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Is there a word you read many times over many years without knowing the pronunciation?


InDefenseOfPOMO

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InDefenseOfPOMO

A word that I must have read on pages hundreds of times over many years without knowing the pronunciation is bourgeoisie or bourgeois. Then I had an epiphany a few months ago: online dictionaries have audio recordings of pronunciations.

 

Let's just say that what I uttered mentally each time I encountered that word was rarely the same as before; and never, I now know, was it close to the actual pronunciation.

 

Yet, I still understood what I was reading--I think.

 

What word or words has it been for you?

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Epitome

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Statistical and statistics

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Anthracite_Impreza

Technically any 'th' in the thorn/three sounding way (not they/that). I always pronounced it 'f' because I was never told any different until I was... 18? So yeah, too late now. Apparently it makes me look stupid and uneducated, so I'm fairly sure I get discriminated against in interviews cos of it.

 

And yes, that means I pronounce my own username Anfracite.

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Alejandrogynous

Les Miserables

 

Also, I know how to pronounce "relagate" but every single time, my mouth says "regulate." It's bothersome.

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2 hours ago, Kyon. said:

Misled.

 

I don't even know how I didn't get it - it's so obvious!

Were you misled by the spelling?

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Acai.

 

Quinoa. 

 

Pho. 

 

Needless to say. I felt like an idiot, realizing I was mispronouncing all three for the longest time with zero people correcting me. 

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Phosphoinositide

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InDefenseOfPOMO
4 hours ago, InDefenseOfPOMO said:

A word that I must have read on pages hundreds of times over many years without knowing the pronunciation is bourgeoisie or bourgeois.

 

I now remember how I pronounced it (in my mind) most of the time: "burgess".

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For the longest time I didn't know epitome has an -ee sound at the end or that gyro somehow has the same pronunciation as euro. Also I just realized I also didn't know the correct pronunciation of bourgeois since I just checked it out of curiosity.

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@InDefenseOfPOMO, reference your original post, bourgeois and bourgeoisie are different words with similar etymology.

 

British place names often have bizarre pronunciation, Leicester is pronounced lester

 

@ColeHW, Aluminum gets confusing because its spelt Aluminium elsewhere.

 

As a kidlet the American pronunciation of lieutenant threw me, I was expecting it to be spelt lootenant or something similar. First time I saw Columbo I thought he would be a crime-fighting janitor in Hong-Kong Phooey style :P

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6 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

lieutenant

I was always amused by the British pronunciation. There is no f in the word. :P 

But then, we both pronounce colonel as if that first l is an r. :P 

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17 hours ago, Perspektiv said:

Acai.

yup same. as well as "colonel" 

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5 hours ago, daveb said:

I was always amused by the British pronunciation. There is no f in the word. :P 

But then, we both pronounce colonel as if that first l is an r. :P 

In Britain we pronounce colonel exactly the same as kernel 

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3 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

In Britain we pronounce colonel exactly the same as kernel 

Same in the US :) 

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19 hours ago, ColeHW said:

Phosphoinositide

That's that type of word after 2 attempts, you just give up and start describing it. 

 

"You know that thing that.."

 

I know am not the only one who does this. 

 

I do this with names. 

 

Instead of butchering your name, I will recognize the region where it's from, then ask how it's pronounced in your country. 

 

That's essentially my secret to never butchering names. 

 

I had a client shocked I recognized the Polish descent in his name. I was told I was the first to pronounce it right. 

 

I got over confident and took a stab at the last name which had at least 20 characters. 

 

Post his laughter, and correction, I told myself never again. 

 

I felt like what Donald Trump's intelligent kids must feel like whenever he opens his mouth.

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Mediocre (I always thought it was medi-okra like the vegetable). 

 

Onyx (I was saying oinks).

 

Although I tend to mumble everything so no one notices.

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I remembered one, "hegemony" - had only encountered it in written form before I went to grad school. Still feels awkward to say it the correct way (not that it comes up much in my life these days :P ).

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InDefenseOfPOMO
3 hours ago, Eutierria said:

Worcester (Sauce)

 

That is another one.

 

I read that one many times without knowing the pronunciation. I believe that I mentally plugged in "worster".

 

It was probably the Food Network that saved me.

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3 hours ago, daveb said:

I remembered one, "hegemony" - had only encountered it in written form before I went to grad school. Still feels awkward to say it the correct way (not that it comes up much in my life these days :P ).

I grew up in small towns reading intellectual-ish stuff but not having anyone around me with whom to talk about it.  Thus as a young adult when I moved to the big city I made a lot of embarassing mistakes in pronunciation.   

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SorryNotSorry

Antimony

Technetium

Trisomy

 

I used to piss my great-grandmother off by calling a piano a "pie-anna".

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