# What words do you mispronounce in your head even though you know better? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765 "2009-05-17T17:53:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [May 18, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/21 "2009-05-18T06:51:37Z")
Another vote for “awry.” Why can’t we put a hyphen in there? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Quack\_s\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f0a364/32.png) [@Duck\_Quack\_s\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Quack_s_Echo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/22 "2009-05-18T07:37:12Z")
Segue. Anyone who uses this word or knows how to pronounce it properly is a pretentious boofhead. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/23 "2009-05-18T08:54:49Z")
> [@Dusty\_Rose](#): > > Linux. In my head, I always think of it with a long i. I have to mentally correct before I say it out loud- _every single time_. Wow. I’ve always thought, up until two seconds ago, that Linux was pronounced with a long i. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/24 "2009-05-18T08:55:02Z")
> [@Dusty\_Rose](#): > > Linux. In my head, I always think of it with a long i. I have to mentally correct before I say it out loud- _every single time_. Bugger me. How are you _supposed_ to pronounce Linux other than Lye-nux? I guess Linus Torvalds might pronounce his name Lee-noos (but I have no idea if he does). But I must confess I’ve only ever seen Linux written. My contribution - _oui_. I remember reading a book when I was a kid, and the author included some French characters. In order to underline their Frenchness, he had them say “oui” regularly, but otherwise they spoke in English. But I was too young to get this. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why all these people were pointlessly saying “Oy” all the time. Quite the revelation when I connected the word pronounced “wee” with the word spelled “oui”. But I still occasionally think “Oy” in my head as a fond gesture of recall to my old self. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/25 "2009-05-18T09:01:33Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > Bugger me. How are you _supposed_ to pronounce Linux other than Lye-nux? I guess Linus Torvalds might pronounce his name Lee-noos (but I have no idea if he does). But I must confess I’ve only ever seen Linux written. (Roughly) Lihn ihks. For me it’s vacuum. I always pronounce it vahkoom (with the oo part abnormally long) and have to correct myself. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/26 "2009-05-18T09:58:19Z")
Ignorance fought. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/27 "2009-05-18T10:40:59Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > My contribution - _oui_. I remember reading a book when I was a kid, and the author included some French characters. In order to underline their Frenchness, he had them say “oui” regularly, but otherwise they spoke in English. But I was too young to get this. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why all these people were pointlessly saying “Oy” all the time. Quite the revelation when I connected the word pronounced “wee” with the word spelled “oui”. But I still occasionally think “Oy” in my head as a fond gesture of recall to my old self. My husband was reading a book several years ago about the French Foreign Legion. According to him, it was an OK book but he wanted to know the meaning of a word which kept cropping up. “What’s oo-ee mean?” ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/28 "2009-05-18T11:38:41Z")
Necessary. I always had trouble remembering how to spell it until I started mentally pronouncing it as “neck-a-sary.” ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/29 "2009-05-18T12:26:08Z")
The name of the star Sirius (or the satellite radio, or the Alan Parson’s Project song). I want to call it SirEYEus. We can’t call it SEERius, we already _have_ a word pronounced like that! ---
**Author:** ![corvidae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@corvidae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corvidae)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/30 "2009-05-18T12:53:30Z")
Third for ‘awry’ over here. Another one (not that this comes up often, mind you) is ‘beribboned’. I always look at it and think ‘berry-boned’. ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/31 "2009-05-18T13:20:17Z")
Whenever I see the title of that hour-long commercial come up on my TV screen I always mispronounce it in my mind as “Is Collin Detox Hype?”. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/32 "2009-05-18T13:43:41Z")
> [@williamweigand](#): > > Whenever I see the title of that hour-long commercial come up on my TV screen I always mispronounce it in my mind as “Is Collin Detox Hype?”. For those of us who can’t figure it out, what is the actual spelling of the infomercial product? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/33 "2009-05-18T13:50:57Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > daschund. I ALWAYS say dash-und first. I maintain that you are not wrong. But perhaps you should pronounce it “sausage dog”. ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/34 "2009-05-18T14:37:15Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > For those of us who can’t figure it out, what is the actual spelling of the infomercial product? The word is colon. Since there was a thread a while ago discussing this “infomercial” I thought nobody wouldn’t know what I was writing about - and I was right- **Nobody** didn’t know what I was writing about! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/35 "2009-05-18T14:43:13Z")
I thought Linux was Line-ux, too, but I guess that doesn’t count by my own paramenters until I keep at it. ---
**Author:** ![Arglefraster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@Arglefraster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arglefraster)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/36 "2009-05-18T16:38:10Z")
The name Isaac. When I read it, I always hear “Iss-sack” in my head instead of “Eye-zick”. Another one for me is “seatbelt”, but that’s because of the book Good Omens. It’s one of my favorite books and I’ve read it many many times. In it, there’s a character that has a weird japanese car that they only made a few of. The various alerts (like door ajar, etc) are spoken in very very bad english. If he doesn’t have his seatbelt on, the alert tells him to “frasten sleetbert”. Now, whenever I see the word “seatbelt”, I always pronounce it in my head as “sleetbert”. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/37 "2009-05-18T16:53:43Z")
Penelope. To me it’s penuh-lope. StG ---
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/38 "2009-05-18T16:55:22Z")
> [@ThirdOne](#): > > When I was a kid, one of the Sunday comic strips used “bleah” which I read bleee, when it is really bleh. My family thought I was extremely funny. Barney Google and Snuffy Smith was a comic strip in the paper when I was a kid. It often used the word “bodacious” which, to this day, I still see as “bo-dack-ee-us.” I can’t for the life of me remember to say Nicolas Sarkozy’s name as “sar-ko-ZEE”. I always blurt out “sar-KO-zee,” all the while knowing I said it wrong, but by then it’s too late and I’m being corrected left and right. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/39 "2009-05-18T16:59:19Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Other names I refuse to pronounce as requested out of sheer cussedness. Like the very talented actor Ralph Fiennes. His dad’s name was Mark, and his brother is named Joseph and both are pronounced normally. But his name is supposed to be pronounced “rafe”? Bite me. My (po-SIB-lie wrong) understanding is that it has been pronounced Rafe for hundreds of years, and that that has always been the correct pronunciation. It’s only when it became Americanized that we made it sound more like a euphemism for puke. When I was in first grade the teacher told us what various punctuation marks meant. When she explained exclamation points, she said “Surprised like _gasp_.” She actually make the gasping sound. I took her at her word, and actually made that sound whenever I read an exclamation out loud. If I read “Run, Dick, run!!!” I would gasp three times. My parents thought that that was adorable. I suspect they were right. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/40 "2009-05-18T17:28:30Z")
As with other posters, much of my vocabulary came from reading, and I had a few mispronounced words. Chaos… I pronounced it “CHAY - OHHS” Rendevous… “Rendayvoos” There are others… Regards FML [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765.md?page=3)