I have problems with the prefix “pseudo-”, I always want to pronounce it as suede - o, not soo-doh.
For years I mispronounced greek names like Persephone (Percy-phone) and Euridice (Eura-dice).
I have a friend who literally can’t say literally.
Have you met my Viking buddy Vignar? I have another friend who asks for oil & vignar on his salads, I’m not sure if he’s joking around.
I love threads like this one.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned ‘deteriorate’. I don’t mispronounce it but, boy-oh-boy, I’ve heard so many people pronounce it: duh-TIER-y-ayt, instead of duh-TIER-y-or-ayt.
The other day I was looking for a foot powered log splitter and the woman at the store could not for the life of her get that “powered” out without it becoming “powdered.”
She must have said it five times, stopping, realizing she was saying it wrong and saying powdered again. We both got a good chuckle out of that.
I still don’t know what’s proper with “drawer.” You draw it out to open it, so it’s a “draw,” right? Or is it a droor? Or a draw-er?
And just to complicate things, if someone’s got soiled underwear, that’s said “dirty draws.”
Any of those would be fine; say whatever feels comfortable to you. Variations in accent are not mispronunciations.
Me too.
I also struggle to say sachet correctly. Fortunately it’s not a word I often use.
I have to use the phrase “questionable claim” on every phone call I take. Something about the “ch” and “kw” and “kl” and “bl” sounds clashing together trips my tongue up a lot unless I slow it way down.
Since forever.
Sheesh. Strike everything out of my previous post except vague. I can only say thank you , gentles all, for your kind corrections.
Interesting. The Merriam-Webster link is the first I’ve ever seen “sherbert” offered as an accepted alternative, and I don’t see it in many other places. (None of the three dictionaries on my iPhone include it, for example, and Google in its infinite wisdom asks “Did you mean sherbet?”)
I’ll accept it, but the same way I accept “nucular”: with gritted teeth.
soupcon
inchoate
Vulnerable. No idea why.
Molybdenum trips me up. I can’t seem to get it out without spraining my tongue.
Oh that’s a good one. They make crappy hand tools out of it. In my head it’s become moly-bendy-um.
anemone. That alternation of nasals. Funny, not one of the words mentioned above gives me the least problem.
My mispronunciation of “room” as sounding sort of like “rum” has long been a joke amongst my friends. I’m not entirely sure why I say it that way, I’m just too lazy to enunciate it properly. (Words that rhyme with room are perfectly okay!)
As for another one, I always have to stop before saying etiquette.
I don’t struggle to pronounce “jail”. Instead, I say “prison”.
Already mentioned: assauge. What is it, ass-wage? I don’t really understand phonetic symbols, so would appreciate it if someone could write out the pronunciation for me.
Also, I use “infarction” a lot at work, and thus freeze like a deer in front of the Peterbilt when I come across or need to use “infraction.” "Infarction is the default setting, so I try to override that, then mistakenly override again, ending up back at “infarction.” bah!
I don’t know how to say ‘gasped’. I say ‘gahsp’ and ‘gahsping’ but I can’t say ‘gahsped’, it just doesn’t come out right. So I say ‘gassped’, but then that sounds wrong as well. I hate it when I am reading aloud to my kid and come across that word.
I, too, have problems with ‘rural’. I could handle one R, but not TWO!! I have difficulty with ‘squirrel’ as well.
Interestingly(to me), a lot of folks where I grew up pronounce their Rs the same way I do; not exactly like a W, but just like a softer R sound. So the W sound in ‘squirrel’ sets me off to say the Rs the same way.
I get my Vs and Rs a little bit mixed up and so certain words are problematic - words where the V and the R are close together.
Very - rerry
Varying - rarying
Variety - rariety
When I was smaller, other kids pointed it out to me and laughed. I felt ashamed. Now I couldn’t give a monkeys, especially as I realised when I was older I wasn’t the only one in South Cambridgeshire who talks like that!
Typical though my boyfriend only has three letters in his name, an R, a V and another. :rolleyes:
NASA. I pronounce it enough like ‘Nassau’ that other people comment on it.
To me, ‘rural’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘squirrel’: squirrel, when I say it, has only one syllable!