# Words you pronounced wrong because you only read them **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 22, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607 "2011-03-22T14:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/21 "2011-03-22T16:14:50Z")
For some reason I always thought “anathema” was pronounced an-a-THEEM-a. Someone finally corrected me…it is an-ATH-a-ma. And I still catch myself saying “drouth” (with the “th”), instead of “droudt”. However, this isn’t exactly incorrect…it is an archaic pronounciation that is still used by a number of rural characters. SS ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/22 "2011-03-22T16:15:25Z")
assuage. Looks like sausage, thought it was pronounced like sausage. Ah-sodge. That tasty salad made with tuna? Nick-oise. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/23 "2011-03-22T16:18:21Z")
> [@KinkiNipponTourist](#): > > assuage How is it pronounced? a-SWAJE? I used to pronounce it to rhyme with massage. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/24 "2011-03-22T16:19:37Z")
When I was younger, it was “gazebo” and “compromise.” I can pronounce them now, but I still read them as I mispronounced them as a kid. One of my oldest and dearest friends has a reader’s vocabulary. As long as I’ve known her (since 1987, in fact,) she has pronounced the word “stead” as “steed.” I tried a couple of times (gently) to correct her, but it’s just not gonna happen. Love her anyway! ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/25 "2011-03-22T16:22:19Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I think I’d read “ennui” for a few years before hearing it properly. Woah. I learned something to day. Both in definition and sound. > **[Definition of ENNUI](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennui)** > > a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction : boredom… See the full definition ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/26 "2011-03-22T16:24:33Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > How is it pronounced? a-SWAJE? I used to pronounce it to rhyme with massage. That’s pretty close. Merriam-Webster has a button you can click to hear it pronounced. > **[Definition of ASSUAGE](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assuage)** > > to lessen the intensity of (something that pains or distresses) : ease; pacify, quiet; to put an end to by satisfying : appease, quench… See the full definition ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/27 "2011-03-22T16:25:32Z")
Back when I was writing commercials, the announcer staff used to argue whether a suite of furniture was pronounced “sweet” or “suit.” (My dictionary says both.) I had a classics professor who pronounced the title and main character of the book Don Juan as Don Joo-an, because, as he put it “Byron was English, not Spanish.” ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/28 "2011-03-22T16:29:03Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I bet it won’t be more than a few minutes until somebody mentions “awry.” > > I’m still not sure how to pronounce pedagogy. PED-uh-gaw-jee ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/29 "2011-03-22T16:34:44Z")
Minutiae and athame. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/30 "2011-03-22T16:35:57Z")
I’ve been caught up by a number of the above-cited examples. To add: “draught” in reference to ales and such. Never made the connection to “draft,” and I think I pronounced it like “drought.” One that is perhaps limited to just me… back in the '80s, I was active in computer user groups as a kid, programmed stuff, gave presentations. I gave a user group presentation on creating high-resolution pictures in some obscure mode on the Commodore 128. I then described a method by which one could save them in “Hires” format. Hires, like the root beer brand, or “hires” like “He ‘hires’ the secretary that caught his eye.” Associated in the Commodore world with pictures using monochrome mode for higher resolution. Odd looks from the fellow Commie geeks… a hand goes up. “‘Hires’ mode? What’s that?” I began to explain… 640x200 or 320x200 rather than chunky 160x120 full-color mode… “Oh, ‘Hi-Res’ mode?” Hadn’t caught the connection between “high-resolution” and “hires” before, and not sure that the best place to learn was in front of an audience who expected me to know the connection… ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/31 "2011-03-22T16:36:18Z")
When I was a kid, I asked my parents if we could play Mono Polly some time. My favourite is my friend (who’s a bit of a geography buff) talking about New Ham-Sphere. That would be an interesting and delicious place to visit! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/32 "2011-03-22T16:44:25Z")
Victuals. Forte. Penelope. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/33 "2011-03-22T16:46:36Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > PED-uh-gaw-jee Thank you. I was never sure if the last G was hard or not. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/34 "2011-03-22T16:48:34Z")
There’s a bunch of them, but I can’t think of a good example off the top of my head. I do remember one of my old roommate’s examples: For the longest time, as a kid, he would read the word “misled” as if it were the past tense of “misle,” rather than “mis-led.” I always found that amusing. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/35 "2011-03-22T16:52:55Z")
“Imbecile”. I pronounced it “IM-buh-cymbal”. Which is ironic. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/36 "2011-03-22T16:56:10Z")
Not me, but a classmate in a college acting class. We were doing a Greek play, and he had to say the name “Euridice.” It came out “uterus.” And yes, that became his nickname. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/37 "2011-03-22T16:56:48Z")
Posthumously. Post-humously. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/38 "2011-03-22T16:58:46Z")
I give anyone a pass for pronouncing French words the way they’re spelled. French is fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambihelical_Hexnut)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/39 "2011-03-22T16:59:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s a bunch of them, but I can’t think of a good example off the top of my head. I do remember one of my old roommate’s examples: For the longest time, as a kid, he would read the word “misled” as if it were the past tense of “misle,” rather than “mis-led.” I always found that amusing. I’ve read ‘misled’ that way many times. Also, I keep reading the word ‘gunshy’ such that it rhymes with ‘Banshee’. IMO, ‘misled’ and ‘gunshy’ badly need hyphens. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/40 "2011-03-22T17:01:28Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I give anyone a pass for pronouncing French words the way they’re spelled. French is fucked up. When I first saw this thread, I had to look up the pronunciation of prix fixe. It’s been driving me nuts for a while. I’ve avoided certain restaurants because of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607.md?page=3)