• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

What amusing mis-pronunciations have you heard?

Page 11 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
eits said:
i think you mean "al-you-mini-um"
Click to expand...

I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"
 
HAL9000 said:
I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"
Click to expand...

in the states, we spell aluminum "aluminum"... in uk countries, it's "aluminium". neither are wrong, but i was correcting the poster's "aluminium" mispronunciation.
 
eits said:
in the states, we spell aluminum "aluminum"... in uk countries, it's "aluminium". neither are wrong, but i was correcting the poster's "aluminium" mispronunciation.
Click to expand...

I did not realise that! Thanks for the info 🙂

I do however maintain the "you" part of my above argument :colbert:
 
makken said:
I always thought thru was a slang abbreviation for through,
Click to expand...
It isn't? What is it???

makken said:
didn't know it was an actual word in itself.

also, I'm guilty of:
Don't say: cannidate | Do say: candidate
Don't say: drownd | Do say: drown
Don't say: Febyuary | Do say: February
Don't say: libary | Do say: library
Don't say: mannaise | Do say: mayonnaise
Don't say: perscription | Do say: prescription
Don't say: pronounciation | Do say: pronunciation
Don't say: realator | Do say: realtor
Don't say: snuck | Do say: sneaked
Don't say: supremist | Do say: supremacist
Click to expand...
Good stuff!

I usually hear Febuary. I hate that. Hear it all the time from TV folks, you'd think they'd know better.
 
Last edited:
Atomic Playboy said:
Ore-ee-gone as opposed to Or-uh-gun. This one doesn't come up as much as it used to, but it's still a handy tool to distinguish outsiders.

I'm still pissed that so many people mispronounced regardless as irregardless that the dictionary decided it would just make irregardless a word. That's just lazy, dammit!
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's "ore-gun," as I noted in recent post here, and "ore-gone" is a tip-off to distinguish unknowing outsiders.

I've always thought that "irregardless" was a substitute for the word "irrespective," not "regardless." I don't hear "irregardless" a lot. Here's a story I heard a long time ago (and probably true) about the etymology of the word 'irregardless":

The old Amos and Andy show (originally on radio, and I think they may have done a TV thing later, when TV started up and became ubiquitous in the 1950's) had a couple of characters who would riff off each other and one of them would use the _word_ (not then a real, "official" word) "irregardless," as in "irregardless, Andy,..." I suppose that millions of Americans hearing that over and over resulted in it becoming a recognized word.
 
Last edited:
HAL9000 said:
I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"
Click to expand...

As eits mentioned, here the spelling is 'aluminum' so the 'mini-um' pronunciation would necessarily sound wrong. #1 is just plain wrong: "tune" and "dune" are 'toon' and 'dune' and "alu" is 'a-loo'.

eits said:
cavalry as "cal-var-ee"...
Click to expand...

Don't tell that to all the damn Calvary Christian churches.
 
AstroManLuca said:
One word that took me a while to figure out its pronunciation was epitome.
Click to expand...

There are a few words that are in my vocabulary that I don't know how to pronounce, i.e. words I've encountered in print but not heard spoken. There are quite a few, I guess, can't think of any ATM. I have on occasion made the effort to determine the correct pronunciation of such words, generally when I think I may have to speak them!
 
Muse said:
Yeah, it's "ore-gun," as I noted in recent post here, and "ore-gone" is a tip-off to distinguish unknowing outsiders.

I've always thought that "irregardless" was a substitute for the word "irrespective," not "regardless." I don't hear "irregardless" a lot. Here's a story I heard a long time ago (and probably true) about the etymology of the word 'irregardless":

The old Amos and Andy show (originally on radio, and I think they may have done a TV thing later, when TV started up and became ubiquitous in the 1950's) had a couple of characters who would riff off each other and one of them would use the _word_ (not then a real, "official" word) "irregardless," as in "irregardless, Andy,..." I suppose that millions of Americans hearing that over and over resulted in it becoming a recognized word.
Click to expand...

so it's pronounced about the same as "organ"?

"or-eh-gan"?
"or-eh-gun"?
"or-eh-gon"?
 
sactoking said:
Joe Theismann => Joe Thighs-man

His name is Joe Theese-man (rhymes with cheese-man). He "changed" the pronunciation in college as part of his Heisman trophy campaign ("Theismann for Heisman") and it stuck, but it's still wrong.
Click to expand...
It's whatever he says it is. It's his damn name!
 
SSSnail said:
You kidding me? There are at least 10 threads with almost the same freaking titles that have been posted. The posts and participants are almost identical.

It's probably that people notice the trolls more...
Click to expand...

Think he usually just argues about America vs the world. This one is a little different.
 
HAL9000 said:
I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"
Click to expand...
Nope. "Tune" and "dune" should be "toon" and "doon," except for you Brits.

HAL9000 said:
2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"
Click to expand...
The difference is that "ium" has the "u" after a vowel. For "tune" / "dune" / "aluminum", it comes after a consonant.
 
Last edited:
sactoking said:
As eits mentioned, here the spelling is 'aluminum' so the 'mini-um' pronunciation would necessarily sound wrong. #1 is just plain wrong: "tune" and "dune" are 'toon' and 'dune' and "alu" is 'a-loo'.



Don't tell that to all the damn Calvary Christian churches.
Click to expand...


Um...there is a difference between "Cavalry" and "Calvary."

Definition of CAVALRY
1
a : an army component mounted on horseback
Click to expand...

Definition of CALVARY
1
: an open-air representation of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Calvary, the hill near Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.
Click to expand...
 
There was a poll here a while go - a significant portion of ATOT posters (half maybe?) pronounce "grenade" as "ger-nade" and think that's acceptable. That sounds like how a child learning to speak might say it.
 
Mike Gayner said:
There was a poll here a while go - a significant portion of ATOT posters (half maybe?) pronounce "grenade" as "ger-nade" and think that's acceptable. That sounds like how a child learning to speak might say it.
Click to expand...

Wow. I'm in the South and even I think "gur naide" sounds ridiculous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top