It came as a great shock ( well, not really ) that I had been
mispronouncing SEGUE wrongly forever.
Somebody was rabbitting on about one thing SEGWAYING into
something else and I had the temerity to correct his pronounciation!
Much embarrassment later I humbly apologised, but began to
think that pronouncing segue as seeg was far better.
What words have you always mispronounced? How long? And
do you think your variation is better?
Cache …I always read it as “cack”. Though “Cash-ae” does have a more elegant tone, I think that a “Cack” of weapons sounds more impressive then a “cash-ae”.
“Dour”.
I always want to make it rhyme with sour, i.e. “SOW-er”. It comes from reading it way before I ever heard somebody say it, or bothered to actually look it up. The early mistake stuck.
“Hyperbole”
It’s always been “hyper bowl” in my head. I’m SO happy I heard the correct pronunciation before I actually said it out loud and sounded like a complete dumbass.
This is embarrassing to admit but for the longest time I thought hindrance was actually hindrix. Boy what a dumb ass mistake that was!
Hover–I always want to pronounce it hoe-ver. It drives my husband batty. Personally, I like my pronounciation better!
And sword. I pronounce the W.
I always pronounce iron exactly how it is spelled. eye-ron. It makes more sense then i-earn to me.
TVeblen, oh my god… it turns out that I’ve been mispronouncing “dour” my whole life and never realized it… how is that possible???
Blah. I wonder which other words I don’t actually know?
The only other one I can think of right now is “documentary”… I always pronounced it the British way, stress on the last syllable, until my roommate laughed at me and I realized that I was saying it oddly.
Nietzsche and Aamar I can’t say at all.
Ostensibly -I always say obstensively and it makes me sad.
My brother had a big problem with ‘respite’ til he said it out loud in front of me. I said “what’s a re-spite?” and he said it was a little rest and I said, “like a respite?” and for about five minutes I was the smart one. Oh, what a day that was.
I don’t mispronounce these but they take extra care on my behalf:
anemone - have to slow right down to avoid saying “an-enemy”
fifth - most people wouldn’t notice if I said “fith” but I make a conscious effort not to.
…and another one that doesn’t quite fit the thread…Presbyterian. I can say it but if I try to read it it always come out pie-bestree-an. Can’t figure it out
Dilapidated…it comes out "dil-AP-il-ay-TID. And then there’s “fugue.” That I just gave up on.
I said determined wrong until the 5th grade!
I said it “det-er-mind-ded”
I’d be reading whatever it was and then I got to determined, and then the kids would laugh and I didn’t understand why until I was about 11.
Paean. As a matter of fact, I still don’t know how to pronounce it. Somebody throw me a bone!
W00t! 200!
I pronounced “melee” like “mee-lee” for a while. I used to pronounce “segue” the same way as well. I probably screw up a lot of other words that I only encounter in print too.
Not verbaly, but I always read indicted as in-DICK-ted, and cognac as cog-NAC.
In my family we pronounce it “mee-lee” I can’t stand the “may-lay” it just sounds so wrong…
According to dictionary.com, it’s pronounced as in, “Hey, Sqube, you just drank 2 gallons of apple juice! What are you doing now?”
Mine are, unforunately:
caveat: which is bad because it’s one of those words you really shouldn’t be using unless you know how to pronounce it. According to dictionary.com, my pronunciation (short a kind of like “cat-vee-ot”) is acceptable, but not the preferred one.
Arkansas: dammit, it won’t stop being Ar-Kansas to me.
superfluous: for the longest time I pronounced it “SOOperFLOOus” until a really arrogant bastard spent an awful long time correcting me with great relish. Now I know how to pronounce it correctly, but am very nervous about saying it.
Actually, it appears that you (and many of us) are safe. I looked it up at m-w.com (can’t link to the word) and they have two alternate pronunciations: “Doo+er” and “Dow+er” If you click on the rightmost speaker, your computer will pronounce the word like “Power”.
Gaia
I always thought it was GUY-uh, but it’s GAY-uh.