What amusing mis-pronunciations have you heard?

[phucheneh]

I was in America once.

Folks thought it was math (singular) and sports (plural). Hilarious.

Then there was the use of 'acclimate' instead of 'acclimatise,' and the weird way they said 'herb' without pronouncing the 'h.'

After hearing people say 'produce' I gave up and went back to Europe, where locals are not native speakers and so have a legitimate excuse for such barbarism.

Why can't we just let our countries stick to what they're good at, and not quibble over such things?

The US can be in charge of deciding when obviously plural words should be plural. And when 'r's should be added to the ends of words with no 'r's (i.e. never). And when to add random-ass extra syllables to the the middle of words (i.e. never).

The UK can be in charge of having fucked-up teeth and worshiping families of inbreds.

 

[Ichinisan]

Why can't we just let our countries stick to what they're good at, and not quibble over such things?

The US can be in charge of deciding when obviously plural words should be plural. And when 'r's should be added to the ends of words with no 'r's (i.e. never). And when to add random-ass extra syllables to the the middle of words (i.e. never).

The UK can be in charge of having fucked-up teeth and worshiping families of inbreds.

:awe:


Speaking of Brits adding unnecessary syllables...

I don't understand the aluminum / aluminium thing. So many Brits don't realize that BOTH are correct. People in this thread admonishing the 4 syllable pronunciation...

The guy who named the element started out calling it "aluminum," then later started calling it "aluminium." Other scientists were already calling it "aluminum" before it's discoverer started saying it differently, I'm sticking with that.

My phone auto-corrects "aluminium" to "aluminum."

 

[MongGrel]

I was actually thinking of the Al-u-min-e-um thing myself but I didn't bother.

I guess that would be 5.

Some things you just take in stride I guess.

Tamatoe, Tomato, etc.

 

[Ichinisan]

Tamatoe, Tomato, etc.

It's: "Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe, etc."

 

[CZroe]

:awe:


Speaking of Brits adding unnecessary syllables...

I don't understand the aluminum / aluminium thing. So many Brits don't realize that BOTH are correct. People in this thread admonishing the 4 syllable pronunciation...

The guy who named the element started out calling it "aluminum," then later started calling it "aluminium." Other scientists were already calling it "aluminum" before it's discoverer started saying it differently, I'm sticking with that.

My phone auto-corrects "aluminium" to "aluminum."

Also, he had more than two spellings and pronunciations and reverted to aluminum when asked which he preferred

 

[phucheneh]

Also, he had more than two spellings and pronunciations and reverted to aluminum when asked which he preferred

It's like that Compuserve guy that invented gif's, I think.

Only no sane, rational person has ever pronounced it 'giff.' JIFF, MOTHERFUCKERS!

 

[Engineer]

Emilio Estevez - "Elmo" Estevez (el-mow)

Keanu Reeves - "Canoe" Reeves (ka-new)

 

[Ichinisan]

Emilio Estevez - "Elmo" Estevez (el-mow)

Keanu Reeves - "Canoe" Reeves (ka-new)

Never heard these.

[edit]
...and I think it's less about dialect / pronunciation than just apathy and/or lack of phonetic reading skills.

 

[Black Octagon]

:awe:


Speaking of Brits adding unnecessary syllables...

I don't understand the aluminum / aluminium thing. So many Brits don't realize that BOTH are correct. People in this thread admonishing the 4 syllable pronunciation...

The guy who named the element started out calling it "aluminum," then later started calling it "aluminium." Other scientists were already calling it "aluminum" before it's discoverer started saying it differently, I'm sticking with that.

My phone auto-corrects "aluminium" to "aluminum."

No. The international chemistry community overrode the preferences of Hymphry Davy, by making 'aluminium' the official word.

It only became acceptable again, in some (read: American) circles when the American Chemical Society decided to go back to the weird 'aluminum' word. The rest of the world, including the rest of the English-speaking world, says 'aluminium.'

So it's not true that "both are correct," unless you are talking within the confines of the USA (obviously not applicable to the Brits).

 

[Black Octagon]

I've heard "produce" spoken by British people many times. It just has extra emphasis on the "U" and doesn't sound strange at all.

I suppose you're talking about the way we say it specifically when talking about fresh farmed goods. Yeah. We usually put extra emphasis on "PRO" when we use it that way.

[edit]
...but some Brits say "pro-JUICE." That makes us even.

In Australia (and most of the UK, in my experience) we say "Prod-uce," meaning the 'prod' rhymes with 'odd' rather than PRO.

Anyone who says 'pro-juice' probably has a weird lisp, IMHO

 

[IndyColtsFan]

So Canadians, how do you pronounce "Quebec"?

I was under the impression that it was pronounced like "cu-beck" (cu as in "cutlery") but my wife's friend insisted Canadians pronounce it "key-beck," which I am pretty sure is wrong.

 

[Carson Dyle]

So Canadians, how do you pronounce "Quebec"?

I was under the impression that it was pronounced like "cu-beck" (cu as in "cutlery") but my wife's friend insisted Canadians pronounce it "key-beck," which I am pretty sure is wrong.

I've always heard it pronounced more like kə-beck, with a schwa sound in the first syllable.

Exactly like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6C0Pw2-HFI

 

[CZroe]

I've always heard it pronounced more like ke-beck, with a short 'e' in the first syllable.

Exactly like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6C0Pw2-HFI

Perhaps because the extra "e" sound refers to "the people of" Quebec? Afghan refers to something of Afghanistan and Afghani refers to people of Afghanistan.

 

[kranky]

It's always entertaining when one of the local TV stations hire a new on-air person from out of town. We have a ton of unusual place names in the area and it is inevitable that at some point a new person will not ask someone how to say something since it looks so obvious. And they guessed wrong.

The most recent new anchor blew these two:

Monaca (a town) - he said it like the girls name, it's pronounced mon-AK-a
Monessen (a town) - he said MON-uh-sun, it's pronounced mon-ESS-un

 

[DigDog]

its actually neck-roh from necromancer, necrotic/osys, and obviously everyone's fav the necronomicon

i've been too long in boston so i say WOHA instead of water, and my friend from Hamilton insists it's pronounced TORONO.

it pronounced .. kə-beck

that is correct

re:famous light metal,
aluminIUM is the pseudo-latin name that we love to use in science; nothing wrong with that,but alumiNUM is the english name for the same.

Aurum is called Gold, Argentum is Silver, and Aluminium is Aluminum.

I'm totally cool if someone says "please, hand me that block of Aurum" but that doesn't mean the "pass the bling bling" is incorrect.

(incidentally, this forum uses Aluminum)

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've always heard it pronounced more like kə-beck, with a schwa sound in the first syllable.

Exactly like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6C0Pw2-HFI

Yeah, that's how I pronounce it. My wife's friend is an idiot. lol

 

[Black Octagon]

re:famous light metal,
aluminIUM is the pseudo-latin name that we love to use in science; nothing wrong with that,but alumiNUM is the American english name for the same.

Fixed it for ya

 

[CZroe]

No. The international chemistry community overrode the preferences of Hymphry Davy, by making 'aluminium' the official word.

It only became acceptable again, in some (read: American) circles when the American Chemical Society decided to go back to the weird 'aluminum' word. The rest of the world, including the rest of the English-speaking world, says 'aluminium.'

So it's not true that "both are correct," unless you are talking within the confines of the USA (obviously not applicable to the Brits).

LOL! No. They adopted Aluminium officially in the '90s, which is also when they adopted Aluminum as an "accepted alternate." TRY AGAIN! Adopting BOTH in the '90s doesn't decide who is correct. Mr. Davy was NOT "over-ridden."

It really doesn't bother me that some people say aluminium. My grandmother went to school in England and called it aluminium. I only care when self-important idiots fail to do their research and wrongly assert that they are correct and the American way is wrong, expressing their own ignorance while trying to argue that the other way is ignorant. The US/Canada are MORE CORRECT in every possible way! Get a clue.

Davy, who first isolated and named it, pronounced and spelled it THREE different ways over his life.
One was used by him at the beginning.
One was used by him in the end.
One was EXPLICITLY STATED as his preferred spelling and pronunciation.
One was accepted by multiple countries in the Americas.

That one has been "aluminum" (not aluminium or alumium) for hundreds of years. Some '90s proclamation that actually accepted BOTH, ]i]including[/i] the "American" way, is not going to change any of that and it's laughable that you would attempt to use it that way.

Our dictionary once read "Chiefly British" for "Aluminium." Saying that "some" is to be read as "American" ignores that the originator of all permutations of the word was not American.

 

[Ichinisan]

Alerminnerm

 

[zinfamous]

Pizza Hut is giving away free driz-izzle on your piz-izzles.

I probably already said this:
"Fur-mill-yer" (familiar) should be "fuh-mill-yer" or "fuh-millie-yer."



How do you guys pronounce "SATA?"

1) "Say-tuh"

2) "Satt-uh"

"Simular"

Heard it again on some news report yesterday. Guy was seriously using it in place of similar. My older brother says this often and sometimes denies it even when it is clear as day. Even even spells it that way!

Do you guys get together and decide which threads you are going to necro?

 

[CZroe]

Do you guys get together and decide which threads you are going to necro?

We both posted in this thread in the past. As I recall, someone else necro'd it and that post must have been deleted. Either way, when someone necro'd it, it showed back up in both of our subscribed threads. I tend to follow up on every updated thread I have participated in rather than distract myself with new conversations. I prefer having a conversation to just saying what I want to say and never returning. It's kinda the point of having a discussion. I was more worried that I had already posted "simular" ITT before but I searched back 200 posts and didn't find it.

Additionally, when I am done following up on my own threads, I do often search to see what my brother and IRL friends are saying elsewhere on the forums. My IRL friends are no longer active on this forum, so I now follow my brother and a couple interesting forumers. I rarely look at new threads any other way. I get drawn in after others I follow determine it to be interesting enough for them to participate. I list a forum or two about once for every 50 times I search or use User CP.

My brother is not going to get away with saying something wrong about me that I could correct.

 

[bradly1101]

I hear "wreck havoc" all the time, when it's "wreak havoc."

They mean opposite things; the first one destroys havoc and the second brings it.

 

[John Connor]

sumbitch? Instead of son of a bitch?

 

[Ban Bot]

vorlage (vore-lag-ga)
continuity (continue-ty)
discontinuity (dis-continue-ty)
chipotle (chip-pote-el)
Washington (Warshington)
Oregon (Ore-E-gone)
Missouri (many locals say Miz-ur-uh but it is properly MISERY!)
Des Moines (Dez Moy-n, De Moy-n, De Moy-nz)
Terre Haute (Terry Hot-tey)
Sequim (Sea-kwim)
Puyallup (lolz!)
bag (beg)
0 (zed)

 

[Black Octagon]

LOL! No. They adopted Aluminium officially in the '90s, which is also when they adopted Aluminum as an "accepted alternate." TRY AGAIN! Adopting BOTH in the '90s doesn't decide who is correct. Mr. Davy was NOT "over-ridden."

It really doesn't bother me that some people say aluminium. My grandmother went to school in England and called it aluminium. I only care when self-important idiots fail to do their research and wrongly assert that they are correct and the American way is wrong, expressing their own ignorance while trying to argue that the other way is ignorant. The US/Canada are MORE CORRECT in every possible way! Get a clue.

Davy, who first isolated and named it, pronounced and spelled it THREE different ways over his life.
One was used by him at the beginning.
One was used by him in the end.
One was EXPLICITLY STATED as his preferred spelling and pronunciation.
One was accepted by multiple countries in the Americas.

That one has been "aluminum" (not aluminium or alumium) for hundreds of years. Some '90s proclamation that actually accepted BOTH, ]i]including[/i] the "American" way, is not going to change any of that and it's laughable that you would attempt to use it that way

The entity that "adopted both" in 1990 was IUPAC. They standardised on aluminium and accepted alumunim as an accepted American variant.

If you go back to my last post, you'll see that I did not mention IUPAC. I mentioned the American Chemical Society. They officially standardised on aluminum in 1925, some 30 years after the American penchant for the word had started. Widespread use of 'aluminum' in the US goes back to the late 19th Century, NOT hundreds of years.

http://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2009/04/08/aluminum-versus-aluminium-wher/

Now, can you provide some kind of source demonstrating that the aluminum variant was anything but a preference of the Americas? I can't, and I've been looking. Everything I find tells me that the most recognised word around the world is aluminium, and that aluminum, while recognised today as an acceptable alternative, is very much an Americanism.