Mispronounced words that drive you mad

[puds11]

Just overheard someone ordering an ‘expresso’

What mispronounced words drive you mad?

(Why can't I get my c&p to show bold?)

You need to put an asterisk immediately before and after the text you want to be highlighted.

Seneca Most English speakers have non-rhotic accents. Rhotic accents tend to be in the West Country and Scotland, for example.

In what way? Aren't most speakers of English rhotic speakers?

I think non-rhotic is probably spoken by more people in the UK. Worldwide rhotic must be more widespread because of America.

I meant to say worldwide rhotic is in the majority. So I think it unlikely that the spelling of "drawer" will change. We rhotic speakers still need that "er."

Please may I mention marshmellows?

Accent wise a colleague says 'drower' rhymed with lower) for drawer. And fower for four.

this-shear
Similarly, shjoodent, chrishjun, eshjery, ... annoy me

@iklboodolphrednosedreindeer Black Country?

I know someone who says spoo-wern (spoon) and shoo-wers (shoes)

I know an Italian and she says Latte' and finds the Lah-tay pronunciation wrong - and says it's just milk.

Could of - if could of and could have sound so similar, how come nobody says I of?

@GiveHerHellFromUs - yes she is. Lovely lady & her accent is fab.

Lahtay is a halfway house. It's an approximation of the Italian pronunciation, but without going full-on Italian accent, which sounds a bit wanky unless you're actually speaking Italian. It's pretty much impossible to say it in an English accent while keeping all the vowel sounds as they would sound in Italian. There is no 'a' sound in English that's the same as the Italian 'a'. It's halfway between a flat 'a' and an 'ah'. In my experience, people from southern England tend to say lahtay. When I moved up north, most seemed to say lattay.

The same thing happens with a lot of foreign loan words. We find an approximation with sounds that aren't too alien to our English-speaking tongues, but don't sound too unlike the original. Fussing over whether it's an e or an eh or an ay sound is pointless, frankly.

I teach French, German and Spanish. When I'm ordering something with a foreign name in a restaurant, café or deli counter in the UK, I use whatever is the most accurate of the usual range of UK pronunciations for the item. Otherwise I a) sound like a pretentious twat or b) risk not being understood.

Canterbury is it correct in the youtube link I posted?

Drizzzle - the clip demonstrates our point about the longer vowels perfectly. The a is actually pretty near to an 'ah', and the e is definitely towards the ay/eh end of an e sound.

It's "lahtay" here in the US. Also "pahsta."

Well, as I said, it's difficult to spell words in another language when the sounds for the letters are different. But the pronounciation in the link is correct.

I don't know how you pronounce AY of course, but I pronounce it
Iike in the word BAY. There is definitely no such AY at the end of latte.

People can obviously pronounce words any way they like. I was just saying how it's pronounced in Italian.

There are lots of English words in other languages that aren't pronounced the same way aa they are in British English so it goes both ways!

Legos for Lego
learnt me as in “The teacher learnt me to count. “
Probaly for probably
Being “caught” pregnant. What?

I went to a Spanish class where the teacher asked us to translate the sentence 'I want you to learn me Spanish'. I didn't sign up for the following term.

I won him at football (instead of beat).

That's nice. Are you going to put him on a shelf?

Legos instead of Lego is standard in North America, so if you've heard it here it's probably just been picked up from friends/family/tv.

"I went to a Spanish class where the teacher asked us to translate the sentence 'I want you to learn me Spanish'. I didn't sign up for the following term."

Is that because she was a native Spanish speaker and her English wasn't perfect? If so, you probably missed a good opportunity to learn Spanish.

Marshmellow
Mischeevious

Going back a while but supernanny always said acksseptable which drove me bananas

However someone upthread said all-mund is wrong which I'd like to challenge

Am aware that some say ah-mund but don't think all-mund is wrong.
Is like the bath vs Barth thing surely

People who say rest bite instead of respite.

Sorry I meant supernanny said asseptable instead of ack-sseptable

Is that because she was a native Spanish speaker and her English wasn't perfect? If so, you probably missed a good opportunity to learn Spanish. No, he was English. He had come to be a Spanish teacher by an unusual route which I admired but I wasn't happy being taught Spanish by someone whose English was so ungrammatical (not just this example).

I have some friends who say and write Weary when they mean Wary and Brought for Bought.

Haven't unleashed my inner pedant yet but it's been a close run thing sometimes!