# A Guide to Pronouncing Easy Words for Those Who Can't **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 16, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430 "2004-07-16T15:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/41 "2004-07-16T20:02:30Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > Neither could I, at first. I sat here for about a minute chanting the words to myself and wondering what the hell **Colophon** was on about. Then I remembered that he’s in the UK. So, I re-read his post with a (mental) British accent. Bingo! If his explanation above doesn’t seal it for you, put on your best Patrick Stewart impression and repeat the words again. That ought to do it. Just to clarify, this is not a Britishism. Many North American English speakers differentiate between the three vowels, some between only two of them, and some pronounce it the same. Personally, I say “marry” and “Mary,” the same, but “merry” differently. [Here’s a dialect map for Mary/merry/marry](http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_15.html) ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/42 "2004-07-16T20:04:19Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > Neither could I, at first. I sat here for about a minute chanting the words to myself and wondering what the hell **Colophon** was on about. Then I remembered that he’s in the UK. So, I re-read his post with a (mental) British accent. Bingo! Oh, that’s what’s wrong with **Colophon** and his damned insistence that Mary, merry and marry are all pronounced differently. 😉 I gotta start looking at locations… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/43 "2004-07-16T20:47:06Z")
Can you tell us how to pronounce: Wednesday February ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/44 "2004-07-16T21:11:24Z")
> [@Coelacanth Soup](#): > > Several women I work with often go the local Souper Salad for lunch to get a “baked buh-tata”. Please, as Sam Gamgee would say its PO-TA-TO. Here in the south, we’ve been known to just call them “taters,” but I’ll admit to the “buh-tata” pronuciation as well. In fact, when my brother was very young and we were at a restaurant, he told my dad he wanted a “bake-buh.” This had my dad stumped for a while and finally DB said, “YOU know! A bake-buh tater!” Seems he thought there were taters, fried taters, and bake-buh taters. Needless to say, Dad got a good laugh out of this. I was watching the Dale Earnhardt service and one of the commentators mentioned all the noise you could hear, calling it a “CACK-a-fony (cacophony).” I went :dubious:? About 10 seconds later, my phone rang. It was my sister, and without even a hello, she said, “CACK-a-fony???” She knew I’d be scratching my head over that one! (It’s "cuh-COFF-uh-nee, BTW) I could see someone making the mistake, but these people are supposed to be better educated in language and grammar, for pity’s sake! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/45 "2004-07-16T21:50:40Z")
Well, while we’re at it, it’s chronosynclasticinfundibulum, not chronosynclasticinfindibulum. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/46 "2004-07-16T22:20:24Z")
> [@Trigonal Planar](#): > > **js\_africanus** > > Yes, I over-emphasized the rural pronunciation. The -roooo isn’t extended that much at all. > > Oh! I can’t believe I forgot to mention the one that drives me nuts more than any other pronunciation. More than aks even! > > MELK > > WTF is melk??? Or how about MELKshakes? > > Dear god people, either STFU or learn how to pronounce your "I"s. The word is m **I** lk. m - **I** LK. m **I** LK. I used to call it Malk, because of a Simpson’s joke. “My bones are so brittle… but I always drink plenty of… (looks at carton), MALK?” I now call it milk. On rural, I can’t say the damn thing. I feel like my tongue is going to leap from my mouth and try and throttle me. I used to say warsh. My parents are from St Louis, I never had a chance. I taught my self to say wash, but now I lose the r sound in car wash. So, to clean my car, I sound like I’m from Boston. Cahhh wahhhhsh. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/47 "2004-07-16T22:33:44Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > …It’s a good way to tell if someone is from New England, since many of us don’t have obvious tell-tale accents… There’s a red flag. I bartend at a tourist restaurant so I know many of the small regional clues…and if someone says “I’m all set” at the end of the meal, meaning they’re finished, it’s a 90% chance they’re from New England. Around here we say “I’m all set” at the _beginning_ of the meal, meaning that we’ve got everything we need. (You know, when your waiter drops off your food and says “Is that everything?” That’s when we would say “We’re all set, thanks!”) New Englanders only say it when they’re finished, but it’s apparently “The Phrase” up there because I hear it all the time from you guys. South Texan here, FTR, and I say “ant.” Grammatical Pet Peeve Of The Day: “Conversating.” You do not conversate. You converse. You can have a conversation, but you cannot conversate. This is such a common mis-usage that I fear it may find its way into Webster’s, but I will staunchly refuse to recognize it on that dark day. It just sounds stupid. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/48 "2004-07-17T00:12:35Z")
I, too, am completely unable physically to pronounce the word “rural”. Brewery, I’m OK with, but I do say it very slowly. I can say Montgomery, and I can say Ward’s, but if I try to say Montgomery Ward’s I sound exceedingly stupid. I grew up speaking fluent Chicagonics (Sout’ Side dialect), but moving to the 'burbs at 15 seems to have cured it for the most part. Although I still say, “The lawn more is in the gratch.” ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/49 "2004-07-17T00:27:51Z")
> [@](#): > > The one that really bother me is how a friend pronounced “pseudo.” He made it sound like some sort of leather product, as in blue pseudo shoes. Ah, yes; “swaydo”. Rhymes with “Play-Doh.” I hate this. My South Dakota-bred mother says “pasta” with the flat midwestern “a,” as in “past” – “PAST-ah”. This would seem to predict she would say “tack-o” for “taco,” but she doesn’t – though her kids do, to tease her. And while it’s spelled “rural,” it’s pronounced “Throat-Worbler-Mangrove.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/50 "2004-07-17T00:44:17Z")
Good thread idea. Need help. Though I’m not a native English speaker, not many people I’ve met pick up on that. But there’s a word/s thats given me all sorts of problems for the longest time: and that’s the noun, **enthusiasm** and especially the adjetive, **enthusiastic**. Best I can explain my trouble with them is that I lisp while trying to sound out the “thu” followed by the “see” sounds. Comes out sort of like this: en-zzu-zias-m/tic. Any ideas? Gracias in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/51 "2004-07-17T01:15:12Z")
I now live in North Carolina, and I jump up and down and yell whenever some idiot furniture store runs a TV ad for lovely “bedroom suits.” I guess that’s where you retire after a busy night of serving “horse doovers” and “quickie” to your dinner guests. Our local Food Lion has an aisle featuring “stationary.” My husband noted the aisle, indeed, was not moving. My husband’s aunt once discussed “power ranges” with me. I wondered why the hell her kids would be so interested in electric stoves. It was my first real encounter with the Bostonian accent. ---
**Author:** ![biddee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@biddee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biddee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/52 "2004-07-17T01:16:06Z")
I know this is a pronunciation rant, but it made me think of all the things that people say that piss me off like _‘Can you borrow me a scissors.’_ It’s lend, fuckwad and it’s a **PAIR** of scissors, dammit!!! Another thing that pisses me off is people who write _your_ in place of _you’re_ as in _‘Your absolutely right, I am an asshole!’_ Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/53 "2004-07-17T01:17:52Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Can you tell us how to pronounce: > > Wednesday > February I say: Wenz-day (Not Wenz-Dee; that’s another pet peeve of mine. It’s Mon-DAY, Tues-DAY, Wednes-DAY, etc. Not: Mon-DEE, Tues-DEE, Wednes-DEE, etc. ) For the second month of the year, I know it should be “Feb-roo-ary,” but I say “Feb-you-ary.” Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/54 "2004-07-17T01:42:44Z")
I have to disagree about “Wah - ter”; enunciating the “t” maybe be proper British but in America that T is nearly always softened to a “d” sound. The only American I’ve heard saying “wah - ter” with a clear “t” is Martha Stewart, and look what happened to her. (There can be no excuse for “wooder,” though.) Another of my peeves is substituting an “s” sound for a “sh” sound in words like “negotiate.” Where did _that_ come from? ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/55 "2004-07-17T01:43:47Z")
My husband, like several other posters in this thread, simply cannot _hear_ the proper pronunciation of some words. Therefore, this intelligent, educated man ends up saying things like “libary” and “COO-pun” (for coupon). When I tell him the right way (he works with important people sometimes, and I don’t want him to sound stupid), he just can’t hear the difference in the way I’m pronouncing the word, and the way he’s pronouncing the word. My own pet peeve: “comf-ter-bul”. No! It’s “com-for-tuh-buhl”. Get your consonants in the right order, folks! As for the Mary, marry, merry, I say Mary and merry pretty much the same, marry is different. My mom, who grew up in Baltimore, had a sister named Mary, but in Baltimorese, it was “Meery”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/56 "2004-07-17T02:40:56Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > I say: > Wenz-day > (Not Wenz-Dee; that’s another pet peeve of mine. It’s Mon-DAY, Tues-DAY, Wednes-DAY, etc. Not: Mon-DEE, Tues-DEE, Wednes-DEE, etc. ) > > For the second month of the year, I know it should be “Feb-roo-ary,” but I say “Feb-you-ary.” Sorry. “Feb-you-ary” is actually an accepted pronunciation (in educated speech) for February, according to [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com). Oddly enough, for “Wednesday,” they list “wenz-dee” with the long “ee” as the primary pronunciation. Can this be right?!? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it that way. As for “coupon,” is the objection the second syllable? Because if it’s the first, both “KYOU-pon” and “COO-pon” are acceptable, with the latter being the first pronunciation listed. ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/57 "2004-07-17T02:46:12Z")
A couple more: Those people who help you buy & sell property are **reel** -tors, not **ree** -lu-tors. A division of a company is a sub- **sid** -ee-ary, not a sub- **sid** -a-rary (honest to God, I don’t personally know anyone in the world who can pronounce this word correctly!). And Mom - where the **fuck** do you get that extra “n” in “closent”? Oh, and one more for my husband: the car we own is an **Ack** -yuh-ra, not an **Ack** -oo-ra. I feel better already. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/58 "2004-07-17T04:15:30Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Just to clarify, this is not a Britishism. Many North American English speakers differentiate between the three vowels, some between only two of them, and some pronounce it the same. Personally, I say “marry” and “Mary,” the same, but “merry” differently. Huh. I’m from Noo Yawk, born and bred. I pronounce Mary, marry, and merry differently. And so did everyone I knew. In fact, until I started reading the Dope, I didn’t realize some people DIDN’T pronounce them differently. And I said ANT, until my b/f started working very hard to mellow my Fran Drescher-like accent. ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/59 "2004-07-17T04:17:37Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > If someone was lazy about enunciation, and “brewery” came out as “brew-ree,” I doubt it would bother me terribly. Is there a more egregious mispronunciation going on? > > I’m totally stumped as to how “rural” _can_ be mispronounced. What the hell? Oh man. My last name…well, it’s very very very much like brewery. When I was growing up in the Missouri (I won’t even discuss proper way to pronounce _that_), it used to bug the living crap out of me that people would pronounce _brrrrr_. Like they didn’t have to use all the syllables in my name. Laziness, I thought. It wasn’t until later that I realized while I had no trouble pronouncing my own last name correctly, I still said _brrrr-ry_ if I didn’t stop to think first. And for the life of me I still have trouble with rural. I know how to say it, I just can’t seem to make it come out right unless I speak very slowly. Otherwise it’s just rrrr-ul. Damn my midwestern upbringing. ---
**Author:** ![stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stately_plump_buck_mulligan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430/60 "2004-07-17T04:59:12Z")
It may not be English, but it’s not that hard to pronounce “entree” as “on-tray” rather than “entry.” A two-item entree sounds tasty; a two-item entry sounds pornographic. Other than glaringly _hideous_ mispronounciations like that, I have no problem whatsoever with regional accents and pronounciations of words as long as it is clear what the speaker is saying. I was delighted to meet some real live Wisconsinites that are around my age who truly and honestly didn’t see that they pronounced their state “Wis-CAAAN-sin” while I was saying “Wis-CON-sin.” They just didn’t hear the difference! Likewise, I am almost never cognisant of my intense Valley accent until other people point it out - or worse, begin to mimic it. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-guide-to-pronouncing-easy-words-for-those-who-cant/255430.md?page=4)