These are not about me (me? I NEVER mispronounce words! Ummmm), but about a former bf of mine.
One time he was talking about a horror movie he had seen and said something about a “severed head”—pronounced like ‘severe’, but with a ‘d’ on the end.
Another time I was asking him how I should dress to a party we were going to and he suggested I wear my “sah-queened” skirt. Paused. Oh—sequined.
I have a hard time with DRAUGHT - I always read scifi when I was younger, and that was the only place I ever saw it. It wasn’t until I started serving tables that I’d see it and still want to say it DROTT
Then there’s fetid, which apparently should be FET-id, but which I’ve always pronounced (in my head, how often to you actually hear this one?) fet-EED
When I was in third grade I tried to say the word Yacht - with the ch included. Got laughed at. I know better now.
A lot of people seem to pronounce the word NUCLEAR wrong. It’s NOO-klee-er, not NOO-Q-ler. I was watching the Robin Williams special and he said it wrong every time. Where did this mispronunciation come from?
Also, mischievous. So many people say mis CHEE-vee-us when it should be MIS-chiv-us. And “suposably” instead of “supposedly.”
I often pronounce words (in my head) the way they’re spelled, out of sheer orneriness–after all, if they didn’t want them pronounced that way, they shouldn’t be spelled that way!
Some examples:
belle is prounced like “belly”
queue is pronounced “kweewee” (rhymes with “kiwi”)
indict is pronounced just like it’s spelled, c and all
and yes, draught is pronounced “drawt”
Oh, and Sivalensis,
it’s pronounced “Throat-warbler Mangrove.” 
You know, it’s only recently that I heard someone say “cue” referring to a line of people and I was like [internal monologue]"…oh…"[/i.m.]
I never had the foggiest clue how it was pronounced, never thought to ask since I only come across it randomly in print (mostly on the SDMB). Until I heard it used, I always just sort of read it as “quay,” knowing that it was wrong but needing to fill in the blank.
Also, I was a fairly well-read pup, like a lot of the others here, and long before I had personal experience with “draft” beer, I always read it as drawt. Strangely, I knew it was “draft” horse but somehow never made the connection. I still internally pronounce it “drawt” unless I conciously correct myself and read it again.
Peace,
~mixie
There are so many of you commenting, that I must be missing something major, but I don’t get it. How can someone hear a word in his head while reading, differently from the way he pronounces it aloud?
I’m guessing it’s one of those “D’oh” things that everybody else gets, but you just fail to make the connection between the written word as it looks and the spoken word as it sounds. Last Thursday, I had a professor (yessir, PhD and all) use the word “segue” in lecture and pronounce it “seg-yoo”. The girl sitting next to me and I looked at each other, and I said “did she just…” “yup.” Back to taking notes.
For me, it’s a matter of my eyes working slightly faster than my brain when reading–when I read, I “hear” the words in my head at a very slightly slower rate than I understand them, if that makes sense. So sometimes, a word that doesn’t look anything like it sounds (like draught or queue) and is relatively uncommon in normal conversation (as opposed to laugh, etc) gets pronounced phonetically in my head at the same time I know it’s a line of people waiting to get into the movie. Or something. I blame it on the fact that I read way too quickly. Yes.
Upon preview, I see that this makes no sense at all. submits
Peace,
~mixie
I do the Celtic thing, too, Juniper200.
And I have unresolved issues with chastisement. I look at it when reading and know that if I had to read it alloud, I’d panic.
Mixie - and how do YOU pronounce “quay”?
(hoping I’m not the only one who thought it was pronounced “kway”…)
Well, I’ve never actually said it in conversation–I’m in Northern California and it’s just not a word that is ever used. The times I’ve read it have mostly been on the SDMB and I always read it as “quay”. However, I heard someone actually use it–and I have no idea if they were pronouncing it correctly or not–they said “cue”.
Um… could someone enlighten me? Please?
Peace,
~mixie
The actual word being “queue,” that is.
~Mixie
writhing…or the word in its various forms…i mispronounced it while tlking to a friend and he laughed…i wanted to punch that smug prick…
Yeah, I used to always mispronounce “misled” as well. In fact, I thought the word meant “to shoot down, as if with a missile.”
One that got me when I was young was “determined.” For some reason, I thought it was pronounced “deh’ ter meyened”
Barry
The word spelled “QUAY” is pronounced “KEY.” (I didn’t believe it either, I looked it up. I wonder if Key West was supposed to be Quay West?)
The word spelled “QUEUE” is pronounced “CUE.”
Now we both know!
I always had a problem with NICHE. Is is “nitch” or “neesh”?
grettle, I was taking a reading class in Greek and it was just me and the professor in his office. We’re reading the Plato’s Apology (Socrates’ Apology?) and in all of my translations I call him SO-crates (because Bill and Ted were apparently a major influence on my life…)
After about a week and a half of this, he stops me and says “Tenebras,” well, of course he didn’t call me Tenebras but you get the picture, “you do know that it’s pronouced So-cra-TES, right?” Hilarity ensued.
And as for words I pronounce wrong when reading, I have recently taken to pronouncing omega, the greek letter, as AW-me-ga in the British fashion instead of oh-MEH-ga, like all godfearing Americans ought. This is because of a string of British professors and the fact that I write along with my internal monologue, and I seem to write faster with this pronounciation. Ironically, this only ever comes up in math classes. Speaking of which, I should probably be studying for my test Wednesday. Or securing food. oh, criminy! It’s 11:00! Internet, bad.
Tenebras
I’m another queue person. I always figured it was “kweh-weh” until my friend made fun of me while he was using Kazaa. What’s funny is I can trace the etymology of my mispronunication. It goes back to a rebus puzzle that used IQE2 as a synonym for “eyeliner”. I had no idea about the Queen Elizabeth II ship, so the only thing I had to use to figure it out was queue. Thus a mispronunciation was born.
I remember confusing subtle with “sub-til” for a long time. Now I use it as a joke. “You must realize the sub-til intricacies of the English language.”
I also thought Sean was pronounced “seen”. In fact, watching movie trailers, I thought “Seen” Connery and “Shawn” Connery were two different people. (I was very young.)
I once had a music teacher write “segueway” on a cadence he was giving to the drumline. He didn’t believe me when I corrected him.
Most of the words on my list have already been mentioned, but there are others I can’t remember. The only one that comes to mind is the name “Otis”. I read a book when I was little with that name and to this day I say “Ah-tis”. Thankfully it’s not a common name.
And knowing is half the battle 
Peace,
~mixie
Oh…apparently I’m still saying mischevious wrong. Glad I read this thread.
When I was in college, I was at my aunt’s house and she was showing these miniature houses she buys. I said, “Oh look, that house has a little keyhouse.” She looked at it and then at me for a second, “Do you mean ‘kiosk?’” “Oh, yeah…” I felt about two inches tall.
I was also a voracious reader as a kid & could not figure out how to say:
hors d’oeurves = whores DE vors
I beat the hell out of melancholy = me-LANK-oly
I would tell my older brother, “Shut up, you’re such an a-DOLE-asent. You’re just immature (like nature).”
Can anyone direct me to a site on how to pronounce British place names i.e. Leicester, Greenwich, Tottenham, Westchester, Westminster???