Written words you mispronounced until hearing them

In my British dialect it rhymes with sour unless it’s describing something or somebody Scottish, as in a /dur/ Scot :slight_smile:

Yes, that’s what I meant. “Gin,” like the alcoholic beverage.

Being a history buff, I pronounce it the way it is in French.

Yes, I was talking about a hard g.

Once again, drifting a bit away from the topic; but I’ve learnt in recent years, that there is not total uniformity about the spelling, either, of the north-of-France village concerned. For decades, I’d just reckoned from all heard and received, that it was spelt “Agincourt” – no more to discuss. Then, Bernard Cornwell (of Sharpe fame), published a novel in his series about a medieval English archer / soldier, treating of the battle concerned; and he titled the novel, Azincourt. I have rather a love-hate relationship with Cornwell; some of his novel series I like, some I can’t stand; his medieval-archer one is in the latter category, and on seeing the book first hit the bookshops, my reaction was, “Oh dear God, Bernard, you f***ing precious twat and attention-whore, with your crazy fancy spelling”.

Some later research disclosed that in fact in France, both the “g” and “z” spellings are admissible. Either, it seems, work more or less OK for the “zh” or “j” or “g” pronunciations. So – sorry, Mr. Cornwell: although you often piss me off, my pissed-off-ness about this particular thing was unjust.

Add this to the cases of why IPA (or similar) is a nice, handy system when talking about pronunciation. :wink:

If I were a newscaster I am sure that I would always pronounce indicted wrong even though I know how it is supposed to be pronounced.

At least you know how to use the subjunctive properly! :cool:

As a child: Suede. I thought it was soo-dee.
More recently: quinoa. I thought it was quinn-oh-a.

Johann von Goethe. I pronounced that Go-eth up until college, until a roommate heard me talking about the guy, rolled his eyes, and corrected me.

Growing up, my brother and I really enjoyed having “Doug Hunts” as a treat for breakfast. You know, those tasty things with a hole in the middle?

Yes.

Kind of ironic that the classic Python joke about mispronouncing names is so commonly misheard and mispronounced.

I’d like to think it was deliberate, but I don’t think even Monty Python were that clever.

Anyway, once and for all, it’s Throatwobbler Mangrove. With a wobble, not a warble.

My family is Polish and we live on the North Side. I’ve always pronounced it “Chic AW go.” A cousin of mine who lived in the most populous city in Michigan once “corrected” my pronunciation. I immediately asked her, “How are things in De-TWAH?”

And his buddy, AL-burt CAM-us.

As a kid, I pronounced the gravelly part of the road “Should-er.”

Sieve - I thought it was pronouced “seeve”.

“Desultory” tripped me up. I had seen it in print for probably a couple of years during my “Victorian novels” stage when I was 14-15 or so, but never heard it, although I was sure of its meaning, so I used it once, in front of my mother, who immediately corrected me.

It took me a long time to connect the written word “segue” with “SEG-way.” That one really should be on Freshman English spelling tests.

I learned the word “thesaurus” from my teacher at international school in Moscow, who was English, and she pronounced in “THE[devoiced ‘TH’+short ‘E’]-sur-us,” as opposed to sounding like some kind of dinosaur. I don’t know if that is a regional pronunciation, or standard UK English. But I said that for years. I couldn’t shake it.

[hijack]There was a guy in Indiana who was one of those late-night horror movie hosts, who went by the name Sammy Terry. It was years before I got the pun.[/hijack]

Pineal gland. It’s apparently pronounced PIE nee all, not PIN nee all, as I thought.

No, I don’t get the chance to hear or say it very often.

Municipal is a hard word! As a kid, I called it muncipal. Left out a syllable. I put that extra syllable back into another word, Ramadama, as in Ramadama Inn.

But I still mispronounce a lot of written words. Or that is, I refuse to say certain words. Because I know I have them wrong. Truculent, lugubrious.

Once I bragged to some acquaintances about my brilliant spelling abilities and one of them suggested a challenge and asked me if I knew how to spell (pronounced phonetically) “tisic.”

I thought about it a minute. I DID know how to spell it. I had no idea how to pronounce it, ever, and would never have attempted it. PHTHISIC.

He was astounded. I couldn’t return the challenge because all the hard to spell words I know, I am afraid to pronounce. (And after phthisic you can’t give somebody an ordinary hard word like ophthalmologist. Especially not that one.)

Wait, it’s not…?

I mispronounced “rendezvous” as with z and s both pronounced. And also mispronounced recipe as Re-SYP. That’s what I get for learning phonics…

“Siv” as I’ve always heard it.

Bananarama’s Siobhan Fahey: I was saying “See-oh-buh-han” in my head until a MuchMusic veejay said “Shivon” and I was like “???”

Siouxsie and the Banshees: I saw “See-ooks-sie” until same thing, a MuchMusic veejay said “Suzy”.