# Words We Pronounce Wrong But Nobody Cares **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 31, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807 "2019-03-31T14:08:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/281 "2019-04-06T15:17:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > (IPA) is especially helpful to me when discussing foreign languages, rather than getting some person’s idea of an English pronunciation of a foreign word, I can get a much more accurate idea of its pronunciation through IPA. And to those of us who are both foreigners and capable of (at least partially) following IPA. Even if I don’t know what’s the exact difference between two or three different symbols, I can see that they’re different and, if I care enough, I can go and find out; when an American\* says something such as “oh, that’s a ch sound” it can mean three different ones (/x/ as in l’chaim, /k/ as in Schuylkill, /ʧ/ as in church) so we end up needing to ask for clarifications and getting lost in a sea of “wait wait, how do you pronounce that?”. - A Brit is a lot more likely to mean /ʧ/. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/282 "2019-04-06T15:24:31Z")
How about the Greek dish called a **gyro**? I’ve heard it pronounced both **EAR-oh** and **JIE-row**. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/283 "2019-04-06T15:44:38Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > How about the Greek dish called a **gyro**? > > I’ve heard it pronounced both **EAR-oh** and **JIE-row**. Around here, it’s either YEE-ro(s) /'jiːɹoʊ(s)/, YIH-ro(s) /'jɪɹoʊ(s)/ or GHIH-ro(s) /'ɡɪɹoʊ(s)/. Most people will drop the final “s,” though, although I do remember posters growing up in Chicago gyros shops that said [It’s Better When You Say YEE-ROS"](http://artrepurposed.blogspot.com/2014/12/it-tastes-better-when-you-say-yee-ros.html) The “JIE-roh” /ˈd͡ʒaɪɹoʊ/ pronunciation I hadn’t heard until I went to college and met people from other parts of the US. Had no idea what in the hell they were talking about, as I was so used to the YEE-ros pronunciation that it didn’t click, even though if they spelled it out, it would have been obvious. That said, I’m pretty sure in Greek there’s a third way that initial consonant could be pronounced, though I’m forgetting what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/284 "2019-04-06T19:32:53Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > When I lived in Hungary, I couldn’t make heads or tails of how certain pronunciations in a “Teach Yoursel Hungarian”-type book mapped to how I actually heard Hungarians speak. That’s because it was written by an English author, and their English approximations were sometimes quite different than what I, as an American speaker, would approximate it as. Oh yeah! Those old British _Teach Yourself_ books were a hoot! The blue-and-yellow ones left over from the interwar years, before they completely revamped the series. They indicated pronunciations like “Now, in order to pronounce this correctly, you must say it as would a Yorkshireman” or “This is the sound as heard in the Cornish accent,” making them completely useless to me. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/285 "2019-04-06T19:36:06Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That said, I’m pretty sure in Greek there’s a third way that initial consonant could be pronounced, though I’m forgetting what it is. It’s the [voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_palatal_fricative). Basically what the Germans call “_ich-Laut_,” except with voice. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/286 "2019-04-06T22:53:16Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > True, but don’t assume that we’re are entirely without blame. After all, we pronounce Café as “Caff”. Like this: > > OK, not all of us do. But plenty enough. > > j Cafe without the second vowel is a different thing to café with the second vowel though. A cafe is where you go for a full English breakfast, a café is where you go for a posh coffee. They’ve both existed for a long time. And in British English the stress is on the first syllable, not the second, same as in ballet (I know you know this, obvs, but it’s worth pointing out). (I like IPA but I don’t think the particular specific interchange needs it since we’re talking about number of syllables and stress). ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/287 "2019-04-07T19:09:42Z")
For the ‘forte’ hypercorrectionists, Merriam-Webster points out that no matter which way you go, you’re wrong. This is not quite as good a write-up as their paper usage guide, which goes on to admonish that if you’re going to go around saying ‘fort’, you should also be insisting on ‘apostroph’ when you talk about the punctuation mark > **[Definition of FORTE](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forte)** > > one's strong point; the part of a sword or foil blade that is between the middle and the hilt and that is the strongest part of the blade… See the full definition ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/288 "2019-04-07T20:58:25Z")
In other words, “forte” has become one of the English-speaker’s foibles. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/289 "2019-04-07T22:48:42Z")
I’ve mentioned it here before that I have trouble deciding between “proper” pronunciation and “common” pronunciation. I speak before groups where I don’t want my listeners to suddenly get pulled out of the story I’m telling to ponder “What’s THAT word? Oh, did he just use the original Serbo-Croat word, or is that the correct pronunciation? Why have I never heard that before? Is it because I went to school in Cincinnati? Why can’t he just say it normal, like reg’lar people?” So I’m amassing a list of Words To Stay Away From (like _forte_ and _mischievous…)._ Thanks to the Dope, that list is getting really long really fast. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/290 "2019-04-08T13:13:07Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Apparently, some people in NE Ohio are lazier than others. 😉 Yeah, it’s pretty much an on-going contest 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/291 "2019-04-08T13:16:46Z")
I got shit for this years ago, but I’m going there again: There is no number called “Oh”. There is one called “zero”, however. Don’t @ me. You know I’m right. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/292 "2019-04-08T15:21:29Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I got shit for this years ago, but I’m going there again: > > There is no number called “Oh”. There is one called “zero”, however. > > Don’t @ me. You know I’m right. A pet peeve of mine as well. Similarly, “Wenz-dee” and “Thurz-dee” are not days of the week. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/293 "2019-04-08T15:25:38Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Similarly, “Wenz-dee” and “Thurz-dee” are not days of the week. Guilty, at least when speaking at conversational speeds. Damn you, unstressed vowel reduction! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/294 "2019-04-08T18:03:25Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > A pet peeve of mine as well. > > Similarly, “Wenz-dee” and “Thurz-dee” are not days of the week. Nor are “Sun-dee” or “mundy”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/295 "2019-04-08T18:31:43Z")
I pronounce it “Wodenazday.” Four syllables. . . What? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/296 "2019-04-08T18:47:48Z")
It’s “Weds-nez-day”, right? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/297 "2019-04-08T19:37:45Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I got shit for this years ago, but I’m going there again: > > There is no number called “Oh”. There is one called “zero”, however. > > Don’t @ me. You know I’m right. Quite true. However, telephone numbers, street address numbers, win/loss records, ball/strike counts, and batting records are not _really_ numbers, so it’s OK to say “oh” for those. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/298 "2019-04-08T19:40:29Z")
:dubious: :dubious:! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/299 "2019-04-08T19:55:04Z")
But “oh” versus “zero” is not a matter of pronunciation. It’s a matter of terminology and slang. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807/300 "2019-04-08T19:57:25Z")
I don’t know, Rick… it seems a pretty bad job at pronunciation when one says “zero” sounds like “oh”. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-we-pronounce-wrong-but-nobody-cares/831807.md?page=16)