# Written words you mispronounced until hearing them **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 1, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395 "2016-11-01T19:46:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/61 "2016-11-02T01:17:29Z")
Great thread. > [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > hors d’oeuvres (I never even really tried to pronounce it in my head - it was just a mysterious symbol meaning finger food.) Hors d’oeuvres is to me what “misled” was to some other people. In addition to what’s been said upthread, somebody in a previous thread once said that not only did he mispronounce “misled,” but actually thought for a time there were two separate words, one he had encountered in print, spelled “misled” and pronounced MIZZ-ld, the other he had heard only in speech, pronounced miss-LED with no idea how it was spelled. That’s what hors d’oeuvres was to me. For the longest time as a kid into my teenage years,I was aware of two things: 1) there were appetizers/finger foods called “or-DERVES” (with no idea how that was actually spelled,) and 2) there were appetizers/finger foods represented by what looked to be a French phrase spelled “hors d’oeuvres” (with no idea how that was pronounced.) And until I somehow learned, I can’t remember how, that they were the same thing, it had never occurred to me to connect the two before. > [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Staccato. > > I put the long A sound on the second A. > > Sigh. Mispronounced it in front of the entire class. Ugh. This reminds me of another one, albeit\* a fictional proper name. I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in 5th grade, and in my head I pronounced Zaphod Beeblebrox’s first name as ZAA-phod (short “a”, as in “flab”.) I was surprised when I later heard a recording of the radio show and learned it was ZAY-phod as Douglas Adams apparently intended. \*And speaking of “albeit,” for a while I thought it was all-BITE, as though it were German. > [@Quimby](#): > > I said Omnipotent as if it were two words: Omni and Potent for a long time. I remember saying it wrong in a conversation multiple times and the woman I was speaking to corrected me each time I said it wrong but I didn’t recognize that’s what she was doing and had no idea what she was saying to me. There are numerous examples in this thread of people mistakenly pronouncing a word with the accent on the next-to-last syllable (penult,) when it’s actually pronounced with the accent on the third-to-last (antepenult.) My example of that is Episcopal. When I was a kid we used to drive past this sign for an Episcopal church, and in my head I sounded it out as “eh-pih-SCOPE-ul.” The one day my 5th grade social studies teacher said the word out loud, and it clicked. [sub](Sorry, pedants, I can’t be bothered to learn this IPA business. And yes, I’m aware I called other people pedants after using the words penult and antepenult.)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/62 "2016-11-02T01:20:13Z")
Semi-OT but related: did it irk anyone else as a kid, when you’d ask a parent or teacher how to spell a word, and in response they’d tell you to look it up in the dictionary? How can I look it up in the dictionary if I don’t know how to spell it?! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/63 "2016-11-02T01:50:43Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Semi-OT but related: did it irk anyone else as a kid, when you’d ask a parent or teacher how to spell a word, and in response they’d tell you to look it up in the dictionary? How can I look it up in the dictionary if I don’t know how to spell it?! I’m an English teacher and I have never once done this. I hated that. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/64 "2016-11-02T02:08:13Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > [sub](Sorry, pedants, I can’t be bothered to learn this IPA business. > [/sub] For edutainment, clicking on the vowels in this interactive chart is quite addictive. You can devise your own soundtrack to people of various nationalities being horribly murdered. > **[IPA Chart with Sounds – International Phonetic Alphabet Sounds](https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/)** > > The interactive International Phonetic Alphabet chart and online resource. Listen to each of the sounds from the International Phonetic Alphabet. IPA chart sounds and symbols. ETA: I just discovered that if you click quickly, all the sounds overlap. Try it with the non-pulmonic consonants. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/65 "2016-11-02T02:22:13Z")
Not a word, but a name. “Aloysius,” which I pronounced “Al-LOY-see-us.” I’d even _heard_ the name “Al-oh-WISH-us,” but I didn’t make the connection between the two for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![I\_wasn\_t\_truly\_absent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4da419/32.png) [@I\_wasn\_t\_truly\_absent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_wasn_t_truly_absent)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/66 "2016-11-02T02:59:13Z")
WOW! I couldn’t think of anything but as I read so many reminded me! It’s kind of cute and endearing, I remembered awry, omnipotent, hyperbole, misled you really get transported through time don’t you! How sweet we are as children, my favourite was magician as ma gick e ann , thanks so much it’s a real treat to retrieve a sweet memory! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/67 "2016-11-02T03:33:49Z")
I thought Arkansas was pronounced just like regular Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/68 "2016-11-02T03:54:43Z")
I learned “awry” was “a-wry” when we did Hamlet in high school. Nothing to do with spelling, but I also realized that “goodbye” evolved from “God be with ye” when we read “the Rivals” (it was “God be wi’ye” in that play, pronounced “God-bway”, if Mr. Cotter had it right). Lesson: you can learn a lot in high school English. I also used to read Schroeder’s idol as “beeth-oven” before a friend set me straight, but that was well before high school. There were quite a few words I saw in “Peanuts” before anywhere else, so I’m sure I mispronounced a fair number in my head, I remember a “Shoe” cartoon wherein Skyler had to define “hyperbole” and he answered something like “the contest for the championship of Madison Avenue”. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/69 "2016-11-02T03:55:20Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > I thought Arkansas was pronounced just like regular Kansas. Speaking of place names: along the same lines as my hors d’oeuvres example above, for a long time I was aware, having seen it on maps, of a town in California called La Jolla–that is, la JOLE-uh–and simultaneously aware that there was a another place I would occasionally hear people talk about called “la HOY-uh.” ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/70 "2016-11-02T04:34:35Z")
Asbestos “Absestos” Labyrinth “Labranith” Zeitgeist “Zeetgeist” ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/71 "2016-11-02T05:04:43Z")
A tough one for me was indeterminate. I said it with a long A, in-dee-term-in-ATE, with emphasis on the final syllable. It should be in-dee-TERM-in-it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/72 "2016-11-02T05:05:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Not mine, but my roommate told me the story of how he thought for the longest time the word “misled” was pronounced like the past tense of the (non-existent) word “misle” instead of “miss led.” I first saw the word in a _ **Little Lulu** _ comic when I was six. For years, I too thought “misled” was pronounced “MY-zeld” and (from context) meant “cheated.” I must have been twenty or so when I finally realized it was “mis-LED.” Wasn’t that far off on the meaning, though. 🆒 I remember Lew Marie mispronouncing “awry” in an early episode of _ **That Girl** _. I had seen the word in print before, but had never thought about how it was pronounced. (I was ten at the time.) I was watching a documentary the other night, and the presenter (a guy with whom I’ve worked in the past) pronounced “Grantham” (the city in England) as GRANTH-am, not GRANT-am (silent “H”). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/73 "2016-11-02T05:18:03Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I was watching a documentary the other night, and the presenter (a guy with whom I’ve worked in the past) pronounced “Grantham” (the city in England) as GRANTH-am, not GRANT-am (silent “H”). Not nearly as bad as when I was 22 and trying to find the American Embassy in London. I asked someone where “GROS-venner Square” was, and he was greatly amused. It’s written \*\*Grosvenor \*\*and pronounced “GROVE-ner.” I still cringe when I think of this, especially since I’d already been living in the UK for more than a year. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/74 "2016-11-02T07:22:23Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Yeah, it took me a while to figure out it was pronounced ‘Throat-Warbler Mangrove’ We’ve been over this before, it’s WOBBLER. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/75 "2016-11-02T10:15:32Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > awry = AW-ree Me too! Not from the same source, but exactly the same mispronunciation. I still think it sounds better. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/76 "2016-11-02T10:27:05Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Me too! Not from the same source, but exactly the same mispronunciation. I still think it sounds better. For your oral/aural gratification, there is the word “orrery”, which is quite close in sound to the mispronounced “aw-ry”. And an orrery is also an pretty cool _thing_ to have a special word for. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/77 "2016-11-02T10:41:21Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > …Episcopal. When I was a kid we used to drive past this sign for an Episcopal church, and in my head I sounded it out as “eh-pih-SCOPE-ul.” The one day my 5th grade social studies teacher said the word out loud, and it clicked. As with my claimed-ex-nun acquaintance, mentioned upthread; only she rendered it to herself as “eh-pih-SCOP-ul” (short “o”). > [@Infovore](#): > > Not a word, but a name. “Aloysius,” which I pronounced “Al-LOY-see-us.” I’d even _heard_ the name “Al-oh-WISH-us,” but I didn’t make the connection between the two for a long time. I did just the same, for a long time (well, the name does _look_ exactly as you render the pronunciation): IIRC it was a good number of years, before I heard the name spoken – likely not being Catholic, and long knowing few if any Catholics, contributed to that. > [@Shalmanese](#): > > I thought Arkansas was pronounced just like regular Kansas. “Drifting” slightly – I seem to think I’ve read that the Arkansas River, in its westerly reaches outside of Arkansas state, is pronounced not “Arkansaw”, but “Ar-kansas” (the last two syllables, just like the state of Kansas) – or have I imagined that, prompted by a desire to consider you Yanks to be barmy? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/78 "2016-11-02T10:43:25Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I was watching a documentary the other night, and the presenter (a guy with whom I’ve worked in the past) pronounced “Grantham” (the city in England) as GRANTH-am, not GRANT-am (silent “H”). We in England are not unanimous on that one: some pronounce the town’s name one way, some the other. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/79 "2016-11-02T10:54:27Z")
Until my freshman year of college, I had only ever seen the word “carotid,” as in carotid artery, in print, but never heard it pronounced. I had never taken a close look at its spelling and had assumed it was “CAR-toyed.” ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395/80 "2016-11-02T11:00:24Z")
Hyperbole. Hermoine. Looks like I have a problem with H-words. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/written-words-you-mispronounced-until-hearing-them/770395.md?page=5)