# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/61 "2009-05-20T02:09:21Z")
> [@Dusty\_Rose](#): > > So did I. Lord, I’m starting to feel like an idiot!! 😃 It’s a big club but there’s always room for one more. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/62 "2009-05-20T03:02:01Z")
Epitome. I want to say epi-tome instead of e-pit-toe-mee. Paradigm. I want to say para-diggem. And those pedestrian crossing signs? Yep, those will always be ped zing signs for me. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/63 "2009-05-20T03:56:18Z")
I was in my mid-20s before I heard the correct pronunciation of cock-OH-phony. (cacophony) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/64 "2009-05-20T04:00:33Z")
I’ll join in the good spellers who mispronounce for purposes of remembering how the word is spelled. And like a lot of them, I had a much larger reading vocabulary than I did–or do–have a pronouncing vocabulary. So connoisseur is not pronounced k’NOISier? Also, thanks loads to the Harry Potter movies for revealing to me _and my son_ that I can’t pronounce ordinary English names. Oh, I got the Weasley boys okay, and I think I did all right with Dumbledore. Really blew Hermy-own, Hay-grid, and a bunch of other I now can’t recall. Grrr. The spelling really misled\* me. \*Also, even though it’s a fairly easy word, and I know it’s Miss Led, I still hear it in my head as mizzled. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/65 "2009-05-20T13:00:46Z")
Not a mispronunciation exactly, but thanks to “A Clockwork Orange” I often think of appendicitis as “appendy-shite-house”. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/66 "2009-05-21T01:13:19Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I had a hard time with Persephone. > > I said it two ways in my head. > > One was PersUH fonee with the emphasis on UH. Like Persa Phony > > the other was Persa fone. > > :smack: Um… until now I always thought it was (and read it as) Pheresphone, which I pronounced fair-es-fone (as in the first word in Ferris Wheel + Phone as in Telephone). So… yeah, oops. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/67 "2009-05-21T04:13:47Z")
Salmon. I always pronounce the “L”. ---
**Author:** ![CrimeThink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90db22/32.png) [@CrimeThink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrimeThink)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/68 "2009-05-21T19:47:52Z")
Facade is Fack-aid when I read and Chasm is chaz-um before I realize that I am dumb. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/69 "2009-05-21T20:29:24Z")
> [@Bamboo\_Boy](#): > > I do this. > > Indict I say “in-dict” me too so I’m gonna go try to find out why indict is “indight” but interdict is not “interdight” (or is it?) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/70 "2009-05-22T22:02:02Z")
ethereal. In my head it’s e-thed-ral. I don’t know where the d comes from, but I mentally add it every single time. I have to mentally mispronounce primeval prime-val to spell it correctly. I have no idea if I pronounce Linux correctly, but friends in college who used it taught me to say Lynixs. Is **nobody** ’s professor right or wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/71 "2009-05-22T23:17:00Z")
I must have run into Goethe’s name somewhere when I was young and before I learned how to pronounce German words. Whenever I see it, there’s still a little voice in the back of my head that tries to tell me that name is pronounced Go-eth. (Off at a tangent: I was once proofing the transcript of a speech before posting it on the Web site where I worked; the speaker had quoted Goethe, but the transcriber was evidently unfamiliar with the name and spelled it Gouda, like the cheese.) ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/72 "2009-05-22T23:43:55Z")
Remuneration. Renumeration is the way I always want to pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/73 "2009-05-24T05:04:54Z")
Patina. It ought to have the stress on the first syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/74 "2009-05-24T13:48:59Z")
Epitome. My tongue knows it’s pronounce e-PI-toe-mee, but in my head, it’s always E-pi-tohm. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/75 "2009-05-24T14:29:01Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > Patina. It ought to have the stress on the first syllable. Either pronunciation is acceptable: pa-TEEN-uh, or PAT-en-uh. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/76 "2009-05-24T14:32:27Z")
I mispronounce three words knowingly. Two, “coyote” (dropping the final “e”) and “Mesa Verde” (going with the English pronunciation of the “s”, no rolled “r” and dropping the final “e”) are because if I pronounced them correctly everyone in my area of Colorado would look at me as a pretentious pain in the ass. The other is something of a homage (which I occasionally pronounce with the audible “h” so I don’t sound pretentious) to my father. When I was young, I came down with an illness that had me staying in the hospital far too regularly. To make the place less intimidating to me, my father took to calling it the “horse pistol”. It became our joke and it really did help. As a kid it is hard to take seriously a place that you call by a silly nickname. When he went into a hospital to die a few years ago we renewed our joke. I have continued it. ---
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/77 "2009-05-24T23:01:22Z")
I got my mother to censor her words. For her whole life she pronounced accept as assept. I corrected her a couple of times, and of course we had to look it up, and I gave her a few related words to remind her of the correct pronunciation. So now, just with me, she will self-censor the word, stopping in mid-sentence to think of another phrasing, but is still unable to say the word correctly. ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765/78 "2009-05-24T23:50:02Z")
Epitome and segue both took me a long time to figure out. The one that always throws me is khaki. When I first saw it in print I figured it was KAH-ki (sort of sounds like cocky). My mother laughed her ass off when I pronounced it like that and I corrected myself, but I still have to think about it every time I say it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-do-you-mispronounce-in-your-head-even-though-you-know-better/496765.md?page=3)