I’m trying to put together a list for a family member who isn’t a lifelong English speaker. She was reading something aloud in her college class and came across the word “indict”. She pronounced it the way its spelled and some of her classmates laughed. She’s quite intelligent, so she’s not used to being laughed at in class. Anyway, to spare her any further embarrassment, I’m trying to put together a list and would like your help.
So far, I came up with:
Resume (employment history)
Segue, epitome, oyxmoron, paradigm, and hyperbole all have tripped up either me or friends of mine.
phlegm
rendezvous
enough…(any word ending in gh)
That’s all I have right now, I’ll think of some more and be back.
miniseries - not mini-series but mi-ni-ze-ries to rhyme with misery, I used to screw this up all the time.
nazi - I’ve actually said nah-zi before (hangs head in shame)
How about facade? (Sorry, don’t know how to do the little thingy on the the “c”).
First off, the people that laughed at her should be ashamed of themselves…
How about just gently correcting her…damn that makes me mad.
tremorviolet- I have heard people pronounce Nazi as “Not-Zee”…Luckily this is word not heard in everyday conversation…unless you’re talking history.
The word that always used to get butchered by me is “ubiquitous”…I can’t even think of a phonetic way to express how bad I used to slaughter that word!
Another word that gets me is: “Polysyllabic”…I always want to pronounce that “a” as an “uh” sound…as in “polly-sill-uh-bic”…with stress on the “sill”
potpourri
apropros
pneumonia
any word beginning with “ps” (psycholology, etc.)
words with the letters “gh” in the middle (daughter, laughter, etc)
recipe
gnome
debt
subtle
boutique = boo-tee-que
façade. alt 0231
yacht
anything with Y in it (mystery, stymie, etc)
the
gauge
guarantee
colonel
ketsup
beau/beaut(y)
rogue/rouge
How about faux paus? I’m not even sure if I’m spelling it right. There’s a poster around here that goes by the name of Fox Paws, though.
yacht
island
debris
fasten
mortgage
cocoa
listen
knew
pterodactyl
coup
words ending in “mb” (lamb, tomb, etc.)
Sword.
buffet
Caesar
chord, chasm, charisma (any word with “ch” in it may be presumed to be pronounced like the “ch” in cheese).
feign
queue
knowledge, knife, knee, etc. (some people may think you pronounce the k)
phone, phase, pharacy, philosophy, etc.
Cupboard
Hors d’oeuvres
Pinochle
Misled (I often read this as my-zled instead of mis-led)
Island
Melancholy.
My wife got tripped up on this word in grade school, and neither of her parents knew how to pronounce it, either, so she gave a report where she read the word aloud as spelled. She’s still mortified by it.
Have you seen the FedEx or UPS commercial where the guy comes in and wants to ship a package to “Puh - HOE - nicks”? The clerk says “where??” He cops an attitude and says, “It’s only the largest city in Arizona.” The gal in the other line says, “You mean Phoenix?”
Saw it for the first time last night - it cracked me up!
Another one that always gets me: merely. I know now to pronounce it mere-ly , but when I read it I still think merri-ly .
champagne
words beginning in “rh” (rhapsody, rhinoceros)
words ending in “gn” (foreign, benign)
Antigone
Thames
and the aforementioned epitome
All learned through humiliation in Honors English. :smack: