Words that make you sound stupid if you pronounce them the way they're spelled

roux

ballet

Wednesday and February come to mind…

gourmet

My dad left me a message once “Jen from Two Cu Sun called”. Knowing where in Arizona Jen lived, I laughed at him. His response? " I know where I meant, and I knew you would too, so I didn’t worry about spelling." :smiley:

Been there, done that when I started speaking English. :o

See also: gnat.

I also mispronounced “orgy” (wrong g-sound) which made everyone crack up completely.

And vinegar is tricky. (I pronounced the “vine” part like grapeVINE and then stuck on the “gar”)

timbre (pronounced tam’ ber)

Which part of the word are you taking issue with? “Not” is certainly acceptable, and I can see (zee) where some slurring could produce a “z” sound instead of an “s” sound. I doubt most people would notice the difference.

My candidate:

infrared: looks like in-frayred.

subpoena

toupee

[Ben Stiller]

Favre.

[/Ben Stiller]

queue

Superfluous. For years I pronounced it as “super-flew-us.” My family still mocks me about it.

Not sure who you’re talking to but I always hear “nazi” pronounced to rhyme with “yahtzee”. There’s kinda a stop between the ah and the zee sound. I will (still!) occasionally mispornounce “nazis” as rhyming with “as is”. This happens when I start babbling too fast as I visualize how words are spelled when I’m talking…

minutae

omnipotent

How else would you say it? :dubious: :slight_smile:

I believe among others, George H.W. Bush pronounces it “Nat-zee”.
And Of Course, we all know who says “nuke-yuh-ler” coughWCough

And I also am a big fan of that FedEx commercial.

victuals

Worcestershire

solder

salmon

technical

chorus

Worcestershire.

Uh, hi, Jenaroph. Eesh.

Sometimes I see “heresy” as “here-sy” (hear see).

I thought “epoch” was pronounced “ee-pock” for the longest time.