# Words you couldn't pronounce when you were a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839 "2013-04-04T17:13:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/21 "2013-04-04T23:40:21Z")
Rendevous. I remember an embarrassing incident in school where the teacher corrected me. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/22 "2013-04-05T00:03:06Z")
I knew I was wasn’t pronouncing the word ‘facetious’ correctly when nobody knew what I meant. I believe I was 17 or so before I was corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/23 "2013-04-05T00:05:11Z")
Fog; it always came out “frog”. It kept me imagining fog as being frog pee too. “Women”; it kept coming out as woe-men. I ended having to constantly remind myself "Remember Popeye! _Wimmin!"_ ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/24 "2013-04-05T00:09:08Z")
> [@Ms.Pumpkin](#): > > Um… my name. ☹ > > -Sincerely, > Nonna (Donna) My youngest daughter couldn’t pronounce her name. If someone needed to know it, she would introduce her sister this way. “this is my sister, Nancy. Nancy, tell them my name.” ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/25 "2013-04-05T00:14:18Z")
None. But I was a pretty awesome kid. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/26 "2013-04-05T00:34:12Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > My youngest daughter couldn’t pronounce her name. If someone needed to know it, she would introduce her sister this way. “this is my sister, Nancy. Nancy, tell them my name.” Clever! That wouldn’t have worked for me, though, since I also called my brother “Nanny”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/27 "2013-04-05T00:50:51Z")
Not me, but my sister had a devil of a time saying “spaghetti”-usually came out as “pspgetti”… ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/28 "2013-04-05T00:52:08Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Not me, but my sister had a devil of a time saying “spaghetti”-usually came out as “pspgetti”… What I hear frequently (from kids) is “basquetti”. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/29 "2013-04-05T15:32:09Z")
Social Security. Still have to go slowly on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/30 "2013-04-05T15:34:48Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > Specific. Just couldn’t, was more like Spsisisfic That one comes close to tripping, but I have a helluva time with “statistics” and “statistical”… both turn to a series of sputters and pops unless I remember to slow down and say it one syllabub at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/31 "2013-04-05T15:55:56Z")
Lumber yard=yumber lard. Do you young’uns even know what that is? It’s a large place like back behind Menard’s where a lot of lumber is stacked up for sale. Only in our small town it was where all the dads hung out for a cup of coffee. Sometimes I got to go along and climb on the wood. Now even the buyer isn’t allowed to touch it! Give my kids another “basketti.” Husband struggled with aluminum and linoleum. ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/32 "2013-04-05T16:28:10Z")
My name. My real first and last names also have Rs in them. I pronounced them the way Elmer Fudd would. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/33 "2013-04-05T18:40:06Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > Husband struggled with aluminum and linoleum. Linoleum was a hard one for me, too. I still have to slow down and think about it, or I’ll end up saying “alonium”. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/34 "2013-04-05T18:55:56Z")
My 4-year-old daughter generally has pretty good diction for a kid her age, but she has never really been able to say the word “mud” or “muddy.” It’s always “mug” and “muggy”. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/35 "2013-04-06T02:25:56Z")
When I was between one and two I had a knack for speech. My Mom was bragging to a neighbor one day about that and she said “I bet you can’t say my dog’s name”. Of course my Mom asked what the dog’s name was so her precious little boy could amaze the neighbor. The lady said “His name is Snuffleupagus” (from Sesame Street obviously). I had never seen Sesame Street at that point, so I couldn’t just mimic back a known word. According to my Mom, I made a really serious thinking face for maybe 30 seconds then said “Kangaroo”. Apparently it was either the longest or most impressive word I had in my vocabulary at the time and I thought it might fool the lady. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/36 "2013-04-06T02:53:34Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > As a big \*Superman \*fan as a kid, I had trouble pronouncing the word “invulnerable.” Problem was, I had read it many times in the comics, but never heard it spoken. So I routinely pronounced it “in-vul-NEER-uh-bul.” This was my problem too. I read Superman comics to my younger brother. I always got both invulnerable and solitude (as in Fortress of) wrong. Invulnerable came out without the first L. Solitude was so-li-to-day. I had no idea that was a regular word actually. I thought it was just the name of the place. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/37 "2013-04-06T06:57:47Z")
Ambulance, Hospital and Aluminum were all memorable breakthroughs when I finally got it right. I remember a particular moment in Kindergarten, where the mangled gibberish that was “_hopsittle_” just _clicked_ and I was ecstatic I’d worked it out, seemingly without even trying. I told my friend next to me. He didn’t seem too impwessed. Feminine was another one I never got right until maybe 3rd grade. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2013, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/38 "2013-04-06T07:07:50Z")
> [@KermitTheFrig](#): > > My name. > > My real first and last names also have Rs in them. I pronounced them the way Elmer Fudd would. Like Barry Kripke. I can remember my friends and I tripping over “chimbley” and “lellow” amongst a few of the others already mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/39 "2013-04-06T17:28:13Z")
I was just learning how to read and we were crossing an old bridge in the hometown and I asked my mom, “What is a hysterical monument?” She did find it hysterical that I couldn’t pronounce historical. ---
**Author:** ![4thdentist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/a8b319/32.png) [@4thdentist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4thdentist)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839/40 "2013-04-06T23:23:51Z")
As a child, mine was pitch. Came out piss. Also, woostershestershire sauce. I still have to remind myself of the right way to say it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-couldnt-pronounce-when-you-were-a-kid/654839.md?page=3)