NYC Midnight : Creative Writing & Screenwriting Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > GENERAL DISCUSSION > Creative Writing Corner
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Words you read first and now mispronounce
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Words you read first and now mispronounce

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 4>
Author
Message
Reasonably_Crazy View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Location: Portland, OR
Status: Offline
Points: 1877
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Reasonably_Crazy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Words you read first and now mispronounce
    Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:02pm
While we wait for emails, shall we confess our sins?

What words did you learn from reading only to later find out you were mispronouncing?

Mine's abacus, which I have eternally pronounced "uh-BOCK-us" which... apparently isn't it.

Also RIP to high school me for polygamy, which I pronounced as "poly" as in "polygon" and "gamy" like "cami."
Back to Top
ChillyToez View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 06 May 2019
Location: North Pole
Status: Offline
Points: 2438
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ChillyToez Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:25pm


sieve which I always thought rhymed with believe until some nice person disabused me of that idea.... 
Back to Top
kristina_f View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Location: BC, Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 1541
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kristina_f Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:31pm
loath: I pronounce it with a soft 'th' the same way I say 'loathe'. I am loath to switch over.
forte: I pronounce it 'fortay' as if it were a French word that lost its 'é' in Anglicization.
salve: Like many, I pronounced the 'L'. Recently I've made the switch to 'saav' and it hasn't killed me.
biopic: 50/50 shot as to whether I will pronounce it similar to 'biopsy' or 'bye-o pic'

As a bonus: 

I cannot pronounce the word 'anthopomorphization' correctly on the first go the majority of the time. Somewhere in the middle, I lose track of the number of syllables it's supposed to have and can't figure out where the emphasis should to be. 

Sometimes I avoid ordering 'gyros' because I don't want to deal with the confusion. "Do you mean Jye-roes?" I'm not Greek, but no, I don't believe I do. I've had this happen several times with 'croissant' as well. "Oh, do you mean a kruh-sawnt?" Look, I'm not getting in your business about how you pronounce it, so you just leave me to my own brand of mouth noises*. (/sulks quietly in a corner). 

Like many people, I was thrown for a loop the first time I saw the word 'segue' written down. I was reading a passage out loud to my grade 9 English class at the time too. No one seemed concerned about what a 'seh-gyoo' was. I put two and two together on that one pretty quickly though.

*I'm not actually that sensitive. 


Edited by kristina_f - 18 May 2021 at 12:40pm
FFC2 GR68: the astronomer
Back to Top
Reasonably_Crazy View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Location: Portland, OR
Status: Offline
Points: 1877
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Reasonably_Crazy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:40pm
Originally posted by ChillyToez ChillyToez wrote:



sieve which I always thought rhymed with believe until some nice person disabused me of that idea.... 

Uhhhh... so what DOES it rhyme with? Because I also pronounce it like "believe"

Speaking of words that (don't) rhyme with believe, for years I pronounced "Segue" like "Seeg". I thought "segway" was a completely different word Cry
Back to Top
Reasonably_Crazy View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Location: Portland, OR
Status: Offline
Points: 1877
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Reasonably_Crazy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:42pm
Originally posted by kristina_f kristina_f wrote:

loath: I pronounce it with a soft 'th' the same way I say 'loathe'. I am loath to switch over.
forte: I pronounce it 'fortay' as if it were a French word that lost its 'é' in Anglicization.
salve: Like many, I pronounced the 'L'. Recently I've made the switch to 'saav' and it hasn't killed me.
biopic: 50/50 shot as to whether I will pronounce it similar to 'biopsy' or 'bye-o pic'

As a bonus: 

I cannot pronounce the word 'anthopomorphization' correctly on the first go the majority of the time. Somewhere in the middle, I lose track of the number of syllables it's supposed to have and can't figure out where the emphasis should to be. 

Sometimes I avoid ordering 'gyros' because I don't want to deal with the confusion. "Do you mean Jye-roes?" I'm not Greek, but no, I don't believe I do. I've had this happen several times with 'croissant' as well. "Oh, do you mean a kruh-sawnt?" Look, I'm not getting in your business about how you pronounce it, so you just leave me to my own brand of mouth noises*. (/sulks quietly in a corner). 

Like many people, I was thrown for a loop the first time I saw the word 'segue' written down. I was reading a passage out loud to my grade 9 English class at the time too. No one seemed concerned about what a 'seh-gyoo' was. I put two and two together on that one pretty quickly though.

*I'm not actually that sensitive. 


Ha, I replied to the first post about "segue" without reading yours! 

Also, pretty much all of these apply to me, too. Oofs all around.
Back to Top
kristina_f View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Location: BC, Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 1541
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kristina_f Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:43pm
Originally posted by Reasonably_Crazy Reasonably_Crazy wrote:

Originally posted by ChillyToez ChillyToez wrote:



sieve which I always thought rhymed with believe until some nice person disabused me of that idea.... 

Uhhhh... so what DOES it rhyme with? Because I also pronounce it like "believe"

Rhymes with 'give'.
FFC2 GR68: the astronomer
Back to Top
Gypsie View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie
Avatar

Joined: 18 May 2021
Location: Wilmington, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 2
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gypsie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 12:59pm
Love this discussion! I thought I was the only one who could read but not talk! My main word and I still say it incorrectly. The word is thesaurus. But I’ve always said in my mind “thiss are wriss.” 
Back to Top
Suave View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: Thailand
Status: Offline
Points: 25028
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 1:06pm
When I was younger pubic and public were interchangeable when reading.
Made for some pretty questionable thoughts on what was going on in a story.
Back to Top
kristina_f View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Location: BC, Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 1541
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kristina_f Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 1:20pm
One thing I've always struggled with are names in books. I remember reading The Hobbit and LotR in elementary and middle school. I was probably halfway through Return of the King when my brother informed me it was Gandalf, not Grandhalf.

Also in the fantasy realm:
Wyvern: I first read it as 'wih-vern' (short 'i') instead of 'wye-vern' (long 'i'). Out loud I say the latter now, but in my head it is always the former. I just like t better.
FFC2 GR68: the astronomer
Back to Top
swilki View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Addict
NYC Midnight Addict
Avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2021
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Points: 1308
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote swilki Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2021 at 1:53pm
Originally posted by kristina_f kristina_f wrote:

loath: I pronounce it with a soft 'th' the same way I say 'loathe'. I am loath to switch over.
forte: I pronounce it 'fortay' as if it were a French word that lost its 'é' in Anglicization.
salve: Like many, I pronounced the 'L'. Recently I've made the switch to 'saav' and it hasn't killed me.
biopic: 50/50 shot as to whether I will pronounce it similar to 'biopsy' or 'bye-o pic'

As a bonus: 

I cannot pronounce the word 'anthopomorphization' correctly on the first go the majority of the time. Somewhere in the middle, I lose track of the number of syllables it's supposed to have and can't figure out where the emphasis should to be. 

Sometimes I avoid ordering 'gyros' because I don't want to deal with the confusion. "Do you mean Jye-roes?" I'm not Greek, but no, I don't believe I do. I've had this happen several times with 'croissant' as well. "Oh, do you mean a kruh-sawnt?" Look, I'm not getting in your business about how you pronounce it, so you just leave me to my own brand of mouth noises*. (/sulks quietly in a corner). 

Like many people, I was thrown for a loop the first time I saw the word 'segue' written down. I was reading a passage out loud to my grade 9 English class at the time too. No one seemed concerned about what a 'seh-gyoo' was. I put two and two together on that one pretty quickly though.

*I'm not actually that sensitive. 
Maybe this is a cross the pond thing but in the UK it is fortay as if the acute e was lost. We'd also say both biopsy and biopic the same way but they would both be bye-o, so don't feel bad you were just doing an accent at the time!

For years I thought ravenous was pronounced ra-VAIN-us. No idea where I got that from, maybe words like hilarious where you put the emphasis on the second syllable? 
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 4>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.05
Copyright ©2001-2022 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.156 seconds.