘COO-min’. She insists this is correct. The puberty one in particular makes me shudder!

DH says "yerrs" instead of years and somehow says that word far more than I would expect in normal conversation. So annoying

Not American.

I guess at some point I assumed it was pronounced like ensemble, entendre, entrepreneur or entourage etc.

Oh and step mum pronounces duvet, "dewvet" Ewww!!

Chimley instead of chimney. Vividly remember my Y4 primary school making me constantly sound out and blend letters together in a reading book for a good half hour to try to get me to say it properly- I thought that was how the word was said.

See also: SEAL-otape instead of sellotape. Makes sense given its function. Got to second year of being at uni before a collection of friends not-so-kindly corrected me.

Al timers for Alzheimer’s . Both parents . I’ve given up trying to explain …

To be fair cinema is directly taken from french, and fairly recently too, so it absolutely should be cinema (short a).

Regarding mcdonalds, even though it's an American brand, why to Americans have to say Mick Donald's? Ditto for Old Mick Donald.

Argh!

More french facts: taupe is french for mole, the animal. It is pronounced somewhere between tope and tawp, but we're not in france and I use the colour so rarely I just don't know what to do. I stick with beige. 😆

In additions to a PPs TAWP I raise you my DMs MORVE

Some older generations with a county Limerick (Ireland) accent have a rather fabulous pronunciation for Arthur. They say Awuoooor-thur with exceptional levels of marble rolling (like the sound in bauble, but really exaggerated) rather than Ahr-thur.

It's a vowel sound totally out of place with how they normally speak. My lovely mum says it, but she's not alone. It makes me cringe and also admire them for totally owning it!

Then my dad has his amazing telephone voice which is totally at odds with his normal accent.

I love this thread, and look forward to asking my kids what I say that sounds awful to them. At the moment, it's the fact that I laugh with my work colleagues while wfh (essential, I'm my opinion). Apparently I'm always 'cackling' and they don't know how I get any work done.

I assure you they're still pronounced the same where I live (where the word mac actually comes from) but the pronunciation has evolved differently elsewhere I suppose 🤔

Out of interest, how would you pronounce McIntosh...I'm guessing it's more like the way you say Mac(Donalds) than Mc(Donalds)? Or is it?

The only time I've heard Mac/Mc shortened here is when the second part of the surname begins with the letter c. McCarthy or McCambridge for example. The two c's in the names aren't pronounced separately so they're said more like M'Carthy, M'Cambridge.

In Irish mac is pronounced like the English word mock by the way. It means son.

@YouSayChorizoIsayChorizo "Be interesting to know the things we say that make our kids cringe..."

I was once criticised by a bunch of teenagers for pronouncing width as... "width".

Apparently the correct pronunciation was "whip-ffff"

I declined their feedback.

She knows the ureter connects kidneys to bladder, right?! So not much of an improvement!

You must be my long lost sister! This is exactly the one my mother does that makes me cringe every time.

I always thought cinema was originally spelt kinema.

My mother in law insists on calling anything purple, regardless of its colour “mauve”.

It drives me crazy!!