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[-] NoLeftLeftWhereILive@hexbear.net 18 points 11 months ago

So many, but the funniest has been "meme" (English is not my first language). My online friends who are English speakers were eternally amused by it, sadly my audhd brain has forgotten how I pronounced it.

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago

my audhd brain has forgotten how I pronounced it.

Maybe "mehmeh" or "meemee"?

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[-] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 6 points 11 months ago

My first encounter with it was from the Selfish Gene, where Dawkins describes it as a "mind version of a gene", so he thought meme sounded fine. Hearing Maymay was bonkers to me.

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[-] Rom@hexbear.net 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

While we're on the subject who the fuck decided lingerie should be pronounced lawn-jer-ay? Petition to stop letting the French decide how words are spelled because if I have to try to correctly spell burgiouisey one more time I'm going to flip.

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 17 points 11 months ago

if the english were managing their language so well why did they lose the battle of Hastings? berdly-smug

[-] NoLeftLeftWhereILive@hexbear.net 9 points 11 months ago

I gave up and have started to just opt for calling them bourge. Can't pronounce it either.

[-] OrganicIndependence@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

Not trying to troll or creep. I didn’t realize what instance I was on at first. But I read your spelling and my head immediately jumped to the Borgs from Star Trek. Got a solid cackle from me. It’s been a long disappointing day so genuinely, thank you for my laughter. I’ve seen too much RISA maybe. Have a great one

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[-] President_Obama@hexbear.net 15 points 11 months ago

All of them (technically)

I'm ESL

[-] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 14 points 11 months ago

Paradigm. I pronounced it para-dig-m, like an idiot

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Segue, how the fuck are you supposed to guess the pronounciation of that when there's hardly any other english words like it? I pretty much didn't learn the actual way to say it until university. I always said it "SEGG" and just assumed the rest was silent because it's ridiculous.

[-] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago

I remember mispronouncing Montague (from shakespeare) for the same reason.

[-] cryptymythy@hexbear.net 12 points 11 months ago

ennui, but really do french derived words count

[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 12 points 11 months ago

Everyone in my elementary school pronounced zealot as zeal-lot.

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago

Now I wish that was the pronunciation.

[-] Catradora_Stalinism@hexbear.net 11 points 11 months ago

Melee

I still say it wrong

[-] Rom@hexbear.net 18 points 11 months ago

There's a significant population of 20- and 30-somethings who know the proper pronunciation of melee entirely because of Smash Bros.

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago
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[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 11 points 11 months ago

Parable of the Sower... I thought it was a book about pigs (sows). I still mispronounce it in my head.😅

[-] 4am@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

Sower Patch Kids

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 11 points 11 months ago

What is one word you realized you were pronouncing wrong until you heard someone else say it?

Mine: affidavit

Pronounced it a-fit-a-vit (not unlike "a Fitbit") for about 3 months in college trying to get out of a dorm contract I wasn't happy with.

Nitter

I'm dyslexic so my relationship to words like "affidavit" is a strange one. My first exposure to the word must have been via a tv series. I watched an insane amout of tv as a kid. So I heard the word many years before I ever saw the written form. With such words - there's confusion in my mind when I see the written form. If I were to look at the word and try to pronounce it - I'd likely mispronounce it like then I was a kid coping with pretty easy words that still gave me grief.

[-] Parsani@hexbear.net 11 points 11 months ago
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[-] 2Password2Remember@hexbear.net 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

don’t have a good answer to OP’s question but i just want to give a shoutout to my fellow IPA literate sickos in this thread fighting the good fight

Death to America

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 7 points 11 months ago

Hexbear won't understand this coded message: /'dəþ 'tu 'ði æm'εrɪkən 'længwədʒ/

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[-] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Subpoena, pronounced it as sʌb-pəʊ-ena (/suhb-pou-ehna/). There is no argument that oe should make an [i] sound. I refuse to entertain the thought.

[-] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Also segue, pronounced it seɪg (/say-g/) until someone corrected me.

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[-] AbbysMuscles@hexbear.net 10 points 11 months ago

"Calliope". I thought it was "Kal-ee-ope". I found out like last week it's "Kal-I-Oh-Pee".

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago

Kal-ee-ope

My favorite online dictionary is usually spot on. It has two pronunciations. The only way I've heard it pronounced is the first pronunciation - kuh-LAHY-uh-pee. The second is KAL-ee-ohp which I don't think I ever heard until a minute ago in that digital voice.

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[-] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 9 points 11 months ago

Ennui

Used to say it Enh-ooey

[-] ratboy@hexbear.net 7 points 11 months ago

Wait....how do you say it 👀

[-] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 9 points 11 months ago

It's French, so it's pronounced "Depression"

(More like On-Wee)

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[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 9 points 11 months ago

ptolemy. and ptolemy.

[-] Aryuproudomenowdaddy@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago

I used to pronounce respite as re spite.

[-] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 7 points 11 months ago

I think that one is allowed

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[-] chicory@midwest.social 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Dachshund and indicted:

Dash-Hound In-Dicked-ed

Even though I heard people pronounce dachshund I didn't connect it to the written word until I was in my 30's probably. I knew that a weiner dog was a "doc-sun" but didn't know how it was spelled

[-] roux@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago

Since I'm a fucking idiot, for some reason I used to tell people our dog we had when I was a kid was a dashhound/docsun mix. So yeah this one hits home lol.

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[-] Barabas@hexbear.net 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Worcestershire sauce. If it was meant to be pronounced wooster why did you add the rce bit ukkk

Same goes for Leicester.

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[-] laziestflagellant@hexbear.net 7 points 11 months ago

All of them. I read everything phonetically and then my brain jumbles it up for extra word flavor. I mispronounce words you can't even imagine

[-] WittyProfileName2@hexbear.net 6 points 11 months ago

Ironically, shibboleth.

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago

Took me way too long to realise that colonel is pronounced like kernel. Even while writing this very post I had to fact check it in the dictionary to make sure I'm not posting it wrong like a fool. Like, c'mon... there's THREE vowels in the word... three vowels three syllables! What the heck!

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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
54 points (100.0% liked)

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