# 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:** 2
### Author:  [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/21 "2022-02-20T08:15:54Z")
Two words when read out loud my brain mispronounces before my mouth get it right:
hyperbole ‘hyper bowl’
epitome “epi tome”
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/22 "2022-02-20T08:40:47Z")
Awry = aw-ree
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/23 "2022-02-20T09:09:24Z")
bee uh you tea full, because that’s how I learned to spell it correctly
For me, 4 lbs. becomes 4 ulbs
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/24 "2022-02-20T11:31:12Z")
There’s a regional car-sales aggregator in my neck of the woods called “Car Avenue.” You see their website on the plate frame on a fair number of vehicles around here.
But the way the words run together in the site name, I like mentally hearing it as “Cara Venue.”
It’s nonsense and a dumb little amusement, but the brain bored in traffic will take what it can get.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/25 "2022-02-20T13:32:28Z")
> [@Balthisar](#):
>
> The image format is always going to be a hard g and never a soft g. It’s not peanut butter.
I agree; the creator of the GIF file is wrong about the way he claims it should be pronounced, I don’t care if he named it!
In a similar vein, I’ve heard that the creator of the JSON file says it should be pronounced ‘JAY-son’, like the first name Jason, but I can’t not pronounce it ‘jay-SAHN’.
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### Author:  [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/26 "2022-02-20T13:44:39Z")
Two come right to mind:
(1) If I see a group of cattle I inevitably say “beeves”
(2) My Dad did this to all of his kids: he would say ocean as O-shen, two distinct syllables, emphasis on the “O.” I will always say ocean properly in company. But if I’m alone it’s O-shen.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/27 "2022-02-20T14:43:39Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#):
>
> epitome “epi tome”
Yo-zuh-mite
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### Author:  [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/28 "2022-02-20T19:03:35Z")
Hah! You beat me to the punch. For me though it’s YOSE-mite ( with a hard “s” )
Nearly the same as you for the word vegetable: “Vetch-table”
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/29 "2022-02-20T20:05:37Z")
> [@Folly](#):
>
> > [@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!
I’ll be damned. Me too. Although I’ve found a couple of sites that give “ob-FEW-skate” as the correct pronunciation, so maybe it’s a matter of dialect.
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/30 "2022-02-20T20:08:23Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#):
>
> Knight = kahniggt
That is actually very close to the original Anglo-Saxon pronunciation. Apparently, that was part of the joke in Holy Grail when the French taunter referred to Arthur & Co. as “Ka-NIG-its”, because originally it was the English calling the Normans that.
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### Author:  [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/31 "2022-02-20T21:01:25Z")
Giuliani = Ghoul-eee-any
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/32 "2022-02-20T21:09:48Z")
> [@BrickBat](#):
>
> For me though it’s YOSE-mite ( with a hard “s” )
For me it’s “Yo, Semite.”
And therapist = “The rapist”, thanks to that old SNL Celerity Jeopardy sketch.
Hyperbole = “Hyper Bowl”, which sounds like it’s even bigger than the Super Bowl.
I like to call the store Target “TAR-ghee”, as if it were a French word.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/33 "2022-02-20T21:24:31Z")
hors d’oeuvre=whore devor. People switch the v-r. From Wikipedia:
**hors d’oeuvre** ([/ɔːr ˈdɜːrv(rə)/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) [_or DURV(-rə)_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key); [French](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language): _hors-d’œuvre_ [[ɔʁ dœvʁ]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/French)
Wow, some even double the r in English, or dervres? You can see the French don’t. Brett Favre’s name—announcers pronounce it Farve. I wonder if it’s correct or if people with names like that get tired of correcting people.
Shelly Fabares…not Fabray?
cooperate=coop erate. If you do it again do you recoop erate?
calliope=cally ope
Also from Wikipedia: Outside Italy, mascarpone is sometimes mispronounced “ma **r** scapone”, even by food professionals.
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### Author:  [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/34 "2022-02-20T22:15:09Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#):
>
> I like to call the store Target “TAR-ghee”, as if it were a French word.
I used to like to do that to needle this girl I knew. She was a RW Francophobe very much in the thrall of the whole bash-the-French / “freedom fries” mold.
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/35 "2022-02-20T22:28:46Z")
Cathedral, fiery are the two that come to mind but I have a long list. Back in elementary school, I kept pronouncing words wrong so I was coached in phonetics (this is pre- Hooked on Phonics). It didn’t help and, for a bit, screwed me up further. A huge part of my problem was that I took to reading like a hummingbird to nectar and was reading words I had yet to hear and not asking for help in sounding them out. But another part of the problem was not so obvious at the time because it wasn’t common knowledge and nobody knew to look for it. I was dyslexic.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/36 "2022-02-20T22:56:58Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#):
>
> When people mean “its” but write “it’s”, I pronounce it “it is”, as in “I grabbed the cat by it is tail”.
If I’m confronted by something along the lines of _He lead the police on a merry chase_, my brain insists on earworming me with _He LEED the police on a merry chase_. This causes pain in my brain, and I feel obliged to politely ask the perpetrator to please stop doing that.
Well. Perhaps the word “politely” is _not_ exactly descriptive of the manner in which I present my request. The presentation of the request remains non-negotiable.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/37 "2022-02-20T23:04:59Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#):
>
> I like to call the store Target “TAR-ghee”, as if it were a French word.
Funny. It looks more like [Sanskrit](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee).
I’ve often had fun with the names of prescription medications, such TRAY-Zod 1, and Few-roe-SEM-i-dee.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/38 "2022-02-20T23:11:30Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> If I’m confronted by something along the lines of _He lead the police on a merry chase_ , my brain insists on earworming me with _He LEED the police on a merry chase_ . This causes pain in my brain, and I feel obliged to politely ask the perpetrator to please stop doing that.
Yes, that too!
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/39 "2022-02-20T23:18:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Funny. It looks more like [Sanskrit](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee).
I agree. Target once had an in-store brand called Miss Targè.
Try: Tarzhey
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-words-you-insist-on-reading-wrong-in-your-head-at-least/959805/40 "2022-02-20T23:18:37Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> 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.
Not me. I pronounce it the way Steve Martin does in **My Blue Heaven** - all 4 syllables.
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