Words you pronounced wrong because you only read them and didn't hear them

[daveb]

7 hours ago, Ceebs said:

I've been recently informed by my partner that I've been saying 'pedant' wrong my entire life, which is rather ironic. I could've sworn I'd heard it pronounced the way I pronounce it, but now I'm questioning myself.  

Just tell him he is being pendantic. 

 

Spoiler

spelling intentional  

 

[Lord Revan]

I thought that segue was pronounced like French (seg-u) and that when someone said 'segue' it meant segway

[Eroell]

Because English isn't my native language and I'm still learning, there are many such words. The ones that come to my mind now are turquoise (I thought the "o" is silent), facade (I was sure the "c" is spelled like "k" not liek "s") , genre (of course I thought the "g"is like in George but no) and the name Stephen (really I had no idea it's spelled exactly the same as Steven. I thought "ph" is spelled like "f") and recipe (I was sure the "i" is like in ice, and the "e" is silent

[Waist of Thyme]

On 8/17/2022 at 7:46 PM, Kurokuma said:

Whenever I saw the name Stephen I would pronounce it with an 'f' sound because of the 'ph' only to find out its basically the same as Steven. 

 

Always pronounced endocrine as indoctrine in my head up until recently.

 

7 hours ago, szarlotka said:

Because English isn't my native language and I'm still learning, there are many such words. The ones that come to my mind now are turquoise (I thought the "o" is silent), facade (I was sure the "c" is spelled like "k" not liek "s") , genre (of course I thought the "g"is like in George but no) and the name Stephen (really I had no idea it's spelled exactly the same as Steven. I thought "ph" is spelled like "f") and recipe (I was sure the "i" is like in ice, and the "e" is silent

I did the same thing, and years after I learned that Stephen is pronounced like Steven I knew someone named Stephen where the ph actually was pronounced like an f. 

[The Sword]

On 8/19/2022 at 11:41 PM, Lord Revan said:

I thought that segue was pronounced like French (seg-u) and that when someone said 'segue' it meant segway

The Sword pronounced it as "ZEEG", which is at least as wrong if not more so. 😆

[Anomaly Q3Xr]

Until a year ago I pronounced "meme" as "meh-may" as I thought it was some French word.

[Guest]

My brother made fun of me for saying "salmon" as "sal-men" instead of "sam-men"

[Spooky Little Kid]

Hearth ("hurth")

Labyrinth ("la-bye-rinth", followed by "lub-rinth")

Meme ("me-me")

[Luftschlosseule]

Wounds. That was before I realised that you guys like to ignore letters that clearly are in the word.

[daveb]

8 hours ago, Luftschlosseule said:

Wounds. That was before I realised that you guys like to ignore letters that clearly are in the word.

There are certainly a lot of silent letters in English words, and some people also ignore letters when speaking quickly and/or not clearly. But I don't think there are silent letters in "wounds". All of the consonants are pronounced, and I believe the ou is a diphthong.

[Synchronicity]

On 8/22/2022 at 4:15 PM, Sammie M said:

Until a year ago I pronounced "meme" as "meh-may" as I thought it was some French word.

Me too.  But apparently it's 'meem'.  Daft. 🙃

[Luftschlosseule]

16 hours ago, daveb said:

There are certainly a lot of silent letters in English words, and some people also ignore letters when speaking quickly and/or not clearly. But I don't think there are silent letters in "wounds". All of the consonants are pronounced, and I believe the ou is a diphthong.

I am told the d is silent though. Woooouns.

[daveb]

7 hours ago, Luftschlosseule said:

I am told the d is silent though. Woooouns.

I think that's debatable. In my mind the d isn't entirely silent as it is part of what makes the s sound more z-ish. Might depend on individual enunciation, too. I'm not sure how much difference it would make if the d was pronounced vs silent though. At least not enough for a native speaker to really notice, I think. (I'm sitting here trying to say it quietly in different ways to see if I can tell a difference  ) Not like other silent letters, such as the k in knife or even the b in dumb, anyway.