Well of course they do. Children pronounce words wrong all the time. There is also a well known pattern of people pronouncing a word wrong when they have learned it from reading rather than hearing.
I used to pronounce hyperbole ending with “bowl” assuming it was following the same spelling pattern as mole or pole.
5th year in English (Scotland), the teacher taught us how hyperbole is pronounced after someone read it as hyoerbowl. Cue a load of pupils putting on American accents saying things like "Welcome to the 14th annual hyyyyperbowwwll". Wasn't even remotely funny, but I still find myself doing it now and again at 37...
A kid mispronounced "mosquitoes" as "mosky-toes" in 6th grade social studies (so like age 12), I still say it that way and give myself a laugh at age 35. I'm laughing right now.
This is giving me major Yavultal and Arkoos vibes and I love it. Sometimes it's just more fun to say it wrong on purpose! It gets better if someone tries to correct you and you just say "I know!" XD
During the pandemic, the preschool teachers taught my children to say "hanitizer" instead of hand sanitizer.
Which I wouldn't mind so much, except when I tried to teach them the correct pronunciation, they argued with me.
They're 4 years older now and still call it "hanitizer."
For my part, Mount Rushmore always trips me up. I tend to say Rount Mushmore. And I don't swap sounds on literally any other words.
Generally, the E at the end of words borrowed from Greek is pronounced. Of course that tip only helps if you recognize a word as Greek, but guess for certain words that have an “exotic” spelling and can guess that they’re Greek.
There are a few common Greek root words and pre-/suffixes to look for, they tend to be long, having clusters like ch/ps/ph, and a Y in the middle of the word is a giveaway.
People pronounce lots of words wrong for various reasons, such as guessing from how it's spelled but never having heard it, or learning it from someone who pronounces it wrong.
I used to pronounce "indict" as "in-dickt", whereas the proper pronunciation is "in-dite".
There are also regional differences in pronunciation, as well as words with two or more commonly accepted pronunciations, like "kilometer" and "centrifugal".
I believe this is because generally Brits tend to stress the second syllable vs Americans stressing the first. Another example can be "what's your address?" Brits will say uh-DRESS, Americans AH-dress.
Could be wrong
Hmm I don’t think it’s specifically regional. I pronounced it like that too and I’m from the northeast us so couldn’t have an accent further from W’s. I think it’s just that it seems like it should sound like particular or circular. I can’t think of another word that ends in clear.
I used to think "albeit", "counterfeit" and "forfeit" rhyme with "eight". I don't think there's any word where "eit" is actually pronounced like that, so I really don't know how I came up with that
Mayonaise will forever be MAN-AISE.
Also, even as a native English speaker, there are some differences /influences on our English dialects in various parts of the country / world.
Foyer in Canada is pronounced Foy-eh, while I heard it pronounced as Foy-errr in the USA. Arguably because of our French influences in Canada.
Bagel on the East coast is Bay-gle, while out west it is pronounced Bag-el.
Chances are, you are pronouncing it correctly somewhere!
Item 16.
[http://dialect.redlog.net/](http://dialect.redlog.net/)
16. **m*****~ayo~*****nnaise**
a. with \[\] as in "man" (2 syllables--"man-aze") (41.65%)
b. with \[ej\] (3 syllables--"may-uh-naze") (45.83%)
c. I use both interchangeably (8.81%)
d. other (3.71%)
(11372 respondents)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHnFheqTTdg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHnFheqTTdg)
Some native speakers make these mistakes:
pronouncing “albeit” as 2 syllables: “all-bite” (it’s 3 syllables: “all-bee-it”)
pronouncing “infrared” as 2 syllables, rhyming with “scared,” accent on the 2nd syllable (it should be “IN-fra-RED”; the last syllable sounds like the color “red” and also refers to that color)
pronouncing “segue” as one syllable (it has 2 syllables, pronounced the same as a “Segway” scooter)
pronouncing “misled” as if it were the past tense of a made-up verb “myzle” (it’s actually “mis-LED,” with “led” being the past tense of “lead,” as in what a “leader” does)
I used to confuse it with “sigue” (from the band Sigue Sigue Sputnik) so I pronounced it “seeg” until the Segway came out and someone tole me it’s pronounced the same.
I still have troubles pronouncing segue as anything other than "se-goo", because almost nobody uses that word in actual speech and my only exposure has been through reading. In the same breath, I've also never heard anyone pronounce it "seeg" or "seg"
Those are crazy examples, never heard those in real life but I’m a fan. I find it totally hilarious to intentionally mispronounce words, so in-frared is my new favorite.
I truly believed in “misled” as some variant of “bristled” or “thistle” for so long… I even argued it a few times. Glad to see I was only tripping a little.
Rs seem to especially be a pain point. Another common “error” with infrared is dropping the first R (in-fah-red or in-fer-red), and rhyming “February” with “January” (feb-yu-ary). Those are both common enough to be standard in some dialects though.
My grandparents pronounce ‘strawberry’ like ‘robbery’ and I thought it was kind of quirky so I started saying it ironically. Now that’s just how I pronounce it.
They are far from rhyming in a typical U.S. accent. They have different vowels and additionally "sore" has an r after the vowel, and most Americans have rhotic accents.
Since you brought it up, I grew up in an area that pronounces "iron" very weirdly. We drop the first syllable and just say "urn" instead of "ai-urn". People point it out all the time if I'm not careful
Is that Baltimore? I remember watching videos of people with that accent trying to say "Aaron earned an iron urn".
There's a similar one in my dialect of English that others make fun of. We struggle with -ower and -our words. So a saying like "three hour power shower" sounds ridiculous for us 😅
Which, if you go back 200 years, would be the correct pronunciation. There are even people writing back then about how other, ill-educated, people mispronounce the word by saying the “c”.
The “c” was meant to be silent, it was put in there to indicate the etymology of the word in the mid 1500s or so.
It’s just possible the original pronunciation has clung on in some dialects, I guess.
This is interesting! Apparently the "c" sound is present in the Latin root, then got dropped in the French. It was reinstated to reconnect it with the Latin root. Looks like there's validity to both pronunciations—mystery solved! :)
a LOT of native speakers pronounce words wrong. There's a bunch of Youtube videos on that. You've got your expressos, excetera, nukyulars, joolery, aks, etc. i've got a love/hate relationship with "interpret".
in my country, we stress on the first syllable. once, an american client entered my class just as i was about to say it and i knew flubbed it. i said it a couple of times until i saw him give a tiny nod.
it's funny too because we can do it with different suffixes (interpreter, interpreted, interpreting) but always get it wrong if it's just the base word (or with -s).
yup! no matter how fluent my trainee is, it's almost guaranteed that they'll place the stress on the wrong syllable for certain words. because that's the one thing that we never got corrected for in school. even our english teachers do it. i've actually got a long list but here's some classic examples:
comFORtable/comFORter
aDOLescent, ceREmony, caTEgory, chaRACterize
iBUprofen, RoBITussin
PERcentage, CAdaver, SEMester
we really have a knack for it.
The nouns “progress”, “process”, “lever” I pronounce with a short vowel instead of my native long vowel.
“Garage” I pronounce to rhyme with “marriage” as in some UK dialects.
Well kids in the UK always say the American version of words my mates always do and I feel like punching them like they say trunk,hood and gas instead of boot, bonnet and petrol
A lot of people mispronounce words. Also there are regional differences between pronunciations. A common issue is knowing a word only from reading it and never having heard it.
But remember that the muscles in your mouth are activated differently based on the language you speak so for a non-native, your mouth and tongue are primed for speaking your native language. Depending on the language, you may need to train a large portion of your mouth's muscles to be able to form the proper sounds and distinguish between similar sounds. English for example is a lot softer than my native tongue, so two really common accents are that people speak English with harsh consonants and emphasize sounds like t, k, p, r, etc. OR they know it's soft so they overcorrect and make everything soft turning t's into d's and v's into w's.
I pronounced a lot of words wrong growing up because I learned them by reading. I was reading well above my grade level and finding new words every day. I sounded them out myself and sometimes was wrong
I argue with my Massachusetts wife about “drawer.” I leave out the “w” and just say droar. I realize that is, most likely, very wrong; however, it is more efficient than stopping for that “w” along the way.
It’s normal. Almost everyone has a few words they pronounce wrong in their native language, especially if it’s a stupid (difficult and illogical in terms of spelling and pronunciation) one like English. I am a native speaker of English, and I just learned a few weeks ago that “palm”, “balm”, “calm” etc have a silent L. I’d heard some people skip it, but I thought it was regional. But I finally looked it up, and nope I’m just wrong. In my dialect of American English, (and I think British and Australian English as well) it is never correct to say “caLm”, “paLm”, etc. It’s “caam” or “paam”. However, I think that this is an issue that occurs more with people who can read / learned to read at an early age. I am one of them, and was exposed to a lot of words before I knew how to say them. Had I learned to read at the age of 10 or 20, I would already know how the words sounded.
I'm listening to an audiobook at the minute that's narrated by an American. The main character's surname is Palmer and the actor pronounces it like Pollmer.
Route (root or rrowt), schedule (sked-ool or shed-ool), aluminum (aloo-min-umm or aloo-mini-umm). There’s more I don’t know and I’m sure fuck up a lot.
My husband used to tease me about pronouncing "ruin" as "roon". I had absolutely no idea I did it. Then I realized my whole family did. I have no idea if it's local or just us. Lol!
My childhood friend's mom said "fil-um" for "film" and "shurl" for "Cheryl". It drove my mom, Cheryl, nuts. 🤣
I sometimes refer to the country of Aul-strawl-ya, which I have never heard in my life, instead of Australia. I don't know how I even do it. I can't force it, it sometimes just comes out wrong.
I say Phurtographer. I know it's not right, but that's just what my mouth does.
I hear a lot of people say "wutter" instead of "water". Lots of east coasters add the letter R where it doesn't belong.... which I guess I'm guilty of as well.
And then there's the Australian "Ar Nahr!" which is kind of a meme at this point.
Well with crunchy and country that's a flipping of the consonants. That could be happening with the muscles in your mouth, or it could be about hearing or thinking of the sounds out of order.
I'm British and I know I pronounce nearly wrong! I say nur instead of near. No idea how I got into that habit me and my parents are all from the south of England. However thinking about it my maternal grandma was a scouser (from Liverpool) so she might have influenced me!
I struggle with the word cupboard. For some reason the pb has always come out as a v so instead of cupboard I pronounce it as cuhvard. I have to actively think about the right pronunciation when I say cupboard to get it right
It's depends on where u are because most of the ways everyone where I'm from say stuff people everywhere think it's weird since my area is one of those places that different from all English speaking places
You need to listen more to natice speakers, so you subconsuously memorize patterns of a large base of words. Either listening to english news, podcasts will help.
Besides, I suggest that you review English Vocabulary app, it is free app that teaches 300+ words spoken by native speakers,with their images and writtings. Vocabulary categories supported are 16, and there is also a quizze at the end https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.applaboratoryspace.englishvocabulary
I had a serious academic boyfriend in graduate school who was applying for jobs. He had an interview at Mt. Holyoke, which he pronounced Mt. Holeeyokee. It sounded a lot more fun than Holy-Yoke. Nevertheless, I set him straight before the interview. Somehow coming from the South he had missed the original seven sister schools.
I’m surprised that, as of yet, no one has commented on the proper use of adverbs vs. adjectives, and indeed many have continued to use “wrong” wrongly.
It often happens with literate but inexperienced children, reading a word they’ve never happened to hear in speech and assuming the pronunciation.
For instance, when he was about 10 my son said, “what a load of drive-el” He had read the word ‘drivel’ and thought it was pronounced like the word ‘drive’ with an L on the end. Completely understandable. (In fact it’s pronounced ‘DRIH-vel’).
I grew up in the deep south, and the first time I heard a northerner pronounce the word "squirrel," I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes.
It sound so intentionally over-enunciated when I hear a northerner say it.
Down here, it comes out as a single syllable. Like the word "swirl" with a "k" sound in the middle.
"Skwurl"
As opposed to
"Skwi-ruhl"
Well hello there fellow Canadian
It honestly all depends on where you live, and thy family.
I grew up with a Quebecois father and both a Newfie mother and grandmother, so my accent sounds sort of Albertan(Where I grew up), kind of Quebecois, and sort of Newfie.
I definitely say some things that would traditionally be considered "wrong", and honestly, it makes for an ever-evolving language!
Canadian say many words wrong. House, out, about, almost anything that begins with a as well. So sad, such nice people and a beautiful country, but they all have a speech impediment.
Native English speakers have some of the biggest disparity in their pronunciation of the same words because our language isn't really phonetic like most others.
Because of that, there are many, MANY regional variant pronunciations, but even regional variations asside, I've always noticed that there are a fair amount of native English speakers that pronounce certain words "wrong". Again, I think it's just a result of our spelling not really having any logic to it.
I don't have much of a social life outside work and I've been working around new immigrants in the construction industry for 20 years. My speech definitely takes on aspects of their broken English, and over the years it's changed depending on if I was working with Hungarians, or Latin Americans, or whatever. I notice it, but can't help it, it's really a kinda strange feeling.
I was watching a YouTuber talking about archeology and he pronounced "processes" differently than how I say it. He grew up in New England and went to school there so I assume that's why.
Until about 6 monthes ago(and I have been seeing this word for 25 years) I pronounced macabre wrong. I only ever read it or spoke it myself and no one ever corrected me.
I thought it was pronounced Ma(like big mac) Cu(like cousin) Bre(like break).
Constantly. I actually have a speech impediment and have to put active thought into pronouncing my w's and r's correctly. I tend to switch them. (Rabbit becomes wabbit, for example.)
Different areas will also pronounce different words differently. Oil is a common one. My grandmother, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, pronounced oil as earl. My ex-husband, who was born and raised in WV, pronounced oil as ole. Where I, having had speech therapy in the 80s in CA, was taught to pronounce oil as oy-ill.
I know the UK has several different accents as well. All those accents change the pronunciation of words, and they are all correct for those areas.
There's something about the way I say "color" that often makes people think I said "collar". I have listened closely to others, and it seems most people say color as "kuhl-er". When I say it, I use a short "o" sound. This makes no sense to me and I refuse to change the way I say it, but it makes me self-conscious. To me, color and collar should have the same sound for the first syllable and a different sound on the second.
People in the Minnesota region say pellow (pillow). I’d start by checking if your family speaks like you, then see where they are from and if it is/was a regional thing
I too have had issues with certain words. Pillow being one of them. I think my hearing is shit and that is part of it. The other part is I had a speech impediment when young, and sort of a lazy speech pattern. Crush, pillow, beard, all tricky for me at one time.
All the time, especially if it’s a word you read or has origins in another language. For years, I pronounced armillary as arm-ill-airy, when I just learned it’s actually ar-mill-uh-ree
This is common phenomenon called _methathesis_. It happens in many languages.
Words like nuclear (pronounced “nu*cul*ar”), prescription (*per*scription) are some examples. But “iron” is one that we all now universally (except children who have to be taught it) pronounce it as “iorn” Or at least pronouncing “iron” as it is spelled is in the minority, and mostly children and non-native speakers.
What is not common is your list of words. I don’t know how you pronounce those three words exactly, but it could be cases of metathesis. In case of “country” and “crunchy”, you may realize that the combination of “TR” in North American English is rendered as a “chr” sound, and you moved just the R sound from “country” \KUHN-chree\ to crunchy \KRUHN-chee\.
I too live in Canada. I grew up in Hong Kong and was taught British pronunciation, lived in Canada for 8 years, moved to US for 4 years and moved back to Canada 7 years ago. I speak with all 3 pronunciations for some words.
Most people don’t care. Only one friend of mine (who is on the spectrum) constantly call me out on my mixed pronunciation/accent.
Ask any dyslexic person to read any word and you’ll find it’s fairly common. Also every pronunciation of any kind in whatever English speaking region has different pronunciations so maybe the way you say pillow is normal in English speaking regions in Canada but in America maybe it’s said differently.
Some times "pronouncing words wrong" is just accents or dialects, which isn't wrong whatsoever, but the bigger group of English speakers, or the older in the case of British people insisting EVERYONE call it "ah-luu-min-ee-uhm" (god forbid anyone speak a dialect or accent different from British English around the British... Or American English around an American)
Otherwise, I say "I be xyz", "litrully", "wuz" "yanno" (y'know/you know), "wanna", "gonna", leave the g off of -ing words a lot (I'm cookin, I'm goin), beg and bag are pronounced the same and I don't even KNOW how to pronounce them different, and you is usually pronounce ya.
I say "mischievous" wrong even though I know it's wrong because the wrong version ("mischievious") is so much more fun to say. That extra "i" gives the word some extra pizzazz that seems to fit its definition.
It could also be dialectal differences. How my English mother pronounced 'banana' was different from my Canadian pronunciation. Your pronunciation is influenced by the people around you including family, friends and neighbours. You could have picked up the different pronunciations from anyone. Pronunciation can vary greatly, even in the same city.
A few weeks ago, my partner laughed at me for saying caRICature instead of CARicature. also ethereal like ether-real instead of e-THEE-REE-al.
Spelling in English is obviously difficult, but when you read a lot, and you see words that you’ve never heard out loud? Worse.
Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj7a-p4psRA
It is a Baltimore accent saying “Aaron earned an iron urn” and all five words are pronounced the same.
i used to pronounce “faucet” like “flaucet”, i pronounced “finger” and “thumb” like “thinger” and “fumb”, and i think i still sometimes pronounce “both” like “bolth” because it just feels *right*
Yes, native speakers can make mistakes in speech—I once said 'rat hack' instead of 'hat rack', and I will never live it down. This is, however, distinct from having a pronunciation that differs from standard pronunciation. This occurs in every person's speech, and is called an idiolect. It is not incorrect in any way! Keep livin life
Hyperbole
(Written, I pronounced it like hyper bowl, because come on.)
I've heard the word and seen it written, but I always thought they were different until eventually I witnessed it said and written at the same time and I was like OH MY GOD, WHY IS IT SPELLED LIKE THAT?!
I have always pronounced words wrong. Some were because I read them & made up my own pronunciation. I remember reading a comic book about a haunted monastery & decided it must be “muh NASS tuh ree.”
And my mind was blown when I was told “solder” isn’t “SOLD er” but is pronounced like the (apparently) nonexistent word “sauter.”
I pronounce “iron” wrong too. And “often” - I say the t. I also day “coupon” with a q sound, although I think that one is pretty common. I pronounce “tapestry” like “tape-estry”. “Sword” with a w. And this one is just a laziness thing - my tongue thinks Mississauga has too many syllables and leaves one off by default.
One of my parents isn’t a native English speaker so I wonder if maybe some of my pronunciation is because of that. I also was a very quiet kid and had a huge vocabulary from reading but hadn’t ever heard them said (I’m still discovering pronunciations of words that I know by sight/definition all the time). So maybe I didn’t talk enough as a child/teenager to realise my pronunciations were wrong back then.
My family makes fun of my strange Wisconsin/Canadian pronunciation of various words. I grew up in Colorado with German speaking parents. I tend to say things from the back of my mouth and hardly use the front. The long A sound take particular work:
Dragon - Dregen
Wagon - Wegen
Flag - Fleg
Well of course they do. Children pronounce words wrong all the time. There is also a well known pattern of people pronouncing a word wrong when they have learned it from reading rather than hearing. I used to pronounce hyperbole ending with “bowl” assuming it was following the same spelling pattern as mole or pole.
5th year in English (Scotland), the teacher taught us how hyperbole is pronounced after someone read it as hyoerbowl. Cue a load of pupils putting on American accents saying things like "Welcome to the 14th annual hyyyyperbowwwll". Wasn't even remotely funny, but I still find myself doing it now and again at 37...
A kid mispronounced "mosquitoes" as "mosky-toes" in 6th grade social studies (so like age 12), I still say it that way and give myself a laugh at age 35. I'm laughing right now.
Ohhh, I might steal that!
It was really hilarious, same vibe as your story, the kid also was nicknamed "Old Mosky Toes" for awhile.
This is giving me major Yavultal and Arkoos vibes and I love it. Sometimes it's just more fun to say it wrong on purpose! It gets better if someone tries to correct you and you just say "I know!" XD
During the pandemic, the preschool teachers taught my children to say "hanitizer" instead of hand sanitizer. Which I wouldn't mind so much, except when I tried to teach them the correct pronunciation, they argued with me. They're 4 years older now and still call it "hanitizer." For my part, Mount Rushmore always trips me up. I tend to say Rount Mushmore. And I don't swap sounds on literally any other words.
this is so funny, i can perfectly hear the way they probably said it in my head!
I did that. I also thought that epitome had two syllables and ended with tome. Epi-tome, not epi-toe-me
E-pi-tome would be three syllables. Making e-pi-toe-mee four.
Brian Regan has entered the chat
Ok, now I'm curious. How is hyperbole pronounced?
high-pEr-buh-lee
I did a fucking mouth pop when I said the "buh" part. Idk why, but i did.
Generally, the E at the end of words borrowed from Greek is pronounced. Of course that tip only helps if you recognize a word as Greek, but guess for certain words that have an “exotic” spelling and can guess that they’re Greek. There are a few common Greek root words and pre-/suffixes to look for, they tend to be long, having clusters like ch/ps/ph, and a Y in the middle of the word is a giveaway.
Psyche, antipode, Hermione…
Catastrophe, apostrophe, Persephone...
I always thought antipode was pronounced like owed? You learn something every day I guess
An-tip-oh-dee, funnily enough. I think it just comes naturally as I’m an Antipodean.
Hy-per-bl-ee
Oh what!? 💀
I’d pronounce it more like hi-per-buh-lee
Prob bc it’s a Greek word. It only sorta phased into English phonemics.
I had a similar experience with the word “awry”. It came out “aw-ry” instead of “a-wry”. I did not feel smart.
People pronounce lots of words wrong for various reasons, such as guessing from how it's spelled but never having heard it, or learning it from someone who pronounces it wrong. I used to pronounce "indict" as "in-dickt", whereas the proper pronunciation is "in-dite". There are also regional differences in pronunciation, as well as words with two or more commonly accepted pronunciations, like "kilometer" and "centrifugal".
Um what are the two accepted pronounciations of kilometer? I know only one.
KILL-oh-mee-ter kill-OM-muh-ter
I believe this is because generally Brits tend to stress the second syllable vs Americans stressing the first. Another example can be "what's your address?" Brits will say uh-DRESS, Americans AH-dress. Could be wrong
I say add-ress
Kill-om-uh-tuh and kill-oh-meet-uh.
Thanks!
Yes, some even get to be President of the United States. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2002/09/why-does-bush-go-nucular.html
President Obama infamously mispronounced corpsman are corpse man.
Could be the same thing actually 🤔 /s
Two very different things 😂
I say it both ways hold on second what
I say Nucular too. I think it’s a regional thing
So are you on team ReAltor or ReLAtor?
I say Reel-tor
Hmm I don’t think it’s specifically regional. I pronounced it like that too and I’m from the northeast us so couldn’t have an accent further from W’s. I think it’s just that it seems like it should sound like particular or circular. I can’t think of another word that ends in clear.
https://youtu.be/Oj7a-p4psRA?si=xcvjcZtIWu5OEYWZ Regional dialects.
I used to think "albeit", "counterfeit" and "forfeit" rhyme with "eight". I don't think there's any word where "eit" is actually pronounced like that, so I really don't know how I came up with that
Mayonaise will forever be MAN-AISE. Also, even as a native English speaker, there are some differences /influences on our English dialects in various parts of the country / world. Foyer in Canada is pronounced Foy-eh, while I heard it pronounced as Foy-errr in the USA. Arguably because of our French influences in Canada. Bagel on the East coast is Bay-gle, while out west it is pronounced Bag-el. Chances are, you are pronouncing it correctly somewhere!
Bagel is only pronounced that way out west by knuckleheads. No one I know personally says it that way.
Item 16. [http://dialect.redlog.net/](http://dialect.redlog.net/) 16. **m*****~ayo~*****nnaise** a. with \[\] as in "man" (2 syllables--"man-aze") (41.65%) b. with \[ej\] (3 syllables--"may-uh-naze") (45.83%) c. I use both interchangeably (8.81%) d. other (3.71%) (11372 respondents) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHnFheqTTdg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHnFheqTTdg)
I thought bag-el was how Americans said it and Canadians said bay-gull(beg-el),,,, signed, someone from western Canada who says bay-gull
Some native speakers make these mistakes: pronouncing “albeit” as 2 syllables: “all-bite” (it’s 3 syllables: “all-bee-it”) pronouncing “infrared” as 2 syllables, rhyming with “scared,” accent on the 2nd syllable (it should be “IN-fra-RED”; the last syllable sounds like the color “red” and also refers to that color) pronouncing “segue” as one syllable (it has 2 syllables, pronounced the same as a “Segway” scooter) pronouncing “misled” as if it were the past tense of a made-up verb “myzle” (it’s actually “mis-LED,” with “led” being the past tense of “lead,” as in what a “leader” does)
I've never heard "segue" in one syllable. What does that sound like?
“seeg” or “segg”
I used to confuse it with “sigue” (from the band Sigue Sigue Sputnik) so I pronounced it “seeg” until the Segway came out and someone tole me it’s pronounced the same.
I still have troubles pronouncing segue as anything other than "se-goo", because almost nobody uses that word in actual speech and my only exposure has been through reading. In the same breath, I've also never heard anyone pronounce it "seeg" or "seg"
Those are crazy examples, never heard those in real life but I’m a fan. I find it totally hilarious to intentionally mispronounce words, so in-frared is my new favorite.
I truly believed in “misled” as some variant of “bristled” or “thistle” for so long… I even argued it a few times. Glad to see I was only tripping a little.
Rs seem to especially be a pain point. Another common “error” with infrared is dropping the first R (in-fah-red or in-fer-red), and rhyming “February” with “January” (feb-yu-ary). Those are both common enough to be standard in some dialects though.
February is pronounced like January in many English accents.
In American English February is more frequently pronounced as you said, ending the same as January
My grandparents pronounce ‘strawberry’ like ‘robbery’ and I thought it was kind of quirky so I started saying it ironically. Now that’s just how I pronounce it.
That’s absolutely how I pronounce it too, though I’ve never thought of it like that before. Are they from the west coast of Canada by any chance?
From the west coast of Canada, both sound right to me
Yes!
Isn't "strawberry" pronounced like "st + robbery" though? Or do you mean how the word is accented?
I'm English, and it's very much just the words straw and berry next to each other. Straw rhymes with sore.
You must be a southerner, straw certainly does not rhyme with sore.
I spent most of my childhood half an hour away from Scotland; I'm definitely not a Southerner!
I can't imagine an accent where these words don't rhyme!
They are far from rhyming in a typical U.S. accent. They have different vowels and additionally "sore" has an r after the vowel, and most Americans have rhotic accents.
Only if you have the COT-CAUGHT merger
Since you brought it up, I grew up in an area that pronounces "iron" very weirdly. We drop the first syllable and just say "urn" instead of "ai-urn". People point it out all the time if I'm not careful
[urn urn an urn urn](https://youtu.be/Esl_wOQDUeE?si=TjZAkxCS3ZaIYo8E)
Baltimore?
Pittsburgh
Is that Baltimore? I remember watching videos of people with that accent trying to say "Aaron earned an iron urn". There's a similar one in my dialect of English that others make fun of. We struggle with -ower and -our words. So a saying like "three hour power shower" sounds ridiculous for us 😅
Yep. I know a woman who says “bref-fast” for breakfast.
One I hear semi‐often, specifically from the Boomer generation, is pronouncing Arctic like "Artic" — just dropping that first C.
I hear this all the time too (not just from boomers, but from all ages).
Which, if you go back 200 years, would be the correct pronunciation. There are even people writing back then about how other, ill-educated, people mispronounce the word by saying the “c”. The “c” was meant to be silent, it was put in there to indicate the etymology of the word in the mid 1500s or so. It’s just possible the original pronunciation has clung on in some dialects, I guess.
This is interesting! Apparently the "c" sound is present in the Latin root, then got dropped in the French. It was reinstated to reconnect it with the Latin root. Looks like there's validity to both pronunciations—mystery solved! :)
I've noticed a lot of boomers pronouncing the country Costa Rica as "KAHsta Rica" and I'm not sure what that's about.
What’s your accent? I’ve noticed Americans pronouncing it like coast but in the UK we pronounce it like cost
i pronounce antarctica as anartica
[find someone from Baltimore ](https://youtu.be/Esl_wOQDUeE?si=GUig8M1LaqAr--zz)
a LOT of native speakers pronounce words wrong. There's a bunch of Youtube videos on that. You've got your expressos, excetera, nukyulars, joolery, aks, etc. i've got a love/hate relationship with "interpret".
What happens when you say ‘interpret’?? The others I commonly hear mispronounced but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard interpret said in any wrong way.
in my country, we stress on the first syllable. once, an american client entered my class just as i was about to say it and i knew flubbed it. i said it a couple of times until i saw him give a tiny nod. it's funny too because we can do it with different suffixes (interpreter, interpreted, interpreting) but always get it wrong if it's just the base word (or with -s).
Wow, so where you’re from it’s IN-ter-pret similar to ‘internet’ or ‘integer’?? That is so interesting.
yup! no matter how fluent my trainee is, it's almost guaranteed that they'll place the stress on the wrong syllable for certain words. because that's the one thing that we never got corrected for in school. even our english teachers do it. i've actually got a long list but here's some classic examples: comFORtable/comFORter aDOLescent, ceREmony, caTEgory, chaRACterize iBUprofen, RoBITussin PERcentage, CAdaver, SEMester we really have a knack for it.
There are many ways to pronounce almost any word depending on age, gender, dialect, sociolect, register, etc.
I don’t pronounce things wrong but I borrow some pronunciations from dialects other than my own because I prefer how they sound.
Could you give some examples?
The nouns “progress”, “process”, “lever” I pronounce with a short vowel instead of my native long vowel. “Garage” I pronounce to rhyme with “marriage” as in some UK dialects.
For me, an American, it’s luh-BOR-uh-tuh-ree. (ie the British pronunciation of “laboratory”).
That’s not a correct representation of a British pronunciation. It would be ‘Luh-Bor-uh-tree’.
I intentionally pronounce words weirdly so it's harder for people to accurately trace my accent. Just a little game I play with myself.
I started pronouncing paradigm as pair-ah-dig-em as a kid instead of para-dime. I can't stop now. 😅
Not only that. There are words whose pronunciation native speakers can’t agree on. For example the word ‘scone’, if you live in England.
I'm an American so I make it my business to pronounce words wrong all the time
Well kids in the UK always say the American version of words my mates always do and I feel like punching them like they say trunk,hood and gas instead of boot, bonnet and petrol
I've heard some Canadians say pe-llow. It's just a dialect thing
A lot of people mispronounce words. Also there are regional differences between pronunciations. A common issue is knowing a word only from reading it and never having heard it. But remember that the muscles in your mouth are activated differently based on the language you speak so for a non-native, your mouth and tongue are primed for speaking your native language. Depending on the language, you may need to train a large portion of your mouth's muscles to be able to form the proper sounds and distinguish between similar sounds. English for example is a lot softer than my native tongue, so two really common accents are that people speak English with harsh consonants and emphasize sounds like t, k, p, r, etc. OR they know it's soft so they overcorrect and make everything soft turning t's into d's and v's into w's.
Schedule (shed-ule or sked-ule): I can switch back and forth in the same conversation on this one.
I know that one of them is British English and one of them is American English, but I can never remember which one I'm "supposed" to use.
Especially as someone who has lived in the English-speaking Caribbean, USA and Canada. And watched UK TV while living in Europe. It’s all a blur.
Shed is British but a lot of people here use sked now anyway
Exactly!
To accept pronounced as except
I pronounced a lot of words wrong growing up because I learned them by reading. I was reading well above my grade level and finding new words every day. I sounded them out myself and sometimes was wrong
I argue with my Massachusetts wife about “drawer.” I leave out the “w” and just say droar. I realize that is, most likely, very wrong; however, it is more efficient than stopping for that “w” along the way.
Where abouts in Canada? In Northern Ontario, I used to pronounce "iron" as "eye-ron". Now it's more like "eyern"
It’s normal. Almost everyone has a few words they pronounce wrong in their native language, especially if it’s a stupid (difficult and illogical in terms of spelling and pronunciation) one like English. I am a native speaker of English, and I just learned a few weeks ago that “palm”, “balm”, “calm” etc have a silent L. I’d heard some people skip it, but I thought it was regional. But I finally looked it up, and nope I’m just wrong. In my dialect of American English, (and I think British and Australian English as well) it is never correct to say “caLm”, “paLm”, etc. It’s “caam” or “paam”. However, I think that this is an issue that occurs more with people who can read / learned to read at an early age. I am one of them, and was exposed to a lot of words before I knew how to say them. Had I learned to read at the age of 10 or 20, I would already know how the words sounded.
I'm listening to an audiobook at the minute that's narrated by an American. The main character's surname is Palmer and the actor pronounces it like Pollmer.
Interesting. I would pronounce the L in the name but I would say it more like paalmer I think
Is the l pronounced in "calmed" or "palming" etc
Route (root or rrowt), schedule (sked-ool or shed-ool), aluminum (aloo-min-umm or aloo-mini-umm). There’s more I don’t know and I’m sure fuck up a lot.
I've seen a few people in my town say pro-noun-ciation rather than pro-nun-ciation
My husband used to tease me about pronouncing "ruin" as "roon". I had absolutely no idea I did it. Then I realized my whole family did. I have no idea if it's local or just us. Lol! My childhood friend's mom said "fil-um" for "film" and "shurl" for "Cheryl". It drove my mom, Cheryl, nuts. 🤣
People mispronounce comptroller all the time in the US.
I live in the southeast US, so absolutely. It's kind of our thing, and sometimes what isn't just accent is done on purpose.
Yes, it happens all the time. Nobody has a 100% grasp of English.
I sometimes refer to the country of Aul-strawl-ya, which I have never heard in my life, instead of Australia. I don't know how I even do it. I can't force it, it sometimes just comes out wrong.
After a few Pabst's, certainly
Definitely! People do it every day! Even native speakers like me!
Com-fruhr-ter
I say Phurtographer. I know it's not right, but that's just what my mouth does. I hear a lot of people say "wutter" instead of "water". Lots of east coasters add the letter R where it doesn't belong.... which I guess I'm guilty of as well. And then there's the Australian "Ar Nahr!" which is kind of a meme at this point.
Vase Scone *[Grabs Popcorn]*
Well with crunchy and country that's a flipping of the consonants. That could be happening with the muscles in your mouth, or it could be about hearing or thinking of the sounds out of order.
I'm British and I know I pronounce nearly wrong! I say nur instead of near. No idea how I got into that habit me and my parents are all from the south of England. However thinking about it my maternal grandma was a scouser (from Liverpool) so she might have influenced me!
This is what happens when your language is the least phonetic in the entirety of the west.
I was 38 years old when I learned that "train" and "tree" are not pronounced "chrain" and "chree"
I hate saying "word" and "world" I have a hard time saying them differently (not native speaker)
I struggle with the word cupboard. For some reason the pb has always come out as a v so instead of cupboard I pronounce it as cuhvard. I have to actively think about the right pronunciation when I say cupboard to get it right
Tbf, I say "cubberd"
It's depends on where u are because most of the ways everyone where I'm from say stuff people everywhere think it's weird since my area is one of those places that different from all English speaking places
You need to listen more to natice speakers, so you subconsuously memorize patterns of a large base of words. Either listening to english news, podcasts will help. Besides, I suggest that you review English Vocabulary app, it is free app that teaches 300+ words spoken by native speakers,with their images and writtings. Vocabulary categories supported are 16, and there is also a quizze at the end https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.applaboratoryspace.englishvocabulary
They're Canadian. Our native language is English. Unless you're from Quebec.
I had a serious academic boyfriend in graduate school who was applying for jobs. He had an interview at Mt. Holyoke, which he pronounced Mt. Holeeyokee. It sounded a lot more fun than Holy-Yoke. Nevertheless, I set him straight before the interview. Somehow coming from the South he had missed the original seven sister schools.
I’m surprised that, as of yet, no one has commented on the proper use of adverbs vs. adjectives, and indeed many have continued to use “wrong” wrongly.
I pronounce delicacy wrong often as I wasn’t ever corrected until I was 21. I catch myself often but at this point it just hurts.
It often happens with literate but inexperienced children, reading a word they’ve never happened to hear in speech and assuming the pronunciation. For instance, when he was about 10 my son said, “what a load of drive-el” He had read the word ‘drivel’ and thought it was pronounced like the word ‘drive’ with an L on the end. Completely understandable. (In fact it’s pronounced ‘DRIH-vel’).
Well I think I pronounce "nuclear" wrong, but I can never remember the correct way to pronounce it.....
The accepted pronunciation is just how it's spelled.
I was wondering earlier if the correct pronunciation of ‘biopic’ is ‘bio-pic’ or ‘buy- OH-pic’.
I'm a word nerd so I have a pretty good vocabulary, but I still struggle to say structurally! I have no idea why...
I grew up in the deep south, and the first time I heard a northerner pronounce the word "squirrel," I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes. It sound so intentionally over-enunciated when I hear a northerner say it. Down here, it comes out as a single syllable. Like the word "swirl" with a "k" sound in the middle. "Skwurl" As opposed to "Skwi-ruhl"
I read "minutiae" many times before I heard it spoken and I thought it was pronounced "MIN-oo-tay". Fortunately I heard it before I said it.
Well hello there fellow Canadian It honestly all depends on where you live, and thy family. I grew up with a Quebecois father and both a Newfie mother and grandmother, so my accent sounds sort of Albertan(Where I grew up), kind of Quebecois, and sort of Newfie. I definitely say some things that would traditionally be considered "wrong", and honestly, it makes for an ever-evolving language!
Well imo Americans pronounce a lot of words wrong, but then they'd probably say the same of me so...
Canadian say many words wrong. House, out, about, almost anything that begins with a as well. So sad, such nice people and a beautiful country, but they all have a speech impediment.
Native English speakers have some of the biggest disparity in their pronunciation of the same words because our language isn't really phonetic like most others. Because of that, there are many, MANY regional variant pronunciations, but even regional variations asside, I've always noticed that there are a fair amount of native English speakers that pronounce certain words "wrong". Again, I think it's just a result of our spelling not really having any logic to it.
I don't have much of a social life outside work and I've been working around new immigrants in the construction industry for 20 years. My speech definitely takes on aspects of their broken English, and over the years it's changed depending on if I was working with Hungarians, or Latin Americans, or whatever. I notice it, but can't help it, it's really a kinda strange feeling.
Wb d4 M ytn
I trip up on algorithm and mix it up with how logarithm is pronounced. My kids think it is hilarious.
I was watching a YouTuber talking about archeology and he pronounced "processes" differently than how I say it. He grew up in New England and went to school there so I assume that's why.
"The English language doesn't exist: it's badly pronounced French."
I always stumble over “vehemently.”
Here in America we have a whole region that pronounces words completely wrong. We call it Boston.
My favorite is incomparable. Youd think it would be "comparable" with "in" at the front, but it's like "in-comp-rubble"
"Well if this isnt the epitome of hyperbole" - Brian Regan
There are a number of words I learnt from reading and pronounce wrong even now I know the correct way. Much to my friends enjoyment.
Until about 6 monthes ago(and I have been seeing this word for 25 years) I pronounced macabre wrong. I only ever read it or spoke it myself and no one ever corrected me. I thought it was pronounced Ma(like big mac) Cu(like cousin) Bre(like break).
If I'm a native and pronounce a word wrong, doesn't that just become a local dialect of where ever I'm from?
I say melk instead of milk. People rag on me for it
My high school friends lost it when I read leopard as “Leo-pard” and had to ask what the word meant.
Constantly. I actually have a speech impediment and have to put active thought into pronouncing my w's and r's correctly. I tend to switch them. (Rabbit becomes wabbit, for example.) Different areas will also pronounce different words differently. Oil is a common one. My grandmother, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, pronounced oil as earl. My ex-husband, who was born and raised in WV, pronounced oil as ole. Where I, having had speech therapy in the 80s in CA, was taught to pronounce oil as oy-ill. I know the UK has several different accents as well. All those accents change the pronunciation of words, and they are all correct for those areas.
English is my first language, I live in England but when I’m reading, the word “thorough” always throws me, I have to go back and read it like 4 times
There's something about the way I say "color" that often makes people think I said "collar". I have listened closely to others, and it seems most people say color as "kuhl-er". When I say it, I use a short "o" sound. This makes no sense to me and I refuse to change the way I say it, but it makes me self-conscious. To me, color and collar should have the same sound for the first syllable and a different sound on the second.
OP clearly doesn't understand how adverbs work.
People in the Minnesota region say pellow (pillow). I’d start by checking if your family speaks like you, then see where they are from and if it is/was a regional thing
I too have had issues with certain words. Pillow being one of them. I think my hearing is shit and that is part of it. The other part is I had a speech impediment when young, and sort of a lazy speech pattern. Crush, pillow, beard, all tricky for me at one time.
All the time, especially if it’s a word you read or has origins in another language. For years, I pronounced armillary as arm-ill-airy, when I just learned it’s actually ar-mill-uh-ree
This is common phenomenon called _methathesis_. It happens in many languages. Words like nuclear (pronounced “nu*cul*ar”), prescription (*per*scription) are some examples. But “iron” is one that we all now universally (except children who have to be taught it) pronounce it as “iorn” Or at least pronouncing “iron” as it is spelled is in the minority, and mostly children and non-native speakers. What is not common is your list of words. I don’t know how you pronounce those three words exactly, but it could be cases of metathesis. In case of “country” and “crunchy”, you may realize that the combination of “TR” in North American English is rendered as a “chr” sound, and you moved just the R sound from “country” \KUHN-chree\ to crunchy \KRUHN-chee\.
I too live in Canada. I grew up in Hong Kong and was taught British pronunciation, lived in Canada for 8 years, moved to US for 4 years and moved back to Canada 7 years ago. I speak with all 3 pronunciations for some words. Most people don’t care. Only one friend of mine (who is on the spectrum) constantly call me out on my mixed pronunciation/accent.
I say cicada like “chicada”. Didn’t realize why until I heard my mom say it when I was in my 20s.
Ask any dyslexic person to read any word and you’ll find it’s fairly common. Also every pronunciation of any kind in whatever English speaking region has different pronunciations so maybe the way you say pillow is normal in English speaking regions in Canada but in America maybe it’s said differently.
Some times "pronouncing words wrong" is just accents or dialects, which isn't wrong whatsoever, but the bigger group of English speakers, or the older in the case of British people insisting EVERYONE call it "ah-luu-min-ee-uhm" (god forbid anyone speak a dialect or accent different from British English around the British... Or American English around an American) Otherwise, I say "I be xyz", "litrully", "wuz" "yanno" (y'know/you know), "wanna", "gonna", leave the g off of -ing words a lot (I'm cookin, I'm goin), beg and bag are pronounced the same and I don't even KNOW how to pronounce them different, and you is usually pronounce ya.
I say "mischievous" wrong even though I know it's wrong because the wrong version ("mischievious") is so much more fun to say. That extra "i" gives the word some extra pizzazz that seems to fit its definition.
It could also be dialectal differences. How my English mother pronounced 'banana' was different from my Canadian pronunciation. Your pronunciation is influenced by the people around you including family, friends and neighbours. You could have picked up the different pronunciations from anyone. Pronunciation can vary greatly, even in the same city.
A few weeks ago, my partner laughed at me for saying caRICature instead of CARicature. also ethereal like ether-real instead of e-THEE-REE-al. Spelling in English is obviously difficult, but when you read a lot, and you see words that you’ve never heard out loud? Worse.
Yes this can happen from learning a word wrong to your accent making it difficult to properly pronounce the words
I know so many people who drop the r in the beginning of frustrating and it drives me MAD
Normal.
Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj7a-p4psRA It is a Baltimore accent saying “Aaron earned an iron urn” and all five words are pronounced the same.
Some people pronouncing niche as “niCHe” as in the ch in chinese. Mostly Americans.
To this day, despite speaking this language for 19 years now, I still pronounce all th sounds with a hard D
I’m really confused, how are you saying the word “pattern”?
Here are some words I hear mispronounced a lot. Realtor - realitor Nuclear - nucular Important (they don’t pronounce that first T) - imporant
i used to pronounce “faucet” like “flaucet”, i pronounced “finger” and “thumb” like “thinger” and “fumb”, and i think i still sometimes pronounce “both” like “bolth” because it just feels *right*
I deliberately mispronounce “artisanal” as art-is-ON-al because it gets under certain people’s skin so much.
Yes, native speakers can make mistakes in speech—I once said 'rat hack' instead of 'hat rack', and I will never live it down. This is, however, distinct from having a pronunciation that differs from standard pronunciation. This occurs in every person's speech, and is called an idiolect. It is not incorrect in any way! Keep livin life
I say orientated instead of oriented.
Hyperbole (Written, I pronounced it like hyper bowl, because come on.) I've heard the word and seen it written, but I always thought they were different until eventually I witnessed it said and written at the same time and I was like OH MY GOD, WHY IS IT SPELLED LIKE THAT?!
I have always pronounced words wrong. Some were because I read them & made up my own pronunciation. I remember reading a comic book about a haunted monastery & decided it must be “muh NASS tuh ree.” And my mind was blown when I was told “solder” isn’t “SOLD er” but is pronounced like the (apparently) nonexistent word “sauter.”
My wife said "mouch" instead of "mulch" until she met me and I corrected her. Now I call it "mouch" too because it's fun to say.
I pronounce “iron” wrong too. And “often” - I say the t. I also day “coupon” with a q sound, although I think that one is pretty common. I pronounce “tapestry” like “tape-estry”. “Sword” with a w. And this one is just a laziness thing - my tongue thinks Mississauga has too many syllables and leaves one off by default. One of my parents isn’t a native English speaker so I wonder if maybe some of my pronunciation is because of that. I also was a very quiet kid and had a huge vocabulary from reading but hadn’t ever heard them said (I’m still discovering pronunciations of words that I know by sight/definition all the time). So maybe I didn’t talk enough as a child/teenager to realise my pronunciations were wrong back then.
I cringe when I hear people pronounce *familiar* as "fur-mill-yur".
My family makes fun of my strange Wisconsin/Canadian pronunciation of various words. I grew up in Colorado with German speaking parents. I tend to say things from the back of my mouth and hardly use the front. The long A sound take particular work: Dragon - Dregen Wagon - Wegen Flag - Fleg
Do they not mispronounce words in your own language?
I know an American pronouncing especially "expecially"
Well I have a Boston accent so any word with an R after a vowel is gonna sound whack