Frequently Mispronounced Words

Badmitton. The game is badminton.

flaccid (flaksid, not flassid)

onomatopoeia

Coincidentally (maybe) someone started a thread about mispronounced words just last night.

Supposedly

Quay

Forte. It's supposed to be pronounced "fort," (it's from French, not Italian) but apparently, after years of being pronounced "for-tay," it's become acceptable.

"Clitoris" does not rhyme with Dolores.

It's CLITerris. That's why it's called a clit.

Liberry

Delores clitoris is a joke r8. No one actually pronounces it like that.

Americans frequently mispell and mispronounce aluminium.

orangutang and TANG are perfectly acceptable alternate spellings.

Maybe orangutang is what the astronauts drank.

Some people say "steaming pile of shit" but it's actually pronounced "Big Bang Theory"

Aks instead of Ask. It should be pronounced like "Ax"

Sean Spicer owns this thread.

R8=Mulva

Febuary

Mischievous /mĭs′chə-vəs/

It's fageetas, not fa-jai-tas.

[quote]The word was first attested in English in 1691 in the form orang-outang, and variants with -ng instead of -n as in the Malay original are found in many languages. This spelling (and pronunciation) has remained in use in English up to the present, but has come to be regarded as incorrect.

[quote]Aks instead of Ask. It should be pronounced like "Ax"

That's just racist. Ax for ask is a perfectly acceptable region variant of pronunciation.

Di-int.

NORK.

In fact it's New York.

[quote] flaccid (flaksid, not flassid)

Both became acceptable about 20 years ago.

ALUMINIUM

Schedule

Y'all needs ta go ta duh LIE-berry.

[I once subbed at a deeply urban (dog whistle) high school and over the morning announcements the reader kept on using LIE-berry. I asked who the person was reading the unfortunate announcements. It was the Principal.]

Svenjolly

Guy at work used to say Lagzania (nevermind that's it's really supposed to end with an E)

Brooshetta rather than Brusketta is another common one

Dour.

Actually, r23, that would be Newark.

R21 must have lost her social justice shit when she saw the SNL skit about Ask Cologne for Men.

First of all, that is not a skit, you moron. And why is a white guy attempting that joke? He's racist. It would never happen today.

"Ax for ask is a perfectly acceptable region variant of pronunciation."

That's perfectly insane and absolutely incorrect.

And R10, everyone know it's the British who misspell and mispronounce "aluminum."

[quote]And [R10], everyone know it's the British who misspell and mispronounce "aluminium."

Listen, Miss Pell. The original is always the best.

CREAMY BROOLLEE

Okay, Miss R35. Have it your own ignorant way.

Je t'adore, R37.

Americans think they're using French when they pronounce lingerie (lahn-zheray) but in French it would be closer to lan-zheree, with a short a sound like in "cat" in the first syllable. Drives me bonkers. Just say fucking underwear.

I enjoy hearing Americans over-Frenchify words like genre and croissant. I don't know if they're mispronounced but they're amusing.

How about how "chaise longue" became "chaise LOUNGE?"

r38, shut it yourself.

"Carmel" when it should be caramel (care-a-mel) "Real-a-tor" when it should be realtor (don't stick in the "a" you dropped from caramel)

Mazzio's Pizza bothers me (don't know if that's regional??)

Anyway, they put the proper "t" sound in the pizza with the two z's but for Mazzio's they leave it out and use a short a, which doesn't exist in Italian.

I guess it's ok for an Italian to Anglicize his name, but the combination really irks me.

Birthday pronounced birfday

Why did a company called "Franco-American" sell spaghetti and ravioli? They're Italian, not French.

Super Mario, not Mare-rio.

Faux-yur (on every fuckin Househunters)

People who insist on calling goat cheese Shayvur

Valentime's Day

Valet (parking) - val-AY

Valet (manservant) - VAL-ett

Foyer (entrance hall) - FOY-er and never a foy-YAY which French for fireplace.

[quote]That's just racist. Ax for ask is a perfectly acceptable region variant of pronunciation.

Uh, no. It isn't.

[quote]Americans think they're using French when they pronounce lingerie (lahn-zheray) but in French it would be closer to lan-zheree

Years ago there was a tv commercial that caused everyone'd head to explode where Michael York pronounced it "LAN-ger-ree".

Everyone commented on it.

R43 As long as we're being petty, "Realtor" is always capitalized because it's a registered trademark.

R23, NORK is how people in North Jersey say Newark, the same ones who think Passaic is puh-SAKE.

Midieval is not pronounced Mid-Evil. Mid-ee-eval is correct.

When I worked as a Traffic Reporter we would have been fired for pronouncing "Route" as rhyming with "out". The "ou" is the same as in routine and coupon.

R22 reminded me of a local female anchor who says Man-HA-in.

R54, it's spelled "medieval."

There are certain words I know I mispronounce. I was once corrected for saying 'poinsettIa' because everyone else where I live leaves out the fourth syllable. So I don't bother pronouncing it correctly anymore.

Does "intensive purposes" qualify?

Futon should be pronounced " Foo-tone," not "Foo-tawn."

Daikon should be pronounced " Die - cone," not " Die-con."

Damn white people not knowing how to pronounce "on". It's like "yo what's going orrrn? Did ya ax Alopecia if her bf is coming?"

It's pronounced "fore-skin" and not "stank sleeve".

R58, never lower yourself for the ignorant. Florists pronounce it poin-set-ee-uh.

Bush and Carter couldn't say nuclear. This week a reporter on a story about Cochlear implants said coke-UH-ler.

nuclear sometimes pronounced nukular (pres. Bush)

Ath-uh-lete

IN-sur-ance.

AM-buh-lance

Orang-utang and the comparable form without a hyphen (as well as at least two other forms) are acceptable alternatives, although idiosyncratic. The pronunciation of the resulting "ng" ending is considered harmlessly aligned with the alternative spelling.

Presuming that a latter-day English construction from the sound of a Banjar Malay/Indonesian root word that actually includes a sound similar to the Western "ng" ending is wrong is naive and falsely rigid. The word spelled "hutan," meaning person, contains a prolonged glottal drop characteristic of Kalimantan Banjarese. It was this word that adapted by Bonjius in the 1630s when the colonial Dutch were working their way through the territory. (Parenthetically, they also thought that the apes could talk, leading to the fact that "orangutan" is a compound meaning "forest man" or "forest person."

Presuming that the spelling of this construction is necessarily definitive at this point in language development shows a lack of understanding both of philological principles and the natural flexibility (not limitless, but in this case valid) of our language.

OP is not an expert. I am. And as a linguist I know that, while pronunciations do contain both forms considered formally correct and social-structure clues that provide information about speakers' location, class, education and social network, using this word as an example tells us plenty about the OP's limitations and biases.

And she probably thinks that what she acts like is pronounced "poon-tan."

R62 is pronounced "stupid fucking moron."

Escargotts

POE LEESS

When grew up in the rural South, chimney was often pronounced chimblee.

Greathe thread. Left out swinging storm door

When I lived in the USA I noticed some people pronounced roof as ruff.

And vase as vaze.

Humid as YUMID.

& human as YUMAN.

Huge as YUUUGE

Girl as GUUUUURL!!

I heard Malcolm Nance talk about the country's sovereignty but he pronounced it sov-er-EN-i-ty. It's harder for me to take him seriously anymore especially since John Schindler says he's pretends to know more about intelligence than he does (he's just a arabic speaker or something??)

Also I'm being too picky but some say e-lec-TOR-al when it should be e-LEC-tor-al -- even some news show personalities.

* an Arabic speaker.... (sorry)

Sportscasters who say DEEfence instead of deFENCE.

GIF is pronounced like the peanut butter, or like 'gin' with an f.

It is not pronounced like "gift" without the 't', no matter what you may think.

And if you argue with this, you're just wrong.

So stop.

"gyro" (as in the greek food item) is pronounced "yee-roh". Not "jy-roh" or "hero".

The "t" in Moet is pronounced, as is the final "s" in Vichyssoise.

[quote]Forte. It's supposed to be pronounced "fort," (it's from French, not Italian) but apparently, after years of being pronounced "for-tay," it's become acceptable.

That's the one I was going to mention. Drives me crazy. I think it happened because everyone knows the word is from the French, and they assume for that reason that is has to have an "e" with an accent aigu sound at the end. When I tell people the correct pronunciation is actually "fort," most of them don't believe me.

[quote]It is not pronounced like "gift" without the 't', no matter what you may think. And if you argue with this, you're just wrong. So stop.

GIF is an acronym and also a madeup word so there is no correct way to pronounce it. I could make up an acronym called PIZZA and insist that it's pronouced pizzazz but no one is going to follow such a deviation.

How about "koo duh grah" for "coup de grace?" The last word should be GRAHSS

R84, the man who coined the word stated how it was to be pronounced. And his pronunciation makes the most sense (soft-g like gin), rather than making it indistinguishable from "gift" (which, when most people mispronounce it with a hard-g, is what I hear... and it just sounds stupid).

It's always been pronounced "JIFF". That has always been the correct pronunciation. You can continue to pronounce it wrong if you insist, but why would you insist on pronouncing it wrong now that you know the correct pronunciation?

If he wanted it to be pronounced Jif then he should spell it Jif.

A new word that I just created is JAM but you need to pronounce it like Zen.

GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format. It is pronounced with a soft g as in "gin," following the Latin pronunciation rule of soft g before e, i, and y.

[quote]How about "koo duh grah" for "coup de grace?" The last word should be GRAHSS

Yes, and another example: Some people pronounce "tete-a-tete" at "tett-ah-tay." (Sorry, I don't know how to create the accent marks here.) Those French words really confuse a lot of Americans.

[quote]GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format. It is pronounced with a soft g as in "gin," following the Latin pronunciation rule of soft g before e, i, and y.

But one could argue that "GIF" should be pronounced with a hard "g" if that letter stands for "graphic," in which it's pronounced as a hard "g." Also, why follow the Latin pronunciation in an acronym made from English words? There are lots of English words that have a hard "g" before an "i."

Lately, I swear I am hearing people say Walla for voila.

R89, well sure. But, how would you sound out G. I. F.? With a soft g, right?

The word "gift" with the hard "g" makes it difficult to see the word the same as Jiff. And personally speaking, it's a stupid word.

[quote]But one could argue that "GIF" should be pronounced with a hard "g" if that letter stands for "graphic," in which it's pronounced as a hard "g."

Only an idiot would argue that, because there is no such rule that an acronym should be pronounced in the way its component letters are pronounced in their original words. If that were the case, "laser" would be pronounced "Lassser" instead of "Layzer".

This is literally the STUPIDEST most IGNORANT excuse for continuing to justify pronouncing GIF incorrectly. You wreck your credibility by trying to make up such a non-existent rule that isn't actually followed for any other acronym, ever.

Has anyone heard a football player say," Football," rather than " Fooball"?

Why is R93 still blowing a gasket over a madeup word? We can pronounced madeup words however we want.

R52, you're not being pretty. You're being precise. Never forget ... 'Detail Leads to Perfection."

This is the proper Japanese way to pronounce 'karaoke':

Proper way to pronounce the Japanese brand 'Uniqlo':

You mean like "madeup," r95.

R93, I simply said "one could argue" that GIF should be pronounced with a hard "g." No matter how you insist, it's not inarguable that it should be pronounced with a soft "g." And I have no idea what the word "laser" has to do with it, or why you think that word would ever be pronounced "lasser" regardless of its origin. You are weird and scary.

[quote]And I have no idea what the word "laser" has to do with it

Seriously? IT DIRECTLY RELATES. LASER is an acronym, like GIF. If you're arguing that GIF should be pronounced with a hard G because the first word is "Graphics"... then you must also argue that "LASER" should be pronounced "Lahsserer", because the A comes from "Amplification" and the S comes from "Stimulated". But no, you pronounce it "lay-zer". Because the words that make up an acronym are irrelevant to the pronunciation of the acronym itself. Period.

So no, you cannot argue that.

R100, are you really so uneducated that you don't know "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation"?

Like flies to shit, Gay Stormmfrunt invaded and fucked up another DL thread.

At a funeral of a parent of a family friend I just watched online, the decedent's 27-year old grandson described his grandmother as the epitome of something or another. Ep-ih-tome.

Pronouncing GIF with a soft g. It's just wrong. Also, Villeneuve pronounced like he's Spanish, not French Canadian.

R104 Ouch! That one actually hurts.

DIS-tri-buted. There's another word similar to that but can't think of it right now.

Wendy Williams pronounces bio-pic as BI-opic!

I know two people who say "supposebly." One of them is my boss. Britney Spears said it during that carpool karaoke thing, too. But she gets a pass.

Not a mispronunciation, but seemingly every Millennial spells "definitely" as "definately."

[quote]The "t" in Moet is pronounced,

That is because it is a Dutch proper name, not French.

I don't know how or why it happened, but over the past couple of decades, the pronunciation of "Halloween" has gotten completely fucked up.

It's "Halloween"—with an A. "Hallow," as in "all hallows eve." Rhymes with "shallow."

It is NOT "Holloween,"—which is how everyone erroneously pronounces it these days. It should NOT rhyme with "follow."

"Halloween" rhymes with "shallow teen," NOT "hollow peen."

It's spelled with an A, goddammit. Pronounce it correctly.

Booger

The Brits, Oirish, and Scots say "boo-ger," with the first syllable accented.

The Australians and Kiwis pronounce the syllables equally stressed, but the first syllable often comes out as "beg" or "bug."

In fact the proper pronunciation is found in Texas and Oklahoma, with the first syllable pronounced as a perfect combination of all three: "bug," "beg," and "boo" with a slight stress on the first syllable.

Canadians seem to follow their southern neighbors, the Americans.

Family pronounced as "famblie" or "fambily."

Privilege pronounced as "prividlege."

Are you guys getting hard g and soft g mixed up? Gin would be hard g. Graphics would be soft g.

R113, No. Hard g = golf; soft g = giraffe

Last week, a co-worker mentioned that she needed to get chester drawers.

I love it when people pronounce "niche" as "nitch"

R1 I pronounced badminton as baGminton for the longest time.

Biopic seems to enrage many but neither version is incorrect.

I was delighted last week when a Jeopardy contestant was shot down for saying "sherbert" instead of "sherbet"—and then he had the huevos to mutter, "I've always called it sherbet." Just because you've been saying it wrong your entire life doesn't make it right.

^^"I've always called it sherbert^^

R115, when I was young, that 's how I heard it. Wasn't until I saw the words in print that I understood.

Nuke-ya-ler

My mother has a very pretentious habit of peppering her conversations with foreign words. Unfortunately, she seldom knows how they are pronounced.

R122 Does she pronounce [italic]laissez-faire[/italic] as lace fare?

Or [italic]Schadenfreude[/italic] as Shayden Freud?

Similar to the "sherbet/sherbert" conundrum, I always thought "chest of drawers" was spelled Chester Draws.

[quote]Does she pronounce laissez-faire - as lace fare?

For what reason would someone do that?

R125 I just wrote what I actually heard in real life.

[Quote]laissez-faire - as lace fare?

Most people tend to pronounce like "lacey fair." Or sometimes "lazy fair."

I say "lay-zay-fair."

[quote]That's just racist. Ax for ask is a perfectly acceptable region variant of pronunciation.

[quote]Uh, no. It isn't.

[quote]—Ebonics be sad

YOU'RE the incorrect one, R50. "Ax" for "Ask" is not Ebonics any more than "Ruff" for "Roof" is; it is a regional variant. Lily-white people from New Orleans' Irish Channel and thousands of other Yats say "Aks/Ax" utterly unapologetically. As do generations of white (mostly Italian American) New Yorkers, New Jerseyites, and Philadelphians.

laissez faire - leh say fair

R129, I spent my first 18 years in an Irish-Italian-Jewish NJ suburb of NY, and I never heard anyone "ax" for "ask" until I moved to Washington DC. And yes, it was definitely a black pronunciation.

Neanderthal. “They” actually changed the pronunciation. It is now ne-an-der-TALL. Not ne-an-der-THAL. I can’t imagine why. Maybe it was a publicity stunt, like they did by demoting Pluto.

Re. Flaccid "Both became acceptable about 20 years ago. "

Not to me, honey.

The rural juror.

I don't care if the Pope says, "ax." It sounds like shit.

Re. Flaccid "Both became acceptable about 20 years ago. "

Not to me, honey. —Mae West

Not to me, either. A double-C is almost ALWAYS pronounced "ks," e.g., [italic]accessory, accept, accent, succinct, flaccid,[/italic] etc. Of course, some double-C words aren't—[italic]soccer, Wiccan, mecca,[/italic] and a very few others. If one doesn't want to sound uneducated, it might behoove one to double-check the pronunciation of questionable double-C words.

R132, Neanderthal was always pronounced with a /t/. "Thal" pronounced /tal/, and now spelled "tal," is the German word for valley.

Nuclear is pronounced as written, as in: new-clear. Not nuke-you-ler.

Massachusetts cities:

Worcester

Gloucester

Dorchester

"Oo-RANG-uh-tang" is a perfectly accepted pronunciation, OP. "Orangatang" and "orang-atang" are accepted alternate spellings of the term, which is Malay and Indonesian in origin and can be spelled multiple ways.

Shame on you for being so rigidly (and wrongly) pedantic when you didn't even BOTHER to look up the term!

No, R60.

R50, have you ever left the house? It's not "ebonics". You will hear a lot of Northeastern people say "aks" or "ax".

I'm from the Midwest and many people there pronounce wash "WUR-sh"

Why is the so-called "regional variant" excuse used to explain away African-American misuse of the language? Are you really going to take someone seriously who says troof, nuffin', aks and finna?

homage

I was taught to pronounce it haw-midge, like it says in Merriam-Webster. Lately, I've heard the word (mis)pronounced with a decided French/pretentious twist, i.e., oh-mawzh

I love hearing Gordon Ramsay say TACK-o.

[quote]finna

finna?

Do most people not yet know how to pronounce quinoa, or do I just know a lot of them?

Heard this yesterday on the radio - Sim-U-larities.

Pengwings

Basinger

Gyllenhaal

Well, that's just criminal, R153.

I recently watched a webcast where one of the young hosts kept saying "pedestool" as in "he put her on a pedestool," and none of her three co-hosts bothered to correct her.

r148 I believe finna would actually be considered a dialect variant, or ebonics, because it's derived from a black phrase "fixing or fixin' to". It means ought to or going to do something. Would any of our DL linguists or copy editors know?

EXpresso instead of espresso.

There's NO X you dimwits.

If you're watching "The Big Bang Theory," you really have no grounds to criticize anyone on anything.

Sheesha Ronan

Adele Dazeem