Words you won't say because you're not sure how they're pronounced...

In My Humble Opinion
41

Worcestershire – easy… It’s “WOOST-er-sure” or even more correct “WOOST-uh-sure.” Incidentally, Wooster, (Massachusetts, is it?) used to be spelled “Worcester.” Apparently this caused too much confusion so the name now reflects the pronunciation.

“Clique” - I pronounce it as “click” and that’s the way it was normally pronounced in Chicago. “Kleek” is acceptible, though.

“KOO-pon” vs “KYEW-pon” - both are correct in my book. Some people soften the consonant with a vowel in words like this. Other examples: TOOZday/TYOOZday, TOOB/TYOOB (British), etc…
I say “KYOO-pon” for some reason.

Nitch/Neesh - I say “Neesh,” but both are fine.

Kitchy - I’ve only heard it as kitch-ee. Don’t think Keetch-ee is acceptible.

For-tay/Forte - technically, “fort” is correct, but nobody if I ever used this pronunciation, it would confuse the hell out of people. Incidentally, 72% of the Usage Panel for the American Heritage dictionary favors the two-syllable pronuncation. I’d have to go with the two-syllables, lest I look like a pedantic prick.

longjohn- Yeah, sure, but that pronunciation doesn’t follow the patterns of the English language. “Kudos” is usually pronounced as “koo-doze” rather than “koo-dose,” since the former pronunciation feels more natural to English speakers. Just like that “homos” with short o’s sounds odd in English. And I can give you lists of French and German words that deviate wildly from their pronunciation in their original languages.

Rice Pee-fall for “pilaf” is not so much moronic as possibly dyslexic. Transposing letters in your head is not a sign of idiocy. (I am not dyslexic myself, but I fail to see such a mistake as a sign of stupidity.)

Incidentally, “filet” is “fillet” in British, and pronounced as FILL-it.

“Mauve,” I confess, I pronounce it as “mawv.” If you have nothing better to do than snicker at other people’s mispronunciations then, well, fill in the blanks.

Frappe - Never heard it pronounced as “frap.” Only frap-pay. We are speaking of those Starbucks coffee concoctions, right?

42

thanks folks … til I read this I was certain of at least a dozen words, now I’m not so sure. :smack:

The worst though for me is not getting words wrong but when you mispronouce a word and some smart-ass deliberately picks you up on it, just to make a fool of you. Like they say “I hear what you say but I know what you mean.”

43

Oh, incidentally, Worcestershire sauce is commonly truncated to Wooster sauce in Britain.

44

I am having wonderful fun speaking the words mentioned in this thread in my specially correct Radio Four/“repeat after me voice”. It’s not my normal voice, by the way.

Mauve. Mauve. A mauve scarf.

Turbot. Turbot. Steamed turbot with beurre blanc. Beurre blanc.

Kitschy. Kitschy. Her style was eclectic, and somewhat kitschy.

I ought to record them for Francesca’s Voice of the Dope page. There must be a microphone in one of these drawers.

45

Qualitatively; Theoretically, I can pronounce it, but I rarely try because it nearly always comes out as ‘Qualitively’ or ‘Qualitatititively’.

46

Incidentally, perhaps a bit more obscure, but the playright Tom Stoppard apparently pronounces his name as “stuh-PARD,” and not “STOP-urd,” as most people I know do. This usually means that whenever I speak about him I have to say “stuh-PARD/STOP-urd, or whatever his name is.” Also, I’ve heard photographer Andre Kertész’ name pronounced as “Care-tesh,” (By a New York Times photo editor, no less.) It is nothing of the sort. If it were Polish, sure. But it’s Hungarian, so it’s closer to “Care-tess” or “Care-tase” or, to be exact, “ker-tés,” with a Spanish/Slavic simple “r”, and a French acute accented “e”, which almost sounds like a long “a” in English, but not quite. That’s okay, I won’t correct you unless you pronounce the final “sz” as an “sh.”

47

Umm…playwright, of course.

48

Down in the south, I thought they pronounced milkshake as “melkshayke.” Nobody I know outside of Massachusetts orders fraps.

[sub]Yes, I know it’s really spelled frappe, but frap looks funnier[/sub]

49

The people in Worcester, Mass -pronounced Wister if you live in the area (or Wistah if you’re closer to Boston;))- will be really surprised to find this out. Where did you hear thispulykamell ? Maybe it’s another Worcester?
Here’s a link to the Worcester Telegram for verification that the spelling remains
Worcester. http://www.telegram.com/
My “unpronouncable” (I’m sure that’s a word…) is paradigm. I want to say pair-a-DIJM but I think I’ve heard it as pair-a-DIME. And the meaning eludes me. Yes, I could look it up, but it seems to be such a trendy word that I just don’t want to. :stuck_out_tongue:

50

Sorry, Salem. You got me. I meant “Wooster, Ohio.”

  • Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue:The English Language

Not to mention the odd pronuncations we have for Des Plaines; Notre Dame; Pierre (PEER), South Dakota; Cairo (KAY-ro), Illinois, etc…

51

I’ve always heard paid-a-DIME.

Also, yes I’ll have to agree, there is definitely a Worcester Mass, it’s about 45-60 minutes outside of boston (incidentally, where the smiley face was invented), but I believe there is also a Wooster MA, both pronounced the same.

I looked mauve up in the dictionary and it seems both are correct Mov and Mahv (I’ve always said mahv)

What are the alternate pronunciations of peony? I’ve always just said pee-uh-nee, and that’s what it says in the dictionary…

They say melk in the south? My stepfather is one of the only people I know who says melk instead of milk, and he’s been in boston all his life.

And I’m sorry to my dictionary and the correct pronunciation of English everythwhere, but I just CANNOT say tur-bot instead of tur-boh. What is Turandot, btw, cuz I thought that one was a silent t too, but then turbot showed me how great my sense of pronunciation is!

52

I always say picture-skew instead of picture-esk as a half-joke, 'cause I can’t say it correctly sometimes.

But then, with a Norn Iron accent, I can’t speak properly anyway, so most words sound strange when I say them.

PS - What about the route (root) Vs route (rout) in US?
What word do you yanks use for a serious, one-sided beating in sport? How is it pronounced?

53

I think “root” is the more common pronuncation, though in Chicago I’ve grown up saying “rowt” for “root,” except when singing along to “Route 66,” where “Get your kicks/on rowt 66” sounds bizarre.

A one-sided beating in sports I’ve always pronounced “rowt.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard it pronounced otherwise in this manner.

54

One can always appeal to the Italian musical term forte as the inspiration of the two-syllable pronunciation.

55

Bustier flummoxes me. Is it *Boo-sti-ay * or *Bust-y-er *

Like, Tah-ra-ra Boom de ay I wear a Bustier. La la la la la!

There is a little village around here called Gingleville. I have always pronounced it Gingle, like Jingle, because it sounds like such a happy little place. It is pronounced jin-jel-ville. Which ruins the whole image for me and I refuse to pronounce it correctly.

56

Oh, jeez. I think the “Placenames you won’t say” thread would dwarf this one.

Just outside of Winston-Salem, NC, there’s a place called Pfafftown. That’s right, paff-town

Natives of the area around Greenville and Spartanburg, SC, will tell you that the correct pronunciation of Greer is grrr.

57

Ok, nobody ever said how deus ex machina is pronounced. Is it mah-kin-a or machine-a?

And, one I’d seen a million times but got tripped up on when it came out: unpalatable. I said, “un-pal-AT-able” instead of “un-palate-able” and got corrected by my brother.

58

For me, that word I can’t pronounce is Gist. Jist? Geist?

I just can’t get the hang of it.

59

“Diphthong”. In my head I don’t “see” the 1st “h”. Always have to consult a dictionary for spelling and pronunciation.

PS JuanitaTech and Slortar give common mispronunciations of “Linux”. Do a Google on “Linux pronunciation FAQ” and you can even find sound files that give the two correct pronunciations that only old farts like I use.

60

To whoever mentioned milk/melk - I’ve heard a lot of people pronounce it melk, and they’re all from Maine… They also pronounce leg “layg” and pen “pin”. This was odd to me, growing up, because I didn’t have a Maine accent but my teachers did, so I always felt like I was pronouncing everything wrong.

I used to pronounce cholera as “choh-LER-a”… really sounds a lot nicer than “Kollar-a”…

The one I have trouble with is ophthalmology. I try to prounouce every letter, and it really is a tounge twister. I always hear it as “opthuhmology,” but I feel like the ph and the first l are getting a raw deal out of that.

As for deus ex machina, I never thought to wonder about it. Now you’ve got me worried, though, Sunshine. I’m not going to use that phrase until I know how to say it.