# Words (and expressions) that look or sound funny... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 14, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441 "2010-03-14T14:53:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/41 "2010-03-16T20:02:27Z")
I know several Nguyens, and they all are pronounced “win” around here (Pacific NW). I asked one friend how it’s natively supposed to be pronounced when not cleaned up for american phonemes. He said it is still “win” but the “w” doesn’t start with the lips. It starts with the tongue in the back roof of the throat and moves forward into the “w” sound. ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/42 "2010-03-16T20:28:59Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > This has always bugged me, too. I mean, what is a “Chris Steak” to begin with? > > And what’s so unique about Ruth having one of her own? > > I never eat there. It’s too crowded and too expensive. WAG here: It sounds like Chris Steakhouse is has been franchised to Ruth, so this particular “Chris Steakhouse” is run and owned by Ruth. Kind of like how Hallmark stores will put a name in front of it (there’s a “Larry’s Hallmark” and “Steve’s Hallmark” right off the bat on google maps in San Jose). ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/43 "2010-03-16T20:31:30Z")
One of my aunts when I was growing up was fond of the phrase “an arm and a leg”. The way she pronounced it was “a nominal egg”, and I ended up using that and thinking that was what she meant up until I was IN COLLEGE. :eek: This is a great topic, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/44 "2010-03-16T20:43:08Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > This is a great topic, BTW. Thanks for that. It’s always exciting to have a topic catch fire like this one. After so many 0-replies threads, especially. They’re hard to predict, so you just keep stacking the wood. What’s really a treat is when they get dozens of Dopers piling on each post. Wildfire! ---
**Author:** ![uncle\_squeegee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b5e925/32.png) [@uncle\_squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uncle_squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/45 "2010-03-16T22:06:25Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Good ones. Some that bug me when I see them in print are: gunshy, barfly, infrared, and, believe it or not, does. There’s a billboard on my route home from work for an Android phone with the tagline that reads something like “What other phones don’t, we do. Android: A big bucket of does.” Which I constantly read as “A big bucket of [female deer].” Superfluous is one of many words that I have to pause before saying in order to properly pronounce. If I don’t it comes out “super-FLOO-us.” ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/46 "2010-03-17T02:34:50Z")
> [@Apex\_Rogers](#): > > WAG here: It sounds like Chris Steakhouse is has been franchised to Ruth, so this particular “Chris Steakhouse” is run and owned by Ruth. Kind of like how Hallmark stores will put a name in front of it (there’s a “Larry’s Hallmark” and “Steve’s Hallmark” right off the bat on google maps in San Jose). Turns out there was one Chris Steak House in New Orleans, and Ruth bought it, then started franchising the concept. From [this page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth%27s_Chris_Steak_House): > [@](#): > > The chain was founded by the late Ruth Fertel, a single mother of two, in 1965, after she bought the existing Chris Steak House in New Orleans. In buying the restaurant, Fertel had to agree that the restaurant keep the “Chris” name for a specified period of time. After the original location sustained a kitchen fire, she relocated the restaurant about one-half mile (0.9 km) to the west on Broad Street and renamed the rebuilt establishment “Ruth’s Chris.” Under the purchase agreement, the name “Chris Steak House” could not be used at any other location, and she did not want to lose customers already familiar with the Chris name. Fertel started to franchise the restaurant in the 1970s to locations throughout the United States and throughout the world. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/47 "2010-03-17T06:43:36Z")
For some reason, the two :smack: moments that I’ve always remembered were a long way back: I was raised Catholic, was an Altar Boy, but was in my late teens before I connected the spoken and written word “acolyte.” About the same time, same thing with “rendezvous.” . ---
**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:** [March 17, 2010, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/48 "2010-03-17T08:02:45Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > “a nominal egg” Band Name! Or book title. _Ennui_ gets me every time. I thought it was pronounced “N-U-I”. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/49 "2010-03-17T11:03:45Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Band Name! Or book title. > > _Ennui_ gets me every time. I thought it was pronounced “N-U-I”. French as a general rule must have a policy that if there’s any way possible to disguise a word by way of its spelling that you must do that. I must have told this before on SDMB, but there was a little kid in first grade with the initials O.Z., and when the teacher asked him what they stood for her told her Henri Xavier. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/50 "2010-03-17T15:00:27Z")
I think I was in high school before I figured out what the word “Illustrated” was. I mean, the capital “I” and the lower-case “L” looked almost identical, and how are you supposed to pronounce a word that starts with THREE of either?!? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/51 "2010-03-17T16:31:04Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I know this is a regional thing, but here in the UK, the distinction would be important - without the ~meat suffix, the word ‘Hamburger’ exclusively means the disc-shaped incarnation of the stuff. I am specifically referring to people and/or recipes that say they need to buy a pound of hamburger **meat**. Simply saying you need a pound of hamburger suffices, or a pound of ground beef. To say you need a pound of hamburger **meat** just sounds redundantly stupid to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/52 "2010-03-17T17:19:35Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > …And every variety (we must hope) has some distinctive quality or mixture of fat and lean, or fresh and rotting, or real beef and other (hopefully) animal components. Ground Bull Scrotums and Lips. 100% animal components! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/53 "2010-03-17T17:25:41Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Ground Bull Scrotums and Lips. 100% animal components! Indeed. Does anybody know if there are legal restricitions to what portions of domestic bovines cannot be called “beef”? If not, _caveat emptor_! ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/54 "2010-03-18T00:48:12Z")
Scrotums, Lips,… Legally it’s all “beef” _Caveat emptor_! Yum, Yum… ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/55 "2010-03-18T01:20:33Z")
> [@uncle\_squeegee](#): > > There’s a billboard on my route home from work for an Android phone with the tagline that reads something like “What other phones don’t, we do. Android: A big bucket of does.” Which I constantly read as “A big bucket of [female deer].” Are you me?! I hate that sign! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/56 "2010-03-18T09:05:24Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > I’m from San Jose, which has a high Vietnamese population, and that’s how I’ve always heard it pronounced, too. I wonder if there would be a market for bumper stickers saying: VIETNAM FOR THE NGUYEN! Probably not, actually. A couple of words that trip me up that have already been mentioned… “barfly” and “biopic” which I always mentally read to rhyme with “myopic”. Also I always mentally sound out the abbreviation “cwt” as “kilowatt” even though I know perfectly well that it’s hundredweight. And I know how to pronounce “epitome”, but if I’m reading it it always gives me pause as I go back to correct myself. ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/57 "2010-03-18T11:27:49Z")
The words “jubilee” and “jamboree” drive me up the wall for some unknown reason. Especially the second one. They just look and sound so unnatural. ---
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/58 "2010-03-19T21:44:04Z")
For years, I thought that there were 2 words with the same meaning: debris (DEB-riss) and debree (duh-BREE). ---
**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:** [March 19, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/59 "2010-03-19T22:14:25Z")
In high school (Oklahoma) we had this guy who came from Great Neck who practically qualified as an exchange student. He said all sorts of weird things. Like when you said bye to him, he’d say, “Chow.” Every once in awhile something would give him odd j’ta (at first I thought “hodgepodge” in a very weird pronunciation)…a word not generally used among Okies. A word NEVER used among Okies. Ciao and agita. When playing bridge, every once in awhile somebody would accuse somebody else of renigging. A bad thing–picking up the card you had already thrown down and putting down a different one. I figured it was some esoteric bridge term. Meanwhile, in literature, every noun then someone would r’neej on a promise or something. Eventually I figured out this was one word: Renege. My mother had a friend who would say, on parting, “Well, give me a holler.” That always sounded wrong. It sounded like she meant “hollow,” except “holler” is correct. But it doesn’t sound like it. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441/60 "2010-03-19T22:32:27Z")
> [@uncle\_squeegee](#): > > There’s a billboard on my route home from work for an Android phone with the tagline that reads something like “What other phones don’t, we do. Android: A big bucket of does.” Which I constantly read as “A big bucket of [female deer].” I saw one of those signs while traveling recently, and snickered about it. They might want to rethink that slogan in areas with a high percentage of hunters. “Droid does”=“Hey, was that deer speakin’ Bocce?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-expressions-that-look-or-sound-funny/532441.md?page=4)