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

[Homer]

Is saying "ash-ume" to pronounce "assume" a thing?

[daveb]

9 hours ago, Homer said:

Is saying "ash-ume" to pronounce "assume" a thing?

If you're Sean Connery.

[Homer]

1 minute ago, daveb said:

If you're Sean Connery.

Thanksh, that wash helpful and anshwered my queshtion

[RoseGoesToYale]

Spoiler

Am I the only one who, when they were little, thought the boy's name in the nursery rhyme was pronounced "John Jacob Jinglehammer Shit"?

 

[Duke Memphis]

Baster. I thought it rhymed with "faster".

[Duke Memphis]

On 7/30/2019 at 11:37 AM, daveb said:

If you're Sean Connery.

He wouldn't have that problem if his parents named him Shawn Connery.

 

That makes me think of another unfortunately named Sean: Sean Bean.

[Anthracite_Impreza]

7 minutes ago, Duke Memphis said:

That makes me think of another unfortunately named Sean: Sean Bean.

Maybe it's because I've grown up around Irish names (given the Irelands are both over the way), but I've never actually took notice the spellings are the same.

[Celyn: The Lutening]

17 minutes ago, Duke Memphis said:

That makes me think of another unfortunately named Sean: Sean Bean.

This always bothers me.

[Skycaptain]

@Duke Memphis, the anglicised version of Sean is Shaun 

[daveb]

3 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

@Duke Memphis, the anglicised version of Sean is Shaun 

So is Shawn  

[Duke Memphis]

46 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

@Duke Memphis, the anglicised version of Sean is Shaun 

As an American, it's my patriotic duty to butcher every sort of languistic out three.

[Comrade F&F]

When I was a kid I thought "colonel" was pronounced how it's spelt.

[daveb]

1 hour ago, Feys&Florets said:

When I was a kid I thought "colonel" was pronounced how it's spelt.

That's how Corporal LeBeau pronounced it. (I found out Robert Clary is still alive; last surviving main original cast member from Hogan's Heroes)

[Audrey03]

18 hours ago, Feys&Florets said:

When I was a kid I thought "colonel" was pronounced how it's spelt.

same!!
for me there was also "barracks," which i thought sounded like "ba-ROCKS"

i can think of two other examples as well: "rendezvous" i always thought was pronounced the way it's spelt and not "ron-day-vou," and "succumb" i thought was "suh-coomb"

[InDefenseOfPOMO]

On 8/6/2019 at 3:45 PM, Audrey03 said:

for me there was also "barracks," which i thought sounded like "ba-ROCKS"

 

Like Obama's first name?

[InDefenseOfPOMO]

I almost forgot this one: the last name of Stephen Jay Gould.

 

I have read it many times but still do not know the pronunciation. I mentally have pronounced it to rhyme with "fooled".

[SorryNotSorry]

On 7/29/2019 at 5:23 AM, Atheno said:

I can never remember how to pronounce "basin."  Probably others.

Ha ha, some Yank once asked an Aussie if he knew what a bison was. Answer: a plyce where you bythe your fyce.

 

Pronunciations of names can be a headache in its own right. I used to think Cudahy is pronounced "Coo-DAH-hee", but it's pronounced "CUD-a-hay". I though McAfee is pronounced "Mc-AFF-ee", but it's pronounced "MAC-a-fee". I've heard someone from New England pronounce Juan as "Joo-ann".

 

A well-known highway here in L.A. is the Cahuenga Pass. Every time I hear it mentioned on a radio traffic report I want to change its spelling to "Coanga".

[Comrade F&F]

On 8/5/2019 at 4:22 PM, daveb said:

That's how Corporal LeBeau pronounced it. (I found out Robert Clary is still alive; last surviving main original cast member from Hogan's Heroes)

 

Maybe this is before my time, but...what's Hogan's Heroes?

[daveb]

7 hours ago, Feys&Florets said:

 

Maybe this is before my time, but...what's Hogan's Heroes?

An American sitcom that ran from 1965 to 1971, about a WWII German POW camp. It's also often run in reruns/syndication in the US.

See Hogan's Heroes  

Robert Clary played a French POW (the actor is actually French himself).

[Skycaptain]

Going by results this week, every Dutch placename 

[Guest]

I only recently learned that "trough" doesn't rhyme with "cow" nor with "low"...

[DarkStormyKnight]

My family still makes fun of me for mispronouncing plague for years... I thought it was a soft a for some reason...

[Comrade F&F]

On 8/9/2019 at 5:29 AM, daveb said:

An American sitcom that ran from 1965 to 1971, about a WWII German POW camp. It's also often run in reruns/syndication in the US.

See Hogan's Heroes  

Robert Clary played a French POW (the actor is actually French himself).

Yep, definitely before my time. Is it a good watch? 

[daveb]

1 hour ago, Feys&Florets said:

Yep, definitely before my time. Is it a good watch? 

I think so, but I can't say if it will suit your tastes.  

[Guest]

I think I pronounced anime "ana-me" for atleast a couple years before I was told that it is pronounced "ana-may."

Also, I pronounced the gauge in fuel gauge as "gouge" (as in to "gouge someone's eye out") instead of "gage."

[Evren]

When I was a kid I read both chaos and attorney without know how either of them were pronounced.

 

I though chaos was ch- (like cheese) ow-as

and attorney was at-er-knee

[Celyn: The Lutening]

4 hours ago, Evren said:

attorney was at-er-knee

It is...isn't it?

Unless you were stressing the wrong syllable. 

[Evren]

4 hours ago, Celyn said:

It is...isn't it?

Unless you were stressing the wrong syllable. 

I was saying it like at her knee 

Instead of at ter knee

[Celyn: The Lutening]

3 hours ago, Evren said:

at her knee 

Instead of at ter knee

I pronounce these the exact same...

*Welsh confusion*

[daveb]

I think the stress is on the a (not long a though, more like "uh"). A turny

 

The thing with English is that you can't always (or even often?  ) tell how a word should be pronounced just by encountering it in written form. Anyone who has read English and not known the pronunciation of words probably hasn't read much beyond a pre-school level.