I used to think Hyperbole was pronounced Hi-per-bowl

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As self-professed pedants do you have any equally embarrassing admissions?

I blame Phonics.

Oh, that word, begins with an a, means a group of islands...what is it?

I mispronounced it for years in my head but it's not a word you say out loud frequently so nobody knew to correct me. Only realized when I heard a colleague laughing about someone else pronouncing it the way I thought was right.

archipelago?

Have remembered: archipelago.

I read the whole of 100 Years of Solitude going 'auracaracacacarablahblahblah' for EVERYONE. I just couldn't be bloody arsed.

Oh no - how do you pronounce archipelago?

Xpost :)

I said it like the name Archie. Apparently it is a k sound rather than ch.

ar-ky-PELL-ago?

Phew - I have been pronouncing it correctly

Me too WilfShelf. That was one confusing book.
Plus I used to get all the characters mixed up with that Roman Emperor, whose name also is 'auacaracaracarfa'.

Actually, it isn't phonics. It's a shitty comprehensive education that not only failed to teach us grammar, it failed to teach us Greek. And Latin. But because most of us learned French at school, we probably have an easier time with Latin origin words?

That's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

I knew a girl at uni who used to pronounce envisage ON-vee-saaaaaaaaaaaj - ie with a very dodgy French accent. Having spent approx 17 years now taking the piss out of it with mutal friends I really struggle to say it properly!

I professed to love Par-MEEE-shan cheese, while trying to impress my betters.

Have no farking idea where pagoda, gazebo and gestapo come from though

I used to think albeit was pronounced al-bey - some sort of French word

Knew someone who thought banal should be pronounced like anal

DS1 was telling us about the cost of mineral water in Ma-LAHHH-ga (as reported by his scout leader ) at lunchtime today. Gave us quite a giggle on both fronts!

I think amusing mispronunciations are actually a mark of character. They identify one as a person who is self-taught, having learnt everything from books, not from poncing about with the chattering classes in expensive restaurants or top schools.

Class war chip on shoulder, here.

Plantagenet - I used to say plant-a-genet , not plan'Tagenet.
And Bogota - Bog-oh-tuh, rather that bogo'Tah
(and its bloody hard trying to write wrongly stressed words!)

Remember the film Gallipoli?

Or Galley - poh-ley as I referred to it.
Also place in Fife called Burntisland - prounounced Burnt-island and I thought it was Burntis -land.

No doubt I could think of many more. I blame my mum she though the Italian 'ciao' was pronounced kee-ay-oh!

Some of it is just silly though. Designed deliberately to trip up oiks (like Magdalene).

'Oh how quaint, you don't actually know how to pronounce [insert made up village/Major's surname/hunt] here

[I'm just not posting them all lest you think I'm bragging. But I do know, honest. I watch QI]

I have trouble saying hegemony, pedagogy and anthrosophy, which for an academic educationalist are occupational hazards. I also keep forgettting what escatology means and have to remind myself every time I need to write anything philosophical. This is Uncool in my circles.

Past errors include things like declaring to my teacher I knew all about the seven plajoos in the Bible (plagues) and always saying pizza not peeza, and kilometre instead of kilohmeter, because my German mum says them wrong, apparently.

Mum's errors are better. Jinooa pigs instead of Guinea pigs, the backside of a record instead of the flip side, and Cheea hooa hooa dogs instead of Chiwowa (Chiahuahua) dogs. And when she's got a flap on, verbs become worbs and vests become wests.