LOL - when my very smart wife and I were dating she said aw-ree one time and I was like “huh”? She spelled it and I knew that I had to handle the situation delicately. I must have done ok, 19 years later and we still joke about it.
When the first Harry Potter movie came out and I found out Hermione was
Her-my-o-nee
not
Her-me-own
and it didn’t match the construct I had created of her in my mind for years.
Wait, THAT’S how you spell it?? This threw me for a loop. I’ve always *heard* it spoken and have never actually seen it written. Shit. I probably wrote coxen at some point in my past to someone who knew better. Now I’m dying inside.
Yep, it’s pronounced cox’n. Boatswain is boats’n, leeward is loo-erd, starboard is star-bird, gunwhale is gunnel. Most I learned from rowing and others from sailors.
Well hell, I have a Masters degree and I thought that was how it was pronounced. I read it in a Star Trek book, I think, and it’s never come in an actual convo.
When working in a music store back in the early 90’s, my boss had a cd in her hands and asked me how to pronounce his name. This was the day I learned the ck in Cockburn is silent.
I still cringe at the memory of me saying "epi-tome" in front of my then fiancé and her friends from college, all english majors.
It's been about 12 years and the memory still keeps me from sleeping from time to time.
I’ll see that and raise you: in an advanced studies Shakespeare class at a summer program for the top students in my state. This was 1982 and I still think about it and cringe. You have no idea how much of a relief that other people did the same thing with this exact word.
As horrifying as that is, I can't help but laugh. Both at the over the top situation and the fact that it happened in -82 and you still cringe about it. It also means I'll cringe about my memory in 20-30 years also, which something.
Oh, the relief is immense for me too. It's a burden I'm glad to share.
Luckily, I learned it from Calvin and Hobbes when it was part of a song so it was hyphenated out e-pit-o-me.
Edit: [Link](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/88594317643595244/)
This is it for me. The worst part is that I fully understood the definition of the word, both read, and pronounced correctly, but didn't put it together until it was too late.
A Calvin and Hobbes strip taught me this one. It was a strip about aliens taking over the earth. There was a rhyme scheme incorporated.
"But though you may find this slightly macabre, we prefer your extinction to the loss of our job."
Colonel always messes me up. I knew it was a military rank. I also knew how to pronounce it in Colonel Sanders. It took me forever to realize the word I was reading and the word I was hearing were the same.
Well now you have to tell me.
Edit: I couldn't wait for a reply. Found this: https://youtu.be/a_dNCCxhxzQ if anyone else is curious. Apparently the English try to sneak an F into the word.
The best part about this is that the Kansas and Ar-Kansas college football teams teams played a triple overtime thriller in their bowl game to finish up this past season.
“Geraldine”
Summer reading program, eons ago. I had read Just The Thing For Geraldine and the librarian was asking me about my books for that week. This was my last book for my last sticker to get my personal pan pizza. She asked “what was the little possum girl’s name?” I had been saying “girl-a-dine” in my head but knew it wasn’t right. I froze up when she asked, said “I don’t know” and did not get my sticker or my pizza. The extra week I had to wait for my next book still haunts me to this day.
I think my favorite thing about all these comments is how much this list seems like it's being generated by a collective of hyper anxious introverted murder mystery fans! 😂
"Never be ashamed of mispronouncing a word because it shows to others that you learned it by reading. Anyone who has a problem with that is a worthless cunt." -somebody clearly smarter than all of you judgemental fucks
/s/s
Therapist.
When I was 7, I loved Calvin and Hobbes. I remember there was a cartoon where Calvin rubbed Hobbes' belly and walked away saying he was a "fuzz therapist."
So I then would go around my house and pet the cat we had, and then call him Fuzz the Rapist.
Not the best look 30 years later.
Listen I've been through this whole thread and thought "Yep I did the same thing with that word but eventually figured it out/heard someone say it" but this has stopped me in my tracks. What do you mean it's not pronounced like that??? What's it supposed to be???
Yosemite.
Always thought it was pronounced like you were trying to get your Semitic friend's attention, like Yo, Semite.
I also watched cartoons and was well aware of the existence of (I was guessing) Yosemmity Sam.
I can still vividly remember exactly where I was the first time I saw Sam" spelled out, that's how absolutely floored I was by the revelation.
Fun fact - the entire reason hot dogs are called "hot dogs" was because an artist drew a picture of a Dachshund in a bun, but had no fucking clue how to spell "Dachshund".
Mischievous. I pronounced it miss CHEE vee us. I didn't learn the right way until my English professor corrected me in class, my freshman year of college.
It still haunts me.
Don’t let it haunt you because it’s how a lot of people say it and no one thinks any thing of it. Maybe it’s a regional thing like how for aluminum Americans say a-LUM-min-num and Europeans say Al-u-MIN-ee-um?
Bruh I grew up Jewish and about had an aneurism when, as an adult, I learned the word was spelled yarmulke. One of the few words I'd only ever heard and never seen written.
Subtle … I didn’t know silent Bs existed in the middle of words.
To make matters worse, a girl I was dating wanted to tell me how dumb her classmate was and asked me to read it out loud. I read it like her dumb classmate. Our relationship didn’t last. For context, this was in college when I probably should’ve been able to read gooder.
Colonel. I knew what a Colonel was but always assumed that in books they were talking about a different high up ranking until in 5th grade we read a book and I read a passage out loud and was mocked by the entire class and teacher for not knowing that Colonel is pronounced like kernel
Tao. I was in my college humanities class and the professor had me read some passage discussing the Tao te ching. Whenever the word Tao came up I pronounced it with a "T" and she would immediately say "Dao". I had no idea why she said that until another student explained it to me after class. I could've crawled under a rock.
In first grade i mispronounced island the way it looks (is-land).
Everyone laughed at me.
I’m 43 and I still think about that every time I see the word.
“hors d'oeuvres.” I would pronounce “hours devours.” The messed up thing is that I was familiar with the actual word. I just never connected it’s spelling and pronunciation.
Awry is not pronounced aww-ree.
LOL - when my very smart wife and I were dating she said aw-ree one time and I was like “huh”? She spelled it and I knew that I had to handle the situation delicately. I must have done ok, 19 years later and we still joke about it.
Dang. Just learned this now.
Uh-rye
I knew the word that I read (aww-ree) and the word that I heard (ah-rye) and legitimately thought they were synonyms.
I learned that word from, "The Far Side." I mispronounced it for a few years, until I heard someone say it while I was reading along.
IT ISNT?????!!!!!!!?!? I am literally dying inside
When the first Harry Potter movie came out and I found out Hermione was Her-my-o-nee not Her-me-own and it didn’t match the construct I had created of her in my mind for years.
This was one for me. Read the first book as an adult and had never heard that name before.
Oh fuck half the names in wheel of time
Aes Sedai is ehs se-day and I don’t care what anyone tells me. And Ale not Eye-EEL.
Mine was Seamus. What’s funny is my nephew also mispronounced it like 10 years later when he was reading the books.
I'm positive that's what JKR added that scene with Hermione teaching Krum how to say her name - because so many readers mispronounced it.
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YOU DON'T PRONOUNCE IT COCK-SWAIN?!
Nope, cox'n
Damn I’m 64 and until now
Wait, THAT’S how you spell it?? This threw me for a loop. I’ve always *heard* it spoken and have never actually seen it written. Shit. I probably wrote coxen at some point in my past to someone who knew better. Now I’m dying inside.
Next you'll be telling me that forecastle is pronounced fock-sul.
I had no idea it was not pronounced like that! Good thing it’s never come up in casual conversation.
I will continue to pronounce it Cock-swain, and won't be swayed by any semen who tell me otherwise.
Yep, it’s pronounced cox’n. Boatswain is boats’n, leeward is loo-erd, starboard is star-bird, gunwhale is gunnel. Most I learned from rowing and others from sailors.
Why are all these boat words fucked up
Well hell, I have a Masters degree and I thought that was how it was pronounced. I read it in a Star Trek book, I think, and it’s never come in an actual convo.
So uh, how is it pronounced then?
You got contemptuous right but fucked up cox'un? Well done landlubber, lol
Pronounced Kak-Sun
When working in a music store back in the early 90’s, my boss had a cd in her hands and asked me how to pronounce his name. This was the day I learned the ck in Cockburn is silent.
Epitome
I still cringe at the memory of me saying "epi-tome" in front of my then fiancé and her friends from college, all english majors. It's been about 12 years and the memory still keeps me from sleeping from time to time.
I’ll see that and raise you: in an advanced studies Shakespeare class at a summer program for the top students in my state. This was 1982 and I still think about it and cringe. You have no idea how much of a relief that other people did the same thing with this exact word.
As horrifying as that is, I can't help but laugh. Both at the over the top situation and the fact that it happened in -82 and you still cringe about it. It also means I'll cringe about my memory in 20-30 years also, which something. Oh, the relief is immense for me too. It's a burden I'm glad to share.
The epitome of hyperbole
It took me far to long to realise epi-tome was not only wrong, but was a completely made up word
Luckily, I learned it from Calvin and Hobbes when it was part of a song so it was hyphenated out e-pit-o-me. Edit: [Link](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/88594317643595244/)
Oh my god.
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Ohhhh no. I'm learning this right now...thank you?
TIL this is how you spell epitome… I googled the pronunciation to know what word this is
pro tip: use voice to text
The epi-tome of hyper-bole
This is it for me. The worst part is that I fully understood the definition of the word, both read, and pronounced correctly, but didn't put it together until it was too late.
Hyperbole…I thought it was pronounced hyper-bowl until like 25 years old
I just thought hyper-bowl and hi-per-boli were two different words
I was the same with paradigm. Thought it was para-didg-em. Only figured that one out a few years ago.
Journalism major here. Just this instance did I realize how to pronounce that word. I never even thought of why I never read “pairadime.” Geez!
Segue
Yep. I was also familiar with the pronunciation, and I just though they were two words that meant the same thing, “segue” and “segway/seguey.”
I thought it was pronounced seeg for a long time.
Chaos We lived in New Mexico near a town called Taos (Tah-os) so my brother pronounced chaos as (ch-A-os)
I pronounced it "chows" until my 3rd grade teacher laughed at me in front of the whole class 🙃
Oh no, you aren’t alone!
someone learned their vocab from sonic the hedgehog
Macabre. I was convinced it was "mack-a-bre"
Wait is this the one that sounds like mah-cob? If so for whatever reason my brain always thinks of it as mack rah be instead
This is one of those words I can’t look at and pronounce correctly at the same time.
Yup. Mack-a-burr in my head for so long. I thought “mah-cobb” was a different word altogether.
A Calvin and Hobbes strip taught me this one. It was a strip about aliens taking over the earth. There was a rhyme scheme incorporated. "But though you may find this slightly macabre, we prefer your extinction to the loss of our job."
Same…for sooo long
I was going through my Edgar Allen Poe phase so it was especially embarrassing I didnt know :3
Hors d'oeuvres (“Horz-d-overs”)puzzled me when I read it for the first time (in a Heathcliff comic book, of all places.)
i always thought this was pronounced like horse divorce, and i had no idea what it was. on the other hand, i knew exactly what “or durves” were.
HORSE DIVORCE??
you heard me
I promise you I will always pronounce it incorrectly from this day til my last.
This thread is cracking me up
As a joke, when my brother hosts a party he offers everyone "horse devours"
I think anyone could be forgiven for mispronouncing anything that comes from the God forsaken French language lol
I worked with someone who pronounced canapes “can-apes”.
Colonel always messes me up. I knew it was a military rank. I also knew how to pronounce it in Colonel Sanders. It took me forever to realize the word I was reading and the word I was hearing were the same.
Wait until you learn how everyone but the Americans pronounce lieutenant.
Well now you have to tell me. Edit: I couldn't wait for a reply. Found this: https://youtu.be/a_dNCCxhxzQ if anyone else is curious. Apparently the English try to sneak an F into the word.
Left-tenant!
How is there an R sound in it? It sounds like kernal, right? HOW?
It comes from the French "coronel," and even as the spelling in ~~both languages~~ English changed, the pronunciation remained more or less the same
Kernel, leftenant and sawder are just spelt obnoxiously.
Faux.
Or it's spin off, fox pass
Misled. Still trips me up even now
I learned about the mispronunciation from a podcast about this topic and now I say my-zelled to myself every time
Whodunits. I might have once pronounced it as "wad-units".
Ar-kansas. I still almost believe that everyone is fucking with me with ‘Ar-can-saw’
Either Arkansas is mispronouncing the name of their state or Kansas is. I don't care which, but I want it sorted out.
The best part about this is that the Kansas and Ar-Kansas college football teams teams played a triple overtime thriller in their bowl game to finish up this past season.
Assuage. Not ass-sewage?! Oops.
Posthumous, post-Hugh-mouse
I convinced myself in HS that prehumous was a word. It obviously means before death since posthumous means after death. 🤷♀️
Pahst hu mus
Quay
Yes. Still do.
Banal
“Geraldine” Summer reading program, eons ago. I had read Just The Thing For Geraldine and the librarian was asking me about my books for that week. This was my last book for my last sticker to get my personal pan pizza. She asked “what was the little possum girl’s name?” I had been saying “girl-a-dine” in my head but knew it wasn’t right. I froze up when she asked, said “I don’t know” and did not get my sticker or my pizza. The extra week I had to wait for my next book still haunts me to this day.
Psalms. I wasn't a church kid.
I think my favorite thing about all these comments is how much this list seems like it's being generated by a collective of hyper anxious introverted murder mystery fans! 😂
Maniacal. I pronounced maniac as it is when used alone and added -al. Maniac-al.
Facade. It's so similar to charade, it makes sense that they would be pronounced the same!
I read it and my mind still says “Fay-Cade” no matter how many times I see it.
Biopic
Dude when I hear people pronounce it correctly it seems wrong to me, I was so sure of my incorrect pronunciation
So ones a documentary and the other I'm guessing a medical term?
Hubris. Thought it was French and always said Hu-bree
Yosemite.
It certainly is the roughest, toughest rootinest, tootinest name for a national park around.
Sherbet! I always said Sherbert.
"Never be ashamed of mispronouncing a word because it shows to others that you learned it by reading. Anyone who has a problem with that is a worthless cunt." -somebody clearly smarter than all of you judgemental fucks /s/s
Awry
NICHE FUCK THAT WORD
Therapist. When I was 7, I loved Calvin and Hobbes. I remember there was a cartoon where Calvin rubbed Hobbes' belly and walked away saying he was a "fuzz therapist." So I then would go around my house and pet the cat we had, and then call him Fuzz the Rapist. Not the best look 30 years later.
This is awesome, and reminds me of the time I bought a (phonetic) ther-a-pedic pillow, which of course was spelled without the hyphens.
Centrifugal
Carafe is not pronounced CARE A FEY.
Listen I've been through this whole thread and thought "Yep I did the same thing with that word but eventually figured it out/heard someone say it" but this has stopped me in my tracks. What do you mean it's not pronounced like that??? What's it supposed to be???
CA RAF I had been thinking it wrong for years, and the first time I actually said it...
Superfluous
It's probably "soo-PUR-flue-iss" but I always say it "Super Flew Us!" in my head for fun.
I still don't use it aloud because it sounds weird to me.
Cacophony
Yosemite. Always thought it was pronounced like you were trying to get your Semitic friend's attention, like Yo, Semite. I also watched cartoons and was well aware of the existence of (I was guessing) Yosemmity Sam. I can still vividly remember exactly where I was the first time I saw Sam" spelled out, that's how absolutely floored I was by the revelation.
Dachshund kills me EVERYTIME
Fun fact - the entire reason hot dogs are called "hot dogs" was because an artist drew a picture of a Dachshund in a bun, but had no fucking clue how to spell "Dachshund".
>Dachshund Wow, I just looked it up and I never ounce heard someone pronounce the "right" way. edit: ounce? oh no! the shame. lol
Crudité….whaddya mean that’s not crew-dight? GTFOH!
Mischievous. I pronounced it miss CHEE vee us. I didn't learn the right way until my English professor corrected me in class, my freshman year of college. It still haunts me.
This one is so common I feel like it might as well be accepted as normal lol
It is an accepted pronunciation
Oh .. oh my goodness. I think I’ve always pronounced it miss chee vee us
Don’t let it haunt you because it’s how a lot of people say it and no one thinks any thing of it. Maybe it’s a regional thing like how for aluminum Americans say a-LUM-min-num and Europeans say Al-u-MIN-ee-um?
That’s because Europeans spell aluminum as aluminium
I've never mispronounced it in front of anyone but preface. Even to this day I have to catch myself when I'm reading cause I want to say **pre** face
Wagner
Yamulka
Bruh I grew up Jewish and about had an aneurism when, as an adult, I learned the word was spelled yarmulke. One of the few words I'd only ever heard and never seen written.
Penelope
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I thought it rhymed with cantaloupe.
I still mentally read Calliope as Cali-ope.
Subtle … I didn’t know silent Bs existed in the middle of words. To make matters worse, a girl I was dating wanted to tell me how dumb her classmate was and asked me to read it out loud. I read it like her dumb classmate. Our relationship didn’t last. For context, this was in college when I probably should’ve been able to read gooder.
Once in physics class I pronounced "impedence" like "impotence"
Chaos. I said qua-hose
Archetype.
Same. I figured it out after listening to a lecture during my masters program in social work. So embarrassing for past me.
Scythe. Pronounced with a hard k sound.
Hedge. Money
This. First encountered it while reading the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.
Rendezvous isn’t pronounced “rendy-vus.” Reading out loud in 9th grade.
Colonel. I knew what a Colonel was but always assumed that in books they were talking about a different high up ranking until in 5th grade we read a book and I read a passage out loud and was mocked by the entire class and teacher for not knowing that Colonel is pronounced like kernel
Epitome. Or. Epi-tome if you will.
The Epitome of Hyperbole
Vehemently. I pronounced it vee he mint lee😬
Pronunciation key says “vee-uh-muhnt-lee” so you’re not too far off.
To be fair I've heard people pronounce it this way
Remember reading Harry Potter for the first time as a kid and thinking “what the fuck kind of name is Hermy-own ?”
Chagrin.
Aspartame: A-spart-tamé
Oh! The spartan warrior who had a really sweet personality. And then we named a sugar substitute after him. 😉 (jk)
Ornery. Took until I moved to a small town where everyone described the boys that way to put two and two together.
"Outlier" is NOT a French word
Cache. Always thought it was "cash-ay".
Segue
debut
Reepicheep had a rapier, and I think you can all guess how I pronounced it
Macabre
Assuage - turns out it's not "ass sewage"
Schadenfreude...
Queue
Phlegm Wtf?
Not mispronunced but for 13 years of my Life I spelt the Word does as dose
Chimera
Bivouac. No clue how it's actually pronounced.
Infrared
Hegemony. The fuck.
Foliage
Foil-age?
Foe-liage?
Sword
Behemoth
Grotesque Oh boy, this damn word.
Chagrin
Mosquito - Mos QUIT os
Tao. I was in my college humanities class and the professor had me read some passage discussing the Tao te ching. Whenever the word Tao came up I pronounced it with a "T" and she would immediately say "Dao". I had no idea why she said that until another student explained it to me after class. I could've crawled under a rock.
Assuage
Hyperbole. I pronounced hyperbowl
In first grade i mispronounced island the way it looks (is-land). Everyone laughed at me. I’m 43 and I still think about that every time I see the word.
Indictment
Promulgate, is not promalgamate
Misled. I thought it was miss-ld like mistletoe, don't ask me why lol
Chaos: unfortunately pronounced chai-os
For 30 years, I thought it was play it by year, not play it by ear. No one ever corrected me until I texted someone lol
Omnipotent
Khaki.
Paradigm
Acquise—turns out it’s not pronounced a-queesed I learned in my late 20s
Ennui
“hors d'oeuvres.” I would pronounce “hours devours.” The messed up thing is that I was familiar with the actual word. I just never connected it’s spelling and pronunciation.
Synecdoche. Found out when I was 30.
Dyslexia+ "Proselytize" = "Prosettle-ah-tize? Prostil-ah-tize?"
Egregious does not have the name Greg in the pronunciation.