Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Today in a business meeting someone used the word hyperbole in describing some situation. Except that he pronounced it "hyper-bowl."

When I was a kid, every time I read the word "awry" I pronounced it "aw-ree" in my head. Luckily, I never had occassion to actually use that word. One day while reading, for some random reason, my brain decided to pronounce it "a-rye" and a lightbulb went off in my head and I knew before going to the dictionary that that was how you pronounce it.

Your turn.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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When I was a kid, every time I read the word "awry" I pronounced it "aw-ree" in my head. Luckily, I never had occassion to actually use that word. One day while reading, for some random reason, my brain decided to pronounce it "a-rye" and a lightbulb went off in my head and I knew before going to the dictionary that that was how you pronounce it.

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It was the same thing for me with awry. Such a weird looking word when it's in print.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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Today in a business meeting someone used the word hyperbole in describing some situation. Except that he pronounced it "hyper-bowl.

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Damn, thats how i pronounce it. Though i never use the word, so luckily havent had it come up in actual conversation. Off to the dictionary for me i think.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Colonel - I would assume this one is pretty common

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Not a word but a name:
Richard Feynman (I pronounced it Fayn-man, it's Fine-man)

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Mishap. I pronounced it like "bishop" until I was nine.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

jaffa,

Looks like this thread has already been valuable!

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

pen - but i'm from tennessee, so it was more of a dialect thing

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

when i was really young, iron was i'-run

also, behemoth was beh-heh-moth' (this was from playing sweet final fantasy 2 or 3)

i never did this, but a ton of people do:
supposedly = supposably

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

No love for nookyular?

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Falafel

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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Not a word but a name:
Richard Feynman (I pronounced it Fayn-man, it's Fine-man)

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If we're going with names, then my personal pet peeve is Keynes.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

not quite the same, but somewhat similar:

for the longest time - until i was about 15 - i thought there was a word "brotued" (sp?) that meant "sponsored" because at the end of television shows they used to say "brought to you by." when it finally dawned on me what they were actually saying, i was in total shock at my own stupidity.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Necromancer

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I used to say melk instead of milk.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Warthog

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Spalding (sports equipment) - thought it was spade-ling for a looong time.

c'mon - thought it was see-mon

bass (the fish) - thought it was base

cavalry - read it as calvary

vice versa - still don't know if it's vice (like ice with a v) versa or vice-a-versa

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

When I was younger I would see "minutiae" and pronounce it "min-yoo-TAY" in my head. Luckily I heard people say "min-oo-sha" and looked up that word, I put 2 and 2 together.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I know its a word, not a company but...

I pronounced hyundai high-un-die for a long time

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I would like to point out that "aw-ree" is still correct if El D turns out to be Jamaican...which would also explain the confusion.

Oh...and mine was "ridiculous"...my Ls were Ws when I was younger.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I cannot think of anything besides Leftenant/Lieutenant, which I do not actually say, only get confused about it.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I remember reading a passage out of a book in 2nd grade and the word "surprise" came up. I kept saying "SUR-priss". I said it like this for probably 2 weeks before the teacher corrected me. Not bad for a second grader, but I took my reading/spelling to heart.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Superlative = SUPER-lay-tiv
scald = skowled


When I was really little:
pumpkin = punkman
ridiculous = ridic-lee-us

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Diablo, great idea for a thread...

Common ones I've seen are:

mores -- as in social mores
bisque -- seen it pronounced bis-cay way too many times
viscount -- not used often, but pronounced wrong quite a bit

Funniest:

I was at dinner, and this wannabe at the table next to ours was trying pretty hard to impress his date. Throughout the night, he was talking loudly about what a baller he was... when the server came by asking about after dinner drinks, he proudly announced, "we'll each have the best cog-nack you serve."

Ha Ha.

-RMJ

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I think a lot of people mis pronounce disoriented as dis-orientated, and I did for a long time too.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I used to pronounce bureaucracy like bureau-cracy, with the "bureau" part pronounced like it is in bureaucrat.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Recently I thought "Wii" was prounced "Why?". Apparently it is "we".

I used to prounce fruition as "fruit-ation".

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A friend of mine pronounces the word "buffet" as Boo FAY.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

for a long time I pronounced "Album" as "Alblum". I don't know why.

I've met many people who can't seem to pronounce "Massachusetts". I think they're being lazy. It's not that hard.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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I used to say melk instead of milk.

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Pellow too?

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

I still mispronounce tomb.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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A friend of mine pronounces the word "buffet" as Boo FAY.

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Eh. Boo-fay is correct too.

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I've met many people who can't seem to pronounce "Massachusetts". I think they're being lazy. It's not that hard.

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Illinois takes the cake for states.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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When I was a kid, every time I read the word "awry" I pronounced it "aw-ree" in my head. Luckily, I never had occassion to actually use that word. One day while reading, for some random reason, my brain decided to pronounce it "a-rye" and a lightbulb went off in my head and I knew before going to the dictionary that that was how you pronounce it.

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It was the same thing for me with awry. Such a weird looking word when it's in print.

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I had this experience when reading the word "Chaos". In my head I pronounced it like it's spelled. "Cha (as in chared) os).

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For many years I thought "fackade" which I knew from print, and "fuhsahd" which I knew from speech, were two different things. I actually figured it out at a bar one time when I said "fackade" and everyone laughed thinking I was making a joke. I was 25 or so.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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I've met many people who can't seem to pronounce "Massachusetts". I think they're being lazy. It's not that hard.

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Illinois takes the cake for states.

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Dez Moinez wins it for cities.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

million: "c'mon - thought it was see-mon" - that might be the best one so far.

RMJ: "we'll each have the best cog-nack you serve." hahaha. How do you think he would have responded had they served him two $300 snifters?

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Somebody I was with today pronounced Proscuitto (sp?) Pros-cute-o. I was like WTF?

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

Ciaffone, until just now.

Re: Words you pronounced wrong for a long time (or others do)
 

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when i was really young, iron was i'-run

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i still pernounce this word i-rin or i-run. i have to think before hand when saying it outloud if i am speaking publicly or something.