# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/61 "2011-03-22T19:14:52Z")
Indictment (seriously, how do you get in- **dite** -ment from that?) queue (you mean it’s not qway-yoo?) Hermione (Hermy-own) draught (naught, fraught, aught, caught. Seems simple… nope, draft, wtf?) ---
**Author:** ![ashtayk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@ashtayk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashtayk)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/62 "2011-03-22T19:16:56Z")
I don’t want to take this into GD territory - but I pronounced bruschetta correctly at first, got corrected (wronged?) by people into pronouncing it wrongly before researching and going back to the correct way. Interestingly the Merriam-Webster online has it with with the “sh” sound not the “k” sound. ---
**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, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/63 "2011-03-22T19:24:28Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > queue (you mean it’s not qway-yoo?) It rhymes with “kiwi” ;). ---
**Author:** ![mambocrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@mambocrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambocrow)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/64 "2011-03-22T19:40:28Z")
I used to think aria (as in operatic vocal solo) was pronounce area. Until I used it out loud one day and the people I was talking to asked “How big an area? Acre? Half acre?” I also once thought the pronunciation for sidereal was side-real. (I still like side-real better). ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/65 "2011-03-22T19:42:36Z")
Martha Stewart mispronounces antimony. She should check a dictionary. It’s correctly pronounced similarly to matrimony. ---
**Author:** ![BTEzra04](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9f8e36/32.png) [@BTEzra04](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BTEzra04)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/66 "2011-03-22T19:59:43Z")
A long time ago, in about fourth grade, I remember thinking “naked” was pronounced nay-ked. I’d heard the word before that, I’m sure, but for whatever reason never made the connection between hearing it and reading it :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/67 "2011-03-22T20:00:34Z")
I used to think a loud racket was a kaw-ko-phony. (Cacophony) ---
**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:** [March 22, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/68 "2011-03-22T20:13:10Z")
Archipelago. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/69 "2011-03-22T20:14:04Z")
unique. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/70 "2011-03-22T20:38:42Z")
Incunabula for me. Lots of others, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/71 "2011-03-22T20:57:20Z")
Victuals and indict - I’d heard both before I’d ever read them and never made the connection. I assumed “vittles” was just an uneducated way of saying “VIC-tuals.” But I talks more better now. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/72 "2011-03-22T21:12:32Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Martha Stewart mispronounces antimony. She should check a dictionary. It’s correctly pronounced similarly to matrimony. Thank you for that. Well, after I got done yelling, “Seriously?!” My one big sit-up-straight-and-take-notice, at least until today, was ‘banal’. I don’t think I ever used it out loud, so I didn’t embarrass myself in public, but it was only a matter of time. I heard somebody use it in a TV interview one day, and for some reason it hit hard and stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/73 "2011-03-22T21:24:57Z")
> [@Kemanchi](#): > > A long time ago, in about fourth grade, I remember thinking “naked” was pronounced nay-ked. 😕 It is. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/74 "2011-03-22T21:28:46Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Exactly what I came in here to say. I was corrected rather embarrassingly in my freshman English class in high school. Oh hell, I’ll give you embarassing: I was 25. ---
**Author:** ![llcoolbj77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@llcoolbj77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llcoolbj77)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/75 "2011-03-22T21:43:00Z")
prescient and prescience. I was reading a lot of Herbert… and I was corrected in law school. Doh! ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/76 "2011-03-22T22:32:18Z")
The composer that Schroeder liked so much in Peanuts? His name was BEETH-oven. First syllable like “teeth” but starting with a ‘b’ instead of a ‘t’. Second syllable like what you cook cakes in. When my mom told me it was BAY-toven, I didn’t believe her. I still have trouble remembering that cavalry and Calvary are two different words, with the ‘l’ in two different places, and not homonyms. (Part of the confusion: Calvary is a hill, yes? And cavalry is often described as arriving over a hill to save the day. So I figured there was some sort of connection.) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/77 "2011-03-22T22:45:12Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Elementary (pronounced “el-EM-en-tary” with the emphasis on the second syllable. My mom STILL deliberately mispronounces it this way to bug me). Given that all the right sounds are there, in the right order, I don’t think a stress variation can be considered a mispronunciation. In any case, this one is pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/78 "2011-03-22T22:57:46Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > Verbatim. Also hors d’oeuvre. There was a young girl of Vancouver, Who, when told it was not ‘horses doover,’ Found she hadn’t the nerve To ask for hors d’oeuvres, So had soup as a saving manoeuvre. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/79 "2011-03-22T23:03:07Z")
Calliope - I used to think it was pronounced Cally-Ope. Sounds like something you’d say to a horse, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607/80 "2011-03-22T23:04:05Z")
Price Fixe. Of course I was on a date. Sinn Fein. In my defense I knew I wasn’t guessing correctly so I never said it out loud. Denouement: I think I only learned this one in an episode of Jeopardy! from sometime in the last year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-pronounced-wrong-because-you-only-read-them/575607.md?page=5)