Most Mispronounced Words

forte

It's not forTAY, gurlz.

"Fall" is not a proper noun and is not capitalized except at the beginning of a sentence.

Same with "foliage."

In other words, cunt, go back to third grade.

Kamala

Hyacinth taught me that they are estate agents.

I have never heard foliage pronounced incorrectly.

Girls from Long Island wear joo-luh-ree.

Libary

IN-shoor-unce

Ambalance

Amberlamps Axe a question Fur reel

Motherfucker

Route. If a Traffic Reporter rhymed it with "out," they'd be fired. Route has same "ou" as routine.

Uhrange

OP, many pronounce it "Oh-pee," but it's actually pronounced CUNT.

Mischievous.

Clique.

r2 has hilariously embarrassed OP. I hope you feel shame, OP, for making a (failed) attempt to feel superior.

for·te /ˈfôrˌtā,fôrt/

dumbass

I heard a reporter say EP-a-tome for Epitome - as opposed to ih-PIT-uh-mee.

I used to pronounce fascism as face-ism for years. I also used to say T-sunami.

Zoology - It's not ZOO OLOGY, it's zoe-OLL-oh-gee

Shishtersh. A very shtupid word.

Someone write out the correct pronunciation for nuclear. I still don’t know if I have it right.

anyway ≠ anyways

X-spire-a-ment. That bothers me.

New - clee - ur

I should have written it: x-spear-a-ment

- Bothered R24

Thank you r25!

I heard someone on NPR talking about the EEEE-poch Times.

Feb-YOU-ary. How fucking hard is it to say "Feb-RU-ary"? Hell, I even heard Rachel pronounce it wrong.

Another of my pet peeves is "sup-pos-a-BLY." I heard Rachel do that one as well. Ladies and germs, it's pronounced exactly as it's written: sup-pos-ed-ly. Just that fucking simple.

I'm sure I'll think of more -- give me time.

Foyer.

I've heard lots of people pronounce "fentanyl" as "fentaNOL."

Poinsettia is not poinSEEetta!

"Fuchsia" is "fewks-ee-uh," not "few-shuh."

"Acanthocalycium" is "uh-can-tho-cal-iss-ee-um," not "that li'l cactus over there."

R31 Confirming POIN-setta isn't correct. Florists know it's Poin-SEH-Tee-Uh.

R32, the thread is about [italic]common[/italic] words. Where the fuck are those words common?

It may not be one of the most mispronounced, but I do hear people pronounce ebullient with just three syllables.

Well, smell you!

I don't know why people get out of shape about pronunciation. Some is accent related and some is possibly ignorance. But as long people understand, who cares. Just like changing spelling, pronunciation changes with time. That's how language develops. Some pronunciations will be ignored, some will prevail. In a country with so much variety in race, ethnicity, heritage and history this is inevitable.

[quote]But as long people understand

How long do you have to be before you can understand?

I should probly end this thread

^^ Best laugh of the day -- thanks!

Mascarpone (mispronounced "mar-scapone").

People who pronounce 'pasta' as 'pasturr.' Drives me nuts.

Im-por-TANT.

They pronounce "sherbet" like "shurr-burt."

Anathema

Sidereal

So-ma-lee-yay instead of sommelier.

Pronouncing "voila" as "wallah!"

Iraq. Iran.

Ass eating

Garotte

Jew-el-ry, not Jew-le-ry

Mille-feuille

Honestly, some of you sniffy queens remind me of a caftaned acquaintance who referred to his little dog as a DAASH-hoont.

[quote]Zoology - It's not ZOO OLOGY, it's zoe-OLL-oh-gee

related term:

It's BEST-ee-al-it-ee, not BEAST-ee-al-it-ee.

you would know, r54.

Tyoos-day (not toozeday).

I noticed that Wendy Williams always said "tore" (for tour). Is it a New Jersey thing?

Sycophant

Antithesis

The word “cavalry” is pronounced “kav-ul-ree;” it is NOT pronounced “cow-vuh-ree.”

“Cavalry” is a military term that refers to an elite, lightly-armored, highly mobile reconnaissance unit. The word “cavalry” does not need to be capitalized unless it is starting a sentence.

By contrast, “Calvary” is a proper noun which refers to the hill where Jesus Christ was crucified. It is always capitalized.

Quinoa

No "g" at end of Orangutan.

This morning radio hosts were deciding if today is Vetrans or Veterans Day.

The Roosevelt family pronounces their name Rose-velt, not Rooza-velt.

Are we going to get into British vs. American pronunciations, like "controversy" and "schedule"?

Every time one of you New Englanders swallows a "t," I want to kill.

Examples: im-por-ent for important or Bill Cli-in for Bill Clinton.

Yes, I'm old, but hearing those pronunciation errors the entire time I was in grad school made me C-R-A-Z-Y!!!

A phrase here: visa-versa.

Realtor spelling: Parkay floors.

ask

Aunt. It’s not ant.

Yes it is r69.

Then, R70, taunt should be pronounced tant, haunt pronounced hant, gaunt pronounced gant, daunt pronounced dant, jaunt pronounced jant, & flaunt pronounced flant.,

R71 No.

You tried it, though.

[quote]Yes it is R69.

It's never "ant" in New England. The first time I heard it pronounced "ant" was on an episode of "Leave It to Beaver," and I couldn't understand why the Beav would call his aunt an insect.

Most of the country uses "ant".

Unless you're a pretentious twat

[quote] Most of the country uses "ant".

Most of the electorate voted for a convicted felon, R74.

I feel like most of the country says AUNT not ANT. And black people definitely do not say ant even down south ones. I feel ant is more midwestern.

[quote] And black people definitely do not say ant even down south ones.

My white sister & niece are an inveterate racists, so whenever I'm in the presence of my niece I make a point of always referring to my sister as her aunt (not ant). Pretentious twat that I am, that is.

This should be a poll actually. Because I know I’m trying to remember. I feel most east coast people of all backgrounds, socioeconomic status say AUNT. My white best friend from Ohio says ANT.

I can't excape Lisa, our little walking liberry!

It’s definitely regional and somewhat race based.

Yes, agree R80. "Awnt" is something I hear black folks say a lot

And they are right to do so, R81.

Even if it makes them sound like dumb assholes.

Hmmm....apparently this may have stemmed from a UK vs US pronunciation.

R83 omg can you relax. What is your deal. Black people anywhere in America and white northeastern people say AUNT. The rest of the country says ANT. It’s not that conscious thing of an act.

[quote] Even if it makes them sound like dumb assholes.

Even if it pronouncing the word as "ant" makes them sound like dumb sheep.

In my are of the South, white peole say Ant and black people say Ahnt or Uhnt.

R17, I this the poster you corrected was commenting on people stressing the second syllable, instead of the correct stressing being placed on the first syllable. FORtay instead of forTAY.

R43, we may mean the same thing but it sets my teeth on edge when people add a t to important, as in im PORT tant rather than im POOR tant. I think it’s a midwestern thing.

Other notable mispronunciations that I hear regularly are LIEberry and AMboolance or AMbalance.

The odd thing about the English language is how little bearing a word's spelling has on its pronunciation.

The Brits pronounce quite a few words differently than Americans. One example is patent (as in patent leather). They say paytent.

"Gala" is supposed to be "Gay-la" but more and more people say "Gal-a" because they don't want to say Gay.

[quote]white northeastern people say AUNT

In New England, yes, people say AHNT. In NY and NJ, however, we say ANT. More than once, I've wondered whether Martha ever slips and says ANT.

R87 right. Ain’t no black AUHNTIE gon let you call her no mafuckin 🐜 😂.

Ugh, another Teacunt sockpuppet.

*sprays Raid*

This is not a sock puppet.

*pssshshttttt*

RAID!

r71 You're trying, but no.

Cough. Bough. Tough. Dough.

I get there are lots of vagaries with the English language, R96, but are there any other examples of the letter "u" being silent in words in which it's preceded by an "a"?

Re the Cannes Film Festival, I used to say Cannes as cans. Someone shamed me that it is said carn.

Diet

“Roof” pronounced as “ruff”.

Saorise.

No, it is not say-orse. Nor is it sow-erse. It isn’t sore-eyes, either. The correct pronunciation is …. Ser-sha.

Exercise

[quote]Someone shamed me that it is said carn.

Was that someone Ann Miller by chance?

R99 People from the DC area say DYYT. 😂 I’m not talking about the Beltway class. I’m talking people from there.

R28, either pronunciation of February is fine, according to Merriam Webster. Certainly, "Feb-YOU-ary" is not stupid--at least not the way "NOOK-lee-ur" and "REEL-uh-tor" are.

^Shit, I meant "NOOK-yuh-lur." "NOOK-lee-ur" is of course right.

I share some of these peeves, but overall I don’t think I’d want to speak around some of you fussy queens.

R101 You tell 'em!

R101: spelling it correctly might have given you more credibility. It looks Japanese now.

Oh, great. Another wonderful thread that now has the stink of Alien of Teacunt.

RAY-dee-a-tor, not RAD-ee-a- tor.

r111 I've never once heard someone say RAD-ee-a-tor

ENEMA

It's ENN-EH-MUH, not ENN-EEEEEEE-MUH

FEB-YOO-ERRY not FEB-ROO-ERRY

R14, Insufferable little moi corrected my 5th Grade teacher by telling her that the ending is "ous," not "ious."

R32, No. English ignores the German here.

KILL oh meter instead of kill AH meter and it various permutations through the metric system. I always want to ask if their SPEED oh meter is marked in KILL oh meters because mine spah DOM eater is not.

Microwave

South American sensation Xoxchitla.

TV reporter pronounced Biopic as bi-AH-pic.

Elect and Election emphasize LEC. Suddenly ELEC-toral became elec-TORAL! Same for PAS-toral and DOC-toral. People using affected speech who think they're better than the rest of us.

[quote] It's not forTAY, gurlz.

Yes, it is.

R62 Trump wants to rename it Losers’ Day

Haute Couture

Ypir

yea-peer

I have as yet to hear ANYONE in the media pronounce the word 'rural' correctly. It always comes out as 'rule'. Dumb fucks.

Shrimp = 'scrimp'. (Da fuck!?l) Salmon = 'Sall-mon'.

Ask = 'axe'

Verr-satch-eee

"nuuu-cuuu-lar" for nuclear. Fuck.

BUCKET!

R128 that's not how Nomi says it. She puts 2 syllables.

I bought it at ver/sayce. (no final vowel. rhymes with "face")

R4- It’s not BUCKET 🪣

it’s BOOKAY

R127-Blacks pronounce it that way.

R127, isn’t the original spelling, “aks”?

Mortimer - mor-TEE-mer

February : Feb

R133 Really? I never knew that nor have I ever heard it as "axe".

Do TV weathercasters work part-time in butcher shops? All say they're a "Meatorologist".

Andrew Carnegie, founder of New York concert hall said Car-NEG-ie. Most people think it's CARNA-gie.

A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance is his val-et.

No man is a hero to his va-lay

That's not how I pronounced the title of my man servant, R141.

R138 I always enjoy a meaty urologist.

There are only two r's in photographer. People commonly mispronounce it as "phortographer". I never understood why.

r144 I've never once heard someone pronounce it as "phortographer."

Me either, R145.

r145 r146 Just did a quick youtube search and found an example, she says "furtography" twice in the first 15 seconds of the video. It's subtle, but definitely there. And if you slow down the playback speed, it's undeniable.

r147 " And if you slow down the playback speed, it's undeniable"

You've embarrassed yourself.

For some reason it really bothers me when I hear people pronounce accessories as “assessories”.

r149 I wonder what the reason is.

lol r119 I’m guilty of that one….thats how it was pronounced where I grew up, and it’s a tough one for me to break

R150 I wonder why you wonder.

r148 It's quite obvious even without slowing the speed. It really pops at the 4:06 mark. Don't get upset, lots of people say "furtographer"... perhaps you do too!

And it’s At-LAN-tuh, not “at-uh-LAN-tuh.”

Oh hang on, my mistake.

I grew up living on a street adjacent to Lahser Road. My mother - & as later realized, most everyone else did, too - pronounced it as "Lasher." When I asked my mother years later why she mispronounced the street, which I unthinkingly repeated for years, she said a haughty neighbor lady would pronounce it as "Lah-ser," she thought she was just putting on airs.

OK, bona fide. How's your Latin?

Bo nah fee day

r152 Bless your heart

Is it PAT-ina or pat-EE-na?

La-zag-na

Horse divers

[quote] Andrew Carnegie, founder of New York concert hall said Car-NEG-ie. Most people think it's CARNA-gie.

On the other hand, people tend to pronounce "Carnegie Mellon University" Car-NEG-ee.

r156

Traditional "Latin" pronunciation as an educated British mid-Victorian would render Latin:

Boe [rhymes with "toe"] - Nuh [rhymes with "duh"] - Fye [rhymes with "tie] - Dee [rhymes with "tree"]

[Quote] as an educated British mid-Victorian

Talk about an eldergay!

99% of people on tv say "tenant" for "tenet". It drives me BATTY!

If you cannot pronounce a word correctly, DON'T USE IT!

I hear talking heads on tv all the time say "FUSS-trated" for frustrated!

Huh?

you need a new hobby. r147/

Pu-see

R166 You have a hearing problem. People are not saying that “all the time.”

I give points for degree of difficulty to the local man-on-the-street tv news interviewee who divined the right word - fruition - but said “frutition,” instead,

None of these words are mispronounced, shitty nasty queen that is the OP, this one is a male cunt, I can tell, you trash on DL think you know everything

[quote] And it’s At-LAN-tuh, not “at-uh-LAN-tuh.”

And it's Ne-VAD-uh, not Ne-VAHD-uh.

Most egregious run-on/comma splice gathering of words goes to r171. And an "oh, dear" for "none...are" instead of "none...is."

[quote]Is it PAT-ina or pat-EE-na?

Don't ask.

A lot of people who should know better leave off the first 'L' in 'vulnerable.'

r175 I don't think I've ever heard someone pronounce it without the first L.

Some of you must hang around a lot of stupid people. I have not heard half these mispronunciations.

My old roommate used to pronounce it: "vunnerable." That was the only word he pronounced in a wonky fashion.

I probably pronounce it something like VOnerable (long "O" sound). Saying it correctly forces me to wrinkle my nose and mouth in a way I find slightly unpleasant, so I avoid it.

I mispronounced "charcuterie" for a while.

My coworker mispronounced "sycophant" (psycho-fant) and I told her it's sick-o-fant. She (coworker) argued with me about it. 🙄.

r180 Wow, that's wild.

170 - Isn't that when you pay your tuition with fruit?

Hyperbole. Some actually pronounce it as if it was an annual football bowl game for manic student athletes.

Bruschetta - it's "brus-ketta" not "brushetta".

It’s “sangwich”!

R119

I’ve heard people in old-timey radio clips pronounce it that way. I’ve also heard “Los ANG-uh-lees” with a hard g.

Lampadaire! It's lawmpa-DARE, not LAMP-a-deer !

Elton John pronounces Monaco like Muh-KNOCK-o

It's PRO-lapse, not pro-LAPSE!

Permit. An official document giving someone authorization to do something.

It's autumn, not fall.

R114 you dumb cunt. It’s actually FEH-BREW-ARY.

[quote]It's autumn, not fall.

On what planet?

The Brits don't say "fall" for autumn.

The planet of pretty much everywhere that speaks English other than USA and Canada, R193.

Knowledge is fun, isn’t it?

[quote]Knowledge is fun, isn’t it?

The USA and Canada are a whole lot of people to smugly chastise for saying "fall" instead of autumn, R195.

Your "knowledge" is a steaming pile of horseshit.

You’re very American aren’t you, R196?

This is why we laugh at you.

FLASSSID

instead of FLAKSID

for the word Flaccid as in - His penis is flaccid.

You're very British you sound like it, Brexit is why we laugh at you, want some blesch chicken?

STFU, r169, you have no idea what I hear you sniveling hall monitor.

Ekcetera instead of etcetera.

OT: How the fuck does teacunt keep getting in to post with all these different accounts? I'm assuming a different email address each time, but how does he pay?

R201 Fuck is you talking bout?

Daikon is pronounced " Die - cone."

Futon is pronounced " Foo-tone."

Ramen is pronounced " Ra- men" with the accent on the second syllable and the " men" pronounced as " men," not "muhn."

Is it RAYmen or RARmen?

Rah-mehn The correct pronunciation of ramen is “rah-mehn,” with the emphasis on the first syllable. It is important to note that the letter “r” in Japanese is pronounced differently than in English, so it is important to pronounce it as close to the Japanese pronunciation as possible.

It's a (fictional) name, but "Zooey," from "Franny and Zooey," is pronounced -- surprise, surprise -- ZOO-y. Not Zoe. It always annoys me when people mispronounce it. It's a made-up name, anyway. The character's given name is Zachary, and whatever the nickname derives from, why would it be pronounced differently than it's spelled?

Melk. Like a glass of melk.

Sub-SEE-quent

I've lived in Japan and have taken Japanese (language) in high school.

IIRC, Japanese is not like English, where there's an emphasis on one syllable (in a multi-syllabic word). Japanese pronunciation is pretty even or flat.

There are some slightly elongated vowels, like in shiitake (mushroom). Or consonants that seem to be emphasized like the T sound in natto (fermented soy beans).

Ramen: I would say the pronunciation is pretty flat, no emphasis on either syllable.

Barbra Streisand says that "Streisand" has a flat pronunciation. The emphasis is on neither syllable. She was upset because Siri or Alexa was mispronouncing her name. Plus, putting too much of a Z sound on the second S.

OP must be “Oh Dear” holding her annual “Holiday Pronunciation Seminar”.

Sake as in rice wine.

Sake, not “Saki”.

The vocabulary police strikes again!

When I was growing up, the names of the seasons were capitalized. I rarely see it done any more.

You apparently didn't grow up in the U.S., R214.

In Canada we say PRO-cess not Praw-cess. There's a few others like that but I can't recall right now.

I certainly did, R215.

All these words are American English.

The point is, R214, that you have a false memory. Names of seasons have long been considered common nouns, not proper nouns, and didn't suddenly stop being capitalized in your lifetime.

Yes, the use gradually changed to lower case. I do not have "false memory," and I do not appreciate your condescension. Obviously, you do not remember it, but I'm guessing I have been around for a few more decades than you have.

Old bitter English gay teachers, die soon

The names of the seasons are all common nouns, not proper nouns.

On the other hand, United States First-Class Mail® and Social Security are proper nouns. When I Googled it, I got the opposite answer on the AI.

I’m sorry to be so vulgar but that “oh dear” really steams me.