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How Much Of Your Reading Interrupted Your Speech?

I pronounced “Facade” as fay’said.

I have fucked up so many useful words it surprises me.

Do you have an embarrassment we can share with the group?

by Anonymousreply 75July 11, 2025 2:45 AM

It happens, not everyone is born William F. Buckley. I mispronounced “tinnitus” at the doctor today.

by Anonymousreply 1July 10, 2025 5:14 PM

"Interrupted?"

by Anonymousreply 2July 10, 2025 5:15 PM

Someone told me once you shouldn't judge someone for mispronouncing a word if they clearly know the meaning because that means they learned it through reading, which should be encouraged and celebrated.

by Anonymousreply 3July 10, 2025 5:16 PM

You’re in good company. Harry Truman, as a child, famously read every book in the Independence, Missouri public library.

He said he mispronounced a lot of words he’d read but had never heard anyone speak.

by Anonymousreply 4July 10, 2025 5:17 PM

There’s this other book to use when it happens….I think it’s called a dykeshunery.

by Anonymousreply 5July 10, 2025 5:20 PM

I dont understand the original post title and I refuse to respond to it.

by Anonymousreply 6July 10, 2025 5:25 PM

I used to pronounce “misled” as “mizled.”

I still think “mizled” sounds much more ominous (therefore oreferred!)

by Anonymousreply 7July 10, 2025 5:32 PM

epitome

by Anonymousreply 8July 10, 2025 5:35 PM

I pronounced "awry" as Arry, rhymes with quarry

by Anonymousreply 9July 10, 2025 5:40 PM

When I was a kid I thought the name Penelope was pronounced "Pen-uh-lope"

by Anonymousreply 10July 10, 2025 5:43 PM

I pronounced "vacation" as "daycation" well into my teens.

by Anonymousreply 11July 10, 2025 5:43 PM

I used to pronounce “girl” as “guuuuuuurl”. That was interrupted.

by Anonymousreply 12July 10, 2025 5:50 PM

façade

by Anonymousreply 13July 10, 2025 5:52 PM

I once as a child pronounced the name of the overwhelming German composer Wagner as though he was married to Natalie Wood. My much more cultivated neighbour nicely corrected me, without fuss.

by Anonymousreply 14July 10, 2025 5:53 PM

I dated and married a double-Ivy writer and smartypants. Love him but the corrections were a lot to take in, those first several years. “Potable water” was the first of so many.

by Anonymousreply 15July 10, 2025 5:54 PM

I used to say “Wagner” is in wag the dog as a joke with a buddy. Also: choppin for Chopin. Batch. Etc.

by Anonymousreply 16July 10, 2025 5:56 PM

Jack is worried. He cannot find the boat. There is water all around the is-land.

by Anonymousreply 17July 10, 2025 6:03 PM

R16 = Bugs Bunny

by Anonymousreply 18July 10, 2025 6:07 PM

Was that a Looney Tunes gag first?

by Anonymousreply 19July 10, 2025 6:09 PM

I had a German postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Dental School named Cosima Wagner (no relation) who told me I must have been the only Bostonian who spoke German because I was the only person at Harvard who pronounced her name correctly. Even the staff called her Dr “Wagner.”

by Anonymousreply 20July 10, 2025 6:09 PM

Yes.

by Anonymousreply 21July 10, 2025 6:10 PM

Yes yo R19.

by Anonymousreply 22July 10, 2025 6:11 PM

Yes to R19.

by Anonymousreply 23July 10, 2025 6:11 PM

I remember as a kid reading a book and had never seen the word tongue spelled out so I kept pronouncing it in my head as ton-goo

by Anonymousreply 24July 10, 2025 6:12 PM

And now, R24, you’ve experienced tongue good many times over. You slut.

by Anonymousreply 25July 10, 2025 6:16 PM

7th grade "health" (sex education) class, for whatever reason the teacher had us taking turns in class reading paragraphs from the text book (lazy ass teaching but it was 1982). I'll never forget the kid who kept pronouncing the male sex organ as "pen-es." "Pen" like the writing instrument and "es" like the letter. He turned beet red when the teacher corrected him.

by Anonymousreply 26July 10, 2025 6:29 PM

I once pronounced misanthrope as "mis-AN-throw-pee" in junior high school.

by Anonymousreply 27July 10, 2025 6:46 PM

Boys have a pen-eese, girls have a vaj-inna.

by Anonymousreply 28July 10, 2025 6:47 PM

Vay - Jean - A

by Anonymousreply 29July 10, 2025 6:48 PM

Which, R26, brings back the memory of a story about pronunciation (along with translation) that might have been disastrous but wasn’t.

At a state dinner not unlike the one held for the Macrons this week, Queen Elizabeth hosted President and Mme. de Gaulle at Buckingham Palace. During dinner, Mme. de Gaulle was asked in conversation if there were only one thing in life she wanted, what would it be? She promptly replied what sounded just like, “a penis”

Ever gracious and thankfully fluent in French, the Queen addressed the shocked silence at table, saying, “Yes, happiness. Something we all want.” And dinner went on smoothly.

by Anonymousreply 30July 10, 2025 6:58 PM

My stupid co-worker used to mispronounce “often” often not realizing there’s a silent T.

by Anonymousreply 31July 10, 2025 7:21 PM

R3 is me in a nutshell.

by Anonymousreply 32July 10, 2025 7:41 PM

R31 = William Safire

by Anonymousreply 33July 10, 2025 7:42 PM

Yep, R32, me too. If you had the privilege of a good education you shouldn't look down on those of us who had to teach ourselves everything to get ahead.

by Anonymousreply 34July 10, 2025 7:44 PM

Liberry.

by Anonymousreply 35July 10, 2025 8:26 PM

I thought it was pronounced gaze-bo. Fortunately, it wasn't a word that ever came up in conversation for my childhood self, and I must have heard someone on TV pronounce it correctly, saving me a modicum of shame.

I was in a production of The Winter's Tale in college and the director, a theater professor, did not pronounce Hermione correctly (he said, HER-me-own). This was ages before the Harry Potter books, of course.

by Anonymousreply 36July 10, 2025 8:35 PM

I used to read "chaos" and pronounce it as "chah-ose."

by Anonymousreply 37July 10, 2025 8:44 PM

Socraytes for Socrates.

by Anonymousreply 38July 10, 2025 8:45 PM

Yose-might

by Anonymousreply 39July 10, 2025 8:47 PM

Are there people here who say “datta” lounge?

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 40July 10, 2025 8:50 PM

I never got a handle on shushpishush.

by Anonymousreply 41July 10, 2025 8:56 PM

R9: I'm an ancient geezer. On an episode of That Girl 50 years ago there was a discussion of the word 'awry'. Having very rarely encountered it since, I'd otherwise not be sure of how to pronounce it.

R1: I'd say tin-EYE-tuss automatically. TIN-eh-tuss sounds pompous from an American.

R3: You bring to mind Ken Jennings as a Jeopardy contestant, not host, answering an artist's name as TIT-ee-ann.

by Anonymousreply 42July 10, 2025 9:03 PM

Titty-an, nice.

by Anonymousreply 43July 10, 2025 9:08 PM

Epitome

I say Ear- Pee - tome

by Anonymousreply 44July 10, 2025 9:23 PM

I say date- her-long

by Anonymousreply 45July 10, 2025 9:25 PM

I love you, R40.

by Anonymousreply 46July 10, 2025 9:36 PM

R39 = Kelly Bundy

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 47July 10, 2025 9:38 PM

Shitty Little Annie

by Anonymousreply 48July 10, 2025 10:05 PM

Hyperbole is a doozy.

by Anonymousreply 49July 10, 2025 10:18 PM

I pronounced it HYPER-bole.

by Anonymousreply 50July 10, 2025 10:22 PM

In my 1L Contracts section someone was called on to discuss Hadley v Baxendale (a famous early case). He pronounced Greenwich as Green-witch.

by Anonymousreply 51July 10, 2025 10:33 PM

I pronounced quinoa as quinn-oh-uh and was ashamed when I was corrected to keen-wah. How dumb is that? I also pronounced pho as foe, not fuh, and was shamed by a chorus of queens in a sauna one time.

A relative worked with a woman whose name was Penelope who pronounced her name as Penna-Lope. This was in Kentucky at the Old Grandad Distillery, so it kind of makes sense.

by Anonymousreply 52July 10, 2025 10:39 PM

R52 I remember Bob Barker calling a contestant Penna-lope on The Price is Right once.

by Anonymousreply 53July 10, 2025 10:41 PM

Ching ching chow chow, honey.

by Anonymousreply 54July 10, 2025 10:43 PM

[quote]When I was a kid I thought the name Penelope was pronounced "Pen-uh-lope"

Me too, r10!

by Anonymousreply 55July 10, 2025 10:45 PM

Mack-a-bree for macabre.

by Anonymousreply 56July 10, 2025 10:52 PM

Try pronouncing Daphne without ever having heard it. Back in the 60s my parents forced me into a pen-pal relationship with a boy my age in New Zealand. His poor sister Daphne was going through a prolonged decline from an inoperable brain tumor and much of our correspondence was about his impressions of her condition and how he could be a good brother.

She died in 1971 and he called to let me know. The first time we'd ever spoken. It took me a few seconds to figure out what he meant when he told me Daphne had died. Thankfully the delay covered my mental scrambling to figure it out so I didn't say "who?"

No. I hadn't watched Scooby Doo until years later on video with my nephews.

by Anonymousreply 57July 10, 2025 10:58 PM

How do you pronounce Siobhan?

by Anonymousreply 58July 10, 2025 11:22 PM

I just don't r58. there's another one I don't even try, some actress.

by Anonymousreply 59July 10, 2025 11:26 PM

Shivonne

by Anonymousreply 60July 10, 2025 11:30 PM

Pronounced Saoirse.

by Anonymousreply 61July 10, 2025 11:32 PM

that's the one r61

by Anonymousreply 62July 10, 2025 11:48 PM

While we were in college, a friend was excitedly telling me about a character in a play she’d been reading who’d had a lobotomy. She said, “…And then, they gave her a LOO-BEE-TOO-MEE!

by Anonymousreply 63July 11, 2025 12:29 AM

In-DUSS-try

by Anonymousreply 64July 11, 2025 12:30 AM

Bona fide.

by Anonymousreply 65July 11, 2025 12:49 AM

When I first saw it I thought Saoirse was an pronounced Swowreese.

by Anonymousreply 66July 11, 2025 1:43 AM

Interrupted?

by Anonymousreply 67July 11, 2025 1:44 AM

r3 is correct. There's nothing wrong with not knowing how to pronounce words that you know from reading.

by Anonymousreply 68July 11, 2025 1:46 AM

R67 = R2

by Anonymousreply 69July 11, 2025 2:07 AM

As a kid having classmates named Sean and thinking it was pronounced Seen or SEE-an

While playing Trivial Pursuit in the 80s my little brother pronounced Don Quixote Don Quicks-Oat. I still pronounce it that way when I come across it

by Anonymousreply 70July 11, 2025 2:18 AM

omg, Trivial Pursuit. I thought enigma was pronounced enima. as in, wrapped in a riddle.

by Anonymousreply 71July 11, 2025 2:21 AM

Since when are English speakers expected to innately know the pronunciation of Gaelic names? I don't think foreign language names are applicable to this discussion.

by Anonymousreply 72July 11, 2025 2:28 AM

I'm talking specifically about Gaelic names like Siobhan and Saoirse, which are relatively rare among English speakers outside of Ireland. Sean is common across the English speaking world so most should understand how to pronounce it.

by Anonymousreply 73July 11, 2025 2:31 AM

interrupted?

by Anonymousreply 74July 11, 2025 2:39 AM

R74 see R67 and R2.

by Anonymousreply 75July 11, 2025 2:45 AM
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