# Is that how it's spelled? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2009, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426 "2009-12-08T09:22:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/41 "2009-12-08T23:30:21Z")
Eight Gauge And, of course, Frasmotic. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/42 "2009-12-09T01:04:13Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > I’m looking for fairly common words with pronunciations that just do not match their spellings. Two words that come to mind are _ **victuals** _ and _ **segue** _. If you’ve only heard these words spoken I bet you would be surprised by how they’re spelled. Or if you run into these two words in writing for the first time I bet you would not pronounce them correctly. Are there other good examples of words like these? So how _do_ you pronounce “victuals”? If I’ve heard it in RL, I didn’t recognize it. So it’s not vik-tchu-als? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/43 "2009-12-09T01:22:49Z")
vittles ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/44 "2009-12-09T01:30:39Z")
then there are proper names. England has three family names spelled (approximately, who could remeber them) Marjoriebanks, Fetherstonhaugh, Chomondeley, that are pronounced, respectively, Marchbanks, Fanshaw, and Chumly. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/45 "2009-12-09T01:50:07Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Most of these words are loans of non-English words, and the spelling is entirely consistent with the pronunciation in the original language. > > The majority are French, most of the rest are Greek, and a _very_ basic understanding of how those languages pronounce words makes almost every word in this thread easy to understand/pronounce. Except for _lingerie_, which Americans have given a bizarre pronunciation that makes sense in neither English nor French. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/46 "2009-12-09T02:04:24Z")
A lot of the examples provided, such as victuals, chitterlings, and forecastle are pronounced because the fashion that arose in (roughly) the 16th centuryt to simply not pronounce the middle consonants in long words. Speech then would have sounded very strange and clipped to an English speaker today because they did that with most polysyllabic words. Eventually the fashion of pronouncing them fully came back, but only for some words. As Hari Seldon points out, this also happened to many proper names - consider Greenwich, which obviously should be pronounced “Green-witch” but is instead pronounced “Grennitch.” In fact, it’s quite impossible in many cases to guess how some names were originally pronounced because they’d be spelled a dozen ways or more. William Shakespeare spelled his last name at least a few different ways and none of them were the way we spell it now. A neat example is the word “cuss,” meaning to curse. In fact, “cuss” IS “curse,” or it used to be. That’s just the way a lot of people pronounced the word “curse” for many years, simply dropping the middle R, and eventually it took hold with a new spelling and now we have two words where once we had one. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/47 "2009-12-09T02:18:24Z")
> [@](#): > > My contribution: viscount. How is it pronounced? I’ve only ever encountered the word in print (at least, I think I have), and just assumed that it was pronounced how it’s spelled. Is the S silent or something? ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/48 "2009-12-09T02:24:55Z")
**Chronos** , yes, and the first syllabe is more like “vy” rather than the vowel in “vis,” if I remember correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/49 "2009-12-09T05:30:54Z")
comfortable ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/50 "2009-12-09T07:37:42Z")
I like ‘geoduck’, as it’s obviously wrong, yet persists. By the way, what other languages have such inconsistency in their written forms? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/51 "2009-12-09T08:10:05Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > then there are proper names. England has three family names spelled (approximately, who could remeber them) Marjoriebanks, Fetherstonhaugh, Chomondeley, that are pronounced, respectively, Marchbanks, Fanshaw, and Chumly. See my post, #12. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/52 "2009-12-09T08:39:35Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > then there are proper names. England has three family names spelled (approximately, who could remeber them) Marjoriebanks, Fetherstonhaugh, Chomondeley, that are pronounced, respectively, Marchbanks, Fanshaw, and Chumly. Not to mention Tagliapharo/Tolliver ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/53 "2009-12-09T12:19:09Z")
Nuptial. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/54 "2009-12-09T12:44:15Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > A friend of mine thought “Au Fait” was spelled “Ofé” Better that than ‘ofay’, I think. Meanwhile, I’ve been mispronouncing ‘victuals’ in my head for decades, and now have it right. Thanks SDMB! ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/55 "2009-12-09T13:17:21Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > I’m looking for fairly common words with pronunciations that just do not match their spellings. Two words that come to mind are _ **victuals** _ and _ **segue** _. If you’ve only heard these words spoken I bet you would be surprised by how they’re spelled. Or if you run into these two words in writing for the first time I bet you would not pronounce them correctly. Are there other good examples of words like these? I just learned something. Every time I can recall seeing it in print, it’s been spelled “vittles”. I think whenever I saw the real spelling, I just figured what it meant in context, but never equated it to a pronounciation. Probably the popular pet food brand “Tender Vittles” cemented it into my mind. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/56 "2009-12-09T13:21:03Z")
I had a new coworker/friend at an office I worked at who was from Denmark. He was doing his best to fit in, even participating in our weekly NFL pool. He came to me and asked my opinion of the team from Fernicks. “Fernicks?” I asked. “Yes, the Fernicks Cardinals.” ---
**Author:** ![Negative\_Lite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Negative\_Lite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Negative_Lite)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/57 "2009-12-09T14:02:09Z")
Rapport rhymes with adore. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/58 "2009-12-09T14:20:51Z")
Vinegar. ---
**Author:** ![Xotan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/278dde/32.png) [@Xotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xotan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/59 "2009-12-09T15:14:10Z")
Re English family names: A young man called Cholmondely Colquhoun As a pet kept a hairy babelquhoun. His mother said, 'Cholmondely, Do you think it quite colmondeley To feed your babelquhoun with a spelquhoun. Clue - Colquhoun is pronounced cohoon and Chol,ondeley is Chumley. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426/60 "2009-12-09T15:43:45Z")
I am (was?) a high-school dropout. That means I had few fundamental courses. Fast forward about five or six years later, I’ve made a few changes, accomplished a few things, and now I’m an undergraduate at Columbia University. Sitting in a chemistry class. My first chemistry class. With Columbia students. :eek: Keeping up the first year or so of school was a bit of a challenge — most students had taken courses such as AP Chemistry, so I had to teach myself a lot of the material before the semester. My background generally went unnoticed, but every once in a while it sort of peeked out. In a nice, large lecture hall, I gave an answer using the word “cashon.” Giggles kept erupting, but I was sure I had the correct answer — cashon cashon cashon, answered I. How else are you supposed to pronounce a word that ends in –tion?! :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-its-spelled/520426.md?page=4)