Words you couldn't pronounce when you were a kid

By the way, what is the right way to say that?

I probably had some, but I don’t remember them.

I do remember, though, my little sister Elizabeth not being able to pronounce Elizabeth when she was first trying to say it. It would come out “Eeeee-[ramble of nonsense syllables].” We all ended up calling her “E” even when she got older. She’s in her 40s now and Dad might still call her “E.”

Wor-ster-sher or Woo-ste-sher are generally both accepted. The latter is partly mimicking a British accent.

The only word I remember not being able to pronounce was “three.” I’m sure there were more, but that one got me a lecture at preschool. I do remember doing my best to avoid words I couldn’t say after that lecture.

Round these parts it’s “WOO-stuh-shire”. Or if we are being silly “woo-ster-CHES-tish-shire”.

“Grand Prix”. Instead of “Grawn Pree”, it came out “Grand Pricks”. My older brother used to love to get me to say it.

I used to say “tangenital” until college.

I pronounced “specifically” as “pacifically”. Also, “pinch” black for “pitch” black.

I still trip up on the phrase “Power of Attorney” … it comes out as “Power of Eternity” (why yes, hello Dr Freud) which is embarrassing as a long term care nurse.

I remember answering a question in history class about the “Leo-Pard” rhyming with Hard and the Chesapeake, to much derision. We had just started the unit and I had never heard it pronounced out loud. I knew how to say Leopard, as in the spotted feline, but I was equating the word with the name Leopold.

For whatever reason, I couldn’t pronounce Puerto Rico properly. I always said it PEW-er-to Ri-co.

When I was child-like, various grups occasionally advised me that I was pronouncing “color” wrong. I could never figure out, neither then nor ever since, how I was saying it any differently from what I heard anyone else saying. For all I know, I might still be saying it wrong, but people are just too polite to mention anything. How badly can one mess up a simple word like “color”? I vaguely suspect I was saying something sort of like “keller”

I was also chided for saying “blanket” wrong. I kinda think maybe I was saying “blainket” (first syllable rhyming with “try” or “cry”), like Eliza Doolittle saying “The rine in spine falls minely in the pline”.

I was a so-so Superman/Superboy reader back in those days. But I never did figure out how to say Mxyzptlk, let alone Kltpzyxm. (And yes, I know they weren’t entirely consistent about the spelling.) I never heard it pronounced until Mikhail Mxyzptlk appeared in an episode of Smallville.

Okay, now that you mention that, I can think of various words that I pronounced wrong simply because I had never heard them spoken (or never paid attention). Often by putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable. In some cases, well into adulthood.

Nevada: When I first saw this, I pronounced it NEV-a-duh. (Following the same pronunciation pattern as for Canada. Strange, since I lived in Los Angeles, which was certainly closer to Nevada than Canada.)

There were certainly others that I might or might not think of.

Two that I learned to pronounce much later were banal and docent – I had always put the accent on the first syllable. To this day, baNAL and doCENT still just don’t sound right to me.

For some reason I could never remember whether the word was relevant or revelant. Possibly I was thinking it was related to reveal. I was probably in my twenties before I could pronounce and spell it right consistently without looking it up.

I couldn’t say Library (LieBerry)

I couldn’t say Vollyball - (ball EE ball)

I couldn’t say Ed - (M)

So many of them…here’s one:

Bouquet, I knew, was pronounced boo-KAY,
so banquet was obviously pronounced ban-KAY by analogy.
Only…it wasn’t.

My almost 3 year old daughter replaces all her “L’s” with “Y’s” which I will be sad to see corrected as she ages.

So her LEGS are her YEGS and she YOVES her mommy and daddy :smiley:

Strategy STILL comes out as Stragety if I’m talking fast.

I blame Bugs Bunny.

When I was little, all of my mother’s relatives lived in You Nork.

In college, my roommate finally decided to ask me about a word I used all the time: “seeg” (with a hard “g”). When I explained it, she informed me that while it is spelled “segue”, it is pronounced “segway”.

Although I can pronounce spaghetti correctly now, I still think of it as pisghetti.

A letter column in one issue gave the pronunciation. I don’t recall it for sure, but it was something like mix yez pittle ics. When reading to my little brother, I always called ihm Mr. Mixed-Pickle or Mr. M-X-Y.

When my daughter was in PRE-school, she must have mis-heard its pronunciation, for one day, she announced, I’m going to pretty school. I thought it was so adorable I never corrected her.
She also said gur instead of girl.

Or a New English accent. :slight_smile: