# Very stupid overheard conversations **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 30, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858 "2020-11-30T21:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/281 "2021-02-04T20:06:34Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Overheard at a restaurant: “Remember the time Roseanne sang ‘O Canada’ to the tune of ‘O Christmas Tree’?” I’ve always wanted to do ‘O Canada’ to the tune of ‘O Superman’. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/282 "2021-02-04T20:12:13Z")
Or vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/283 "2021-02-04T20:26:21Z")
I’d settle for “Oh Hanukkah.” ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/284 "2021-02-05T01:44:38Z")
English spelling is terrible. It’s common for intelligent, well-read people to misspell and mispronounce words, because English spelling isn’t phonetic. You can sound things out sometimes, but there are enough traps that you can’t rely on it. You really just have to memorize. So there are many mispronunciations and misspellings I wouldn’t call stupid. It would be dumb for an adult to pronounce “cough” as if it were “cog” (unless it was as a joke), but putting the accent on the wrong syllable of “execrable” is just a matter of not knowing. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/285 "2021-02-05T02:55:06Z")
Back in middle school, I happened to mention that I liked butter PE-c’n ice cream, and was immediately assaulted with a chorus of “pe-KAHN”! Apparently my whole family said it wrong. Positively mortifying for my young self! Once heard a guy on NPR talking about a puh-RID-ih-gum. Took a few seconds to realize he meant paradigm. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/286 "2021-02-05T03:08:44Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > . . . I happened to mention that I liked butter PE-c’n ice cream. . . That’s how a lot of people pronounce it in Britain. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/287 "2021-02-05T03:16:23Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Once heard a guy on NPR talking about a puh-RID-ih-gum. Took a few seconds to realize he meant paradigm. As long as its used correctly, I cut some slack. When I was college age and my sister was in middle school, we were talking and she mispronounced an exotic term, but she used it correctly. I corrected her and she looked at me and said “The problem with reading a lot of books is that I know a lot more words than I can pronounce.” I could only agree. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/288 "2021-02-05T03:24:05Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > I could only agree. I agree also and it still happens to me~ah, the sweet perils of reading… ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/289 "2021-02-05T03:52:20Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Back in middle school, I happened to mention that I liked butter PE-c’n ice cream, and was immediately assaulted with a chorus of “pe-KAHN”! Apparently my whole family said it wrong. Positively mortifying for my young self! This is a weird one because both sound correct to me, and I can’t really remember which way I’d normally say it! I think I actually use both pronunciations, “I’ll have some butter pe-KAHN ice cream and then a handful of PEA-cans.” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/290 "2021-02-05T04:20:24Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Overheard at a restaurant: “Remember the time Roseanne sang ‘O Canada’ to the tune of ‘O Christmas Tree’?” When we lived in the US, my Canadian wife attended a social event that started with the Pledge of Allegiance, and she stood mute, then explained “I’m Canadian”. Someone asked “Don’t you say the Pledge of Allegiance in Canada?” ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/291 "2021-02-05T04:25:33Z")
I can’t remember what podcast I was listening to (Radiolab?) but it was a collection of people who lived a long time before learning something very obvious. One of the women was having a conversation with her college friends and someone mentioned a unicorn. So she said, “I forget. Are unicorns extinct or just endangered?” Everybody laughed, of course, until they realized she was serious. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/292 "2021-02-05T04:44:14Z")
I was riding the bus back from college in Indianapolis in 2000, and there was a mother there with her four-or-five-year-old son. The son was standing up in his seat and generally making a ruckus, and another rider complained about it. (As I recall, we had to stop the bus and get the police involved). The inattentive mother screamed at the complainer, “Did you squeeze that boy out of your pussy?” ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/293 "2021-02-05T09:02:26Z")
Even funnier if the complainer was male. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/294 "2021-02-05T12:05:09Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > For me it was _execrable_ . Whaddaya mean, it’s not ex-EC-ra-ble? Wait… \ Oh, EX-ec-ra-ble…now I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that word spoken or used it myself out loud. I know I used it recently, but I think I only typed it as one does these days. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/295 "2021-02-05T15:12:53Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > This is a weird one because both sound correct to me, and I can’t really remember which way I’d normally say it! I think I actually use both pronunciations, “I’ll have some butter pe-KAHN ice cream and then a handful of PEA-cans.” Agreed on those two. But **FCM** was talking about PEE-c’ns with a schwa in the second syllable. That’s just wrong. “Almond” is a fun one too. “AH-mund” bordering on “AH-m’nd” seems to be the default US pronunciation. Though often the trailing D gets mostly or entirely swallowed. So “AH-mund” and “AH-m’nd”. But most almonds are grown in central California and folks there in the industry pronounce it “AMM’n” which rhymes with jammin’ as in informally playin’ with the band or “famine” as in mass starvation. And I hear more and more people including anywhere from a hint to a lot of the “L” sound in there along with a bigger longer initial broad A sound. They’re becoming "AAHl-mund on the way to "AAHL-mund . ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/296 "2021-02-05T15:32:22Z")
I’m reading all of these “ough” words, and am reminded of the Dr. Seuss essay [The Tough Coughs as he Ploughs the Dough](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss_bibliography). It’s about an immigrant who has a hard time with those words, at first thinking they should all be pronounced the same, and later with just mixing them up. The last part of the story has him in a boxing ring, wanting to quit, and instead of saying “Enough, enough! I’m through!” , he said it as “Enoo, enoo, I’m thruff!”. The other boxer thought he was swearing at him in a foreign language and beat him to a pulp. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/297 "2021-02-05T16:08:58Z")
A few years ago, I had 2nd period conference, 2nd being the time they had a student read the Daily Bulletin over the intercom system. At the end of the announcements they would add a vocabulary word that the English teachers would try to work into their lessons. I was outside the principal’s office (where said announcing was going on) when I heard the student say that today’s word was “En-you-eye.” Apparently the whole school heard me yell “That’s “_ennui_,” you nimrod!” in the background. I have since learned to be more supportive. Sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/298 "2021-02-05T16:13:36Z")
It happens in Spanish too and Spanish _is_ phonetic, we even have tildes to specify where the word should be stressed. But even with that, those of us who learned words by reading tend to mispronounce them, In my particular case I never paid attention to tildes when reading (or writing, to my school teachers despair), so I mispronounced a lot of of words. (I still mispronounce “Hostil”(Hostile), in my head at least. (It should be pronounded HOStil but I think of it as hosTIL)) ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/299 "2021-02-05T16:25:21Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > I’m reading all of these “ough” words, and am reminded of the Dr. Seuss essay [The Tough Coughs as he Ploughs the Dough](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss_bibliography). He missed a couple of sounds, so I’ve added two words: The tough coughs as he ploughs thoroughly through the dough. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/300 "2021-02-07T01:41:06Z")
At least the tough isn’t [ploughing up turnips near Slough](https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-ploughing-up-turnips-near-slough-windsor-n00486). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858.md?page=16)