Oops! I only ever saw it written down...

Scion

SKY-on.

We'll not talk about how old I was when I figured that one out. It was about the same time as I realized that Bethany in Dogma was not "The Last Zion." [sigh]

I only realised how hyperbole was really pronounced when Judy Dench said it in a Bond film a couple of years ago

At least I wasn't the only one going "huh, what?". Seems everyone I know gets that one wrong!

Difficulties

Di-FEW-cul-ties

(from an ROTC instructor)

This moment belongs to my son, aged 30 months, strapped in his baby-seat, educating his 10 week-old-baby sister who was in the capsule beside him. (She had a lot to unlearn by the time she started school). We were stopped at the lights on the highway, just by the big old church at the crossroads.

D: (regards the ivied walls, the sharp roof, the larger than life-sized crucifix by the broken gate.) You see? That's a turch, babysister. You can tell, because of the T out the front.

(makes a lower-case T with his fat little index fingers, just like the crucifix).

D: You see? T for Turch.

This is a name, but...In grade 4 I was doing a book report which involved some kind of oral component. (I think it was this book.) MC's name was Penelope, and the night before, I was practising for my parents, and they informed me it was not pronounced the way I thought it was. I thought my pronunciation sounded better and made a lot more sense. (Shouldn't it be pronounced similar to antelope?)

Also: chaos. Which, until I was 12 or so, I thought was a synonym for 'kay-os' a word, I had never actually seen in print but had heard many times.

So many.

enveloped (like the stationery with a d on the end)
ethereal (ee-ther-REEL, 3 syllables, ether like ethernet, real like the word real)
inevitable (in-ee-VIT-a-ble)
extraordinary (Extra Ordinary -- like extraterrestrial. I knew the word extraordinary but I totally thought they were different words)

heehee most of these I only figured out in high school...ethereal was particularly embarrassing because I used it in a haiku but assumed the wrong number of syllables in the word.

Gaelic names are tricky for English speakers. Took me a while for figure out how to pronounce Siobhan.

To my shame, I always have to correct my pronunciation of omnipotent. I know how it should be pronounced, I just always want to say "omni-potent"

D: You see? T for Turch.

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Kid logic is impeccable.

when I was younger I thought Arkansas was pronounced ar-can-sass.

slhuang said:

ethereal (ee-ther-REEL, 3 syllables, ether like ethernet, real like the word real)

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Me too. Well, I never actually mispronounced that one, but I heard it in a movie and realized I'd been pronouncing it wrong in my mind...

Subtle - Sub-tile. Though I knew what it meant. Same situation with LJD and Chaos.

So many. Mostly, it's Latin words that trip me up and embarrass the hell out of me. What my friends and I like to do (among other unmentionable things) is to mispronounce a commonly known word on purpose.

For example: Pedestrian = Peda-STREE-in. Potatoes = POE-te-toes.

Don't even get me started on filling in the vowels of license plates.

M.S. Wiggins said:

Potatoes = POE-te-toes.

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That sounds very similar to how I pronounce them - Poe tay toes (Sam Gamgee agrees) and everyone I know does

How do you pronounce it then?

Or is your te more a teh? Or tea or ...??

I'm confused now (on person's te is another ones teh. Perhaps)

LJD said:

Also: chaos. Which, until I was 12 or so, I thought was a synonym for 'kay-os' a word, I had never actually seen in print but had heard many times.

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Ha! I had a similar problem with "solder." I thought it was a synonym for "sauter," the word I heard people say. Nope, just one word there.

And I was sooo disappointed when I learned how the name "Chloe" is pronounced. In my head, I worked it out as "Ch-low-ay," which sounded foreign, mysterious, and beautiful. Then I found out it was actually "Klo-ee" and something within me died a little.

I learned "Hermione" at a young age, though--Merv Griffin used to have Hermione Gingold on as a guest regularly.

Mine in school was:
epitome...epi-tome

On a related note, I also thought left and right were subject for longer than I like to admit. I always heard, "You write with your right hand." and so there was one time my dad let me give directions to a friend's house and I said, It's the house on my right, your left."
The look of disappointment that I said something so stupid corrected me from that day on.

I WAS kind of lucky, when I was being taught my words. mom made sure I knew the proper pronunciation for almost every word I learned. another word I used to have trouble with was sword xD

I admit to having been a Hermione mispronouncer. Wait, not a word. Is now.

I learned to read with the phonics method. The one word that annoyed me immensely as a child was signal. If sign was sine, why was signal sig nal? I learned early on to just use traffic light or turn blinker.

My Brooklyn born and raised MIL has several mispronunciations that have persisted for 80+ years. I used to correct her, now I just mentally put my fingers in my ears and chant 'la la la, I can't hear you'.

MM

This happens to me so frequently that I have known people to call it pulling a Nora...

Let's see, some of the ones that come to mind:

*Tortilla, pronouncing the L's (and I actually knew what a tortilla was an how to pronounce it, just didn't realize it was the same word), circa 6th grade
*Facet, um, yeah still get this wrong half the time
*Colonel, pronouncing it similar to colonial (again, knew the word but didn't connect it to its written form)
*Facade, yup that's not a hard c
*Gist, yup that's not a hard g
*Macabre, used to say it similar to "mackaber", this was probably 1-2 years ago I learned I was wrong

Okay I could make a super long list! I was always a reader and I learned most of my vocabulary from books, so pronunciation has never been a strong suit for me.

L-A

Apparently it wasn't la-aaa

But Ladasha ... who knew the dash wouldn't be silent in this one?

Wurstishierererer Sauce yep get that one wrong all the time too.
(Worcestershire)

Zealot.

Z - Lot. instead of Zellot.

I'm sure I have more but usually its the other way around. I hear a word and know what it is but have no idea what it looks like spelled out.

This is the greatest thing I've ever seen. I'm coming to live with you. Get the guest room ready.

mccardey said:

This moment belongs to my son, aged 30 months, strapped in his baby-seat, educating his 10 week-old-baby sister who was in the capsule beside him. (She had a lot to unlearn by the time she started school). We were stopped at the lights on the highway, just by the big old church at the crossroads.

D: (regards the ivied walls, the sharp roof, the larger than life-sized crucifix by the broken gate.) You see? That's a turch, babysister. You can tell, because of the T out the front.

(makes a lower-case T with his fat little index fingers, just like the crucifix).

D: You see? T for Turch.

Click to expand...