# Words you mispronounce on purpose for a hunnert, Alex **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963 "2006-08-23T23:18:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/41 "2006-08-24T14:48:35Z")
Oh yeah. Cinnamon is _cimmumumumumum._ ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/42 "2006-08-24T15:45:11Z")
We gave our cousin a new nickname by pronouncing her name wrong. Pris-sky-la (Priscilla) becomes Sky. Better than her previous nicknames - Prissy and SillyHead. Susan ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/43 "2006-08-24T15:46:58Z")
[QUOTE=Ensign Edison] when he met tentacle [/QUOTE] Tell me more! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/44 "2006-08-24T15:51:13Z")
We just make up shit at work on an almost daily basis: approximatize, exactosity, correctitude, fuzzfactorated, errorness, wrongosity… but we all seem to know what we are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/45 "2006-08-24T15:52:59Z")
[QUOTE=Nic2004] Reminds me of a trip to Ms.Nic’s family in Tennessee Jeet yet? (Did you eat yet?) Nup. Yon’t to? I love that stuff. [/QUOTE] My friends from Tenn usually say Jeet yet? No, jew? I say “nanner” for banana, cinnaminamin, laundrymat… ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/46 "2006-08-24T17:09:07Z")
Used to be I would make a peanut butter _sangwich_. Now, of course, I make a _sammich_. I also pronounce Missouri like a native resident: _Missourah_. Thanks to Bernie Mac, I will occasionally call someone a _summummabitch_. ---
**Author:** ![Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebecca_DiMwitter)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/47 "2006-08-24T17:16:27Z")
We’ve lost x’s in favor of s’s in my household: Was that blouse “espensive”? Did you buy anything “estra” whille there? Hope you don’t need to get your teeth “S-rayed”. When my much younger brother was a toddler, he called elephants “ele-sips”. I’ve kept the tradition up, even tho I suspect he doesn’t recall it at all. –Beck ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/48 "2006-08-24T18:13:47Z")
Peatot. It’s what you make tea in. Graduatization. Gradgimafication. Gratiguation. Gradumatation. This started as a superstition in my last year of college, for some reason I felt like I couldn’t say the actual word until it was really, absolutely positively going to happen. Then I couldn’t stop. Jootz. My friend’s two year old really likes to drink Jootz. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/49 "2006-08-24T18:28:09Z")
[QUOTE=Nonsuch] Used to be I would make a peanut butter _sangwich_. Now, of course, I make a _sammich_. I also pronounce Missouri like a native resident: _Missourah_. Thanks to Bernie Mac, I will occasionally call someone a _summummabitch_. [/QUOTE] I have lived in Missouri my entire life and it’s pronounced _Missour **ee** _. As in, Misery loves company. Only grizzled old men who smoke unfiltered Pall Malls while combining the corn field pronounce it _Missourah_. I also say sammich. Elephants are elly-fonts. Puppy dogs are poopy dogs. Mom’s cedar chest is the sonofabitch. Although that’s more a renaming than a mispronunciation, really. ---
**Author:** ![Lilairen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lilairen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilairen)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/50 "2006-08-24T18:30:11Z")
I had a boyfriend who couldn’t say ‘relevant’. I found ‘revelant’ sort of charming, and also a nice way of playing with ‘reveal’, so I kept it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/51 "2006-08-24T19:04:04Z")
[ul] [li]Pizza- I sometimes say it as it appears, not “Pete-sah”.[/li][li]I sometimes substitute an “oi” sound for the “er” sound in words like “turn”. I’ll say “toin”. or “Ow! That hoits!”[/li][li]A friend of mine calls hamburgers “hanga-burgers.”[/li][li]I also read French words as they would be pronounced in English. “Faux pas” is “fox paws.”[/li][li]I also run initialisms (as apposed to acronyms) together. I say “at’em” when I mean ATM, for example.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/52 "2006-08-24T20:30:26Z")
From my daughter, when she was 3 or 4; ‘elfetent’ for elephant, ‘fat tood’ for cat food. I can’t remember the last time I actually said ‘cat food’. ‘Whasdisheah sauce’ for worcestershire sauce; ‘stragedy’ for strategy; ‘bookay’ for bucket (thanks Hyacinth!); libarry; sammich (sammidge, sanguidge); fox pass; axe (‘ask’); axterix (asterisk); sommers (somewhere); excetra, excetra… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/53 "2006-08-24T20:34:15Z")
My roomate in college 25 years ago used to say Befkist for Breakfast. I still find myself doing it occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/54 "2006-08-24T22:04:37Z")
Calcubator for calculator, as if it were hatching the numbers. Mexico is Mestico sometimes. Tostitos chips are toasty toes. Kabul is the capital of Half-and-again-Stan. Cabbitch for cabbage. Khufu’s Pendulum and the Great Pyramids of Foucault. Paucity is spoken slowly as Paw City. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/55 "2006-08-24T22:13:50Z")
Around here we change channels with the _Rote McTroll_. We like syrup on our _warfles_. I recall a headline from the _Onion_ a few years ago: “African-American Community Terrorized by Ask Murderer.” I’d give the award to ‘pooptaste’! ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/56 "2006-08-24T22:21:57Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I’ll avoid “correct” pronunciations I regard as silly, such as “im-pee-yus” for “impious”. I pronounce it “Im-PIE-us” every chance I get. Which is practically never. Another is “primmer” for “Primer”, which all rational beings can see should be pronounced “PRY-mer”. [/QUOTE] All this time I thought the wrong way was the right! I mispronouce things to help me remember how to spell them. Like, definite becomes de finite! ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/57 "2006-08-24T22:26:15Z")
From the produce aisle: taters nanners pin-uh-PULLS I say bee-uh-YOU-ti-ful because it helps me remember how to spell it correctly. From Winnie the Pooh: heffalump Not exactly a mispronounciation, but I like to describe the weather/outside conditions using the phrase “much of a…” as in “much of a hotness,” “much of a wetness,” “much of a darkness,” etc. (from Alice in Wonderland’s “much of a muchness”). ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/58 "2006-08-25T03:08:07Z")
[QUOTE=cazzle] Yoop-da-licked-us for Eucalyptus (thanks to a friend in high school who could never quite get it right). Density for Destiny (thanks to Back To The Future, IIRC). Skitty-cats for kitty-cats (obvious combination of “skittish” and “kitty”) Eric Cartman’s “You will respect my authoritah!” has had a lasting effect. I’m terriblah sorrah if it annoys you. [/QUOTE] \ Heyyy, there’s a Pokemon called Skitty for that reason! 😃 \ ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/59 "2006-08-25T03:13:45Z")
I’ll pronounce chihuahua as phonetically as “chi-hooah-hooah” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963/60 "2006-08-25T05:09:40Z")
Another one I forgot. In my office, any word that is different in Queen’s English from American English is a “Britishishism”. In memory of another native-speaker co-worker who just couldn’t pronounce it properly, no matter how we tried to walk her through the word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-mispronounce-on-purpose-for-a-hunnert-alex/369963.md?page=4)