# Any words you insist on reading wrong (in your head at least)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 19, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805 "2022-02-19T22:32:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/1 "2022-02-19T22:32:28Z")
Thanks to Christmas Story the word “fragile” will always be pronounced: Fra-geeeel-lay
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/2 "2022-02-19T23:20:36Z")
The image format is always going to be a hard g and never a soft g. It’s not peanut butter.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/3 "2022-02-19T23:23:21Z")
Thanks to _The Great Race_, I always read “automobile” as “aw-tow-mow-beel” in full Tony Curtis mode.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/4 "2022-02-19T23:52:55Z")
When learning to spell “people”, I had to consciously remind myself that it has an “O” in it.
When reading it, my brain often hears it pronounced “pee-oh-pull”.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/5 "2022-02-20T00:00:14Z")
When I read rendezvous, my brain hears ren-dezz-vowse. I’ll always remember how to spell it.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/6 "2022-02-20T00:01:19Z")
> [@Grrr](#):
>
> Thanks to Christmas Story the word “fragile” will always be pronounced: Fra-geeeel-lay
Yep, that one.
Others for me: “queue” is pronounced the way it’s spelled: “kwee-wee” (rhymes with “kiwi”)
“quinoa” is pronounced the way it’s spelled: “kwi-noh-uh” (“qui” as in “quit” or “quick” + “noa” as in the Ark guy)
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/7 "2022-02-20T00:02:48Z")
Question: Is “hors d’oeuvres” pronounced “horse doovers” or “whore’s doovers”?
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/8 "2022-02-20T00:28:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Question: Is “hors d’oeuvres” pronounced “horse doovers” or “whore’s doovers”?
Horses’ ovaries.
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/9 "2022-02-20T00:30:55Z")
I used to pronounce it whores de overs.
Lately I’ve noticed trouble with “subsistence”. I keep hearing it/trying to say it as “subsidence”.
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### Author:  [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/10 "2022-02-20T00:38:10Z")
I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way than " oar doorves" or maybe “or dwarves”… the h or first s I’ve only heard pronounced on purpose to be funny or by someone with no clue what it is. I think perhaps it’s one of those words I’ve heard pronounced in a real life situation (“Would you like some or dorvs?”) before encountering it written.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/11 "2022-02-20T00:54:06Z")
I cannot read obfuscate in my head and not pronounce the u.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/12 "2022-02-20T01:40:38Z")
I’ve only recently been able to read the word indict and not pronounce it in-DICKED in my head.
I also struggle with not pronouncing infrared as in-FRARED.
mmm
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/13 "2022-02-20T02:09:10Z")
The marine corpse instead of core
Also the 4 lbs. becomes 4 libs. For that I blame my older brother who would pronounce it out loud that way when I was young.
Which reminded me that thanks to my dad, who misread it the first time he saw the sign on a road trip, I can’t look at a Popeye’s chicken sign without thinking that they must be owned by a bunch of Catholics, having named their francise “Pope yes”
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### Author:  [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/14 "2022-02-20T02:18:24Z")
> [@EastUmpqua](#):
>
> I cannot read obfuscate in my head and not pronounce the u.
_confused_
_looks up pronunciation_
Well, I’ve been pronouncing that word wrong!
Until a somewhat embarrassingly late point in my childhood, I though there were two words “misled” pronounced miss-lead and “misled” pronounced my-zled that just happened to have similar meanings. So I still sometimes pronounce it my-zled in my head in fond memory.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/15 "2022-02-20T02:53:36Z")
I pronounce a lot of words phonetically in my head.
Knife = kahniffee
Knight = kahniggt
Wednesday = Wednesday 😁
And ever since I watched _Finding Nemo_:
Escape = escappee
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/16 "2022-02-20T02:59:58Z")
Vegetable
I hate the sudden stop after the “J” sound, then having to move yer tongue around to regroup and start the “T” phase of the word, so I leave out the “T” sound and it becomes, “Veh-juh-ble.” I expect you all to follow suit. 😉
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#):
>
> Knife = kahniffee
For a moment there, I thought you were channeling T’Pring.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/17 "2022-02-20T03:07:41Z")
Thinking about this today. In English translations of manga, they often use “fufufu…” to represent a type of laughter. I prefer to always read it as the person saying “Eff you, eff you, eff you…”
There is a local restaurant named Master’s Wok that I think of as Master Swok and a medical franchise named Doctor’s Care that to me is Doctor Scare.
(And from a similar recent thread)
> [@Things you misinterpret on purpose](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/6):
>
> To me “af” has always abbreviated “auto-focus”, so I prefer to continue that. So I read comments–for example–about things that are racist auto-focus.
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### Author:  [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/18 "2022-02-20T03:46:52Z")
When people mean “its” but write “it’s”, I pronounce it “it is”, as in “I grabbed the cat by it is tail”.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/19 "2022-02-20T05:50:36Z")
Me too!
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/20 "2022-02-20T08:09:12Z")
That reminds me. Thanks the the wonderful [Swan and Flanders song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu6q5kRY2M8), gnu is pronounced GUHnew in my head
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