i have trouble with "specific". usually comes out something like 'spaz-pacific"
― JAM, DWANGELA, RELLY! (sunny successor), Saturday, 7 February 2009 19:21 (fifteen years ago) link
i always mean to find out the etymology of that word b/c it makes no sense to me that it should be pronounced "segway"
wild guess: france
― nabisco, Sunday, 8 February 2009 01:33 (fifteen years ago) link
italian, apparently. meaning "it follows" and taken from directions in sheet music.
― joe, Sunday, 8 February 2009 01:59 (fifteen years ago) link
"lesser" comes out "lessel" 90% of the time unless i am focused on saying the "er".
― gangsa paradise (tehresa), Sunday, 8 February 2009 02:02 (fifteen years ago) link
if french u would say" seh-gyew"xpost
― gangsa paradise (tehresa), Sunday, 8 February 2009 02:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Puyallup, Washington.
― remy bean, Sunday, 8 February 2009 02:15 (fifteen years ago) link
"niche"
saying "neesh" seems pretentious. i say "nitch." but now i'm worrying that i invented this and that no one else says it this way?
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 26 April 2013 17:42 (ten years ago) link
quiche or kitch
― calumerio, Friday, 26 April 2013 17:44 (ten years ago) link
I'm surprised no one has said hamster yet.
― c21m50nh3x460n, Friday, 26 April 2013 17:49 (ten years ago) link
I cant say "statistics". It always comes out "sasiststics"
― frogbs, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:01 (ten years ago) link
i always mix up "sale" and "sell"
― clouds, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:02 (ten years ago) link
but now i'm worrying that i invented this and that no one else says it this way?
I say it this way.
― jaymc, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:02 (ten years ago) link
I noticed only recently that I have problems with 'gallery' that don't correspond to how I pronounce anything else, it comes out like 'garrarry' unless I'm very deliberate with my tongue shape. A single word speech impediment.
― the kind of man who best draws girls' eyeballs (Merdeyeux), Friday, 26 April 2013 18:03 (ten years ago) link
saying "neesh" seems pretentious.
It's a French word. Either say it like it should be pronounced or say alcove. ;)
― He has a lot of baggage (handlers' perks) (Michael White), Friday, 26 April 2013 18:04 (ten years ago) link
i can't pronounce my wife's last name. wtf dude
― frogbs, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:05 (ten years ago) link
I never understood why Americans say nitchI had trouble saying 'parliamentary' all week
― kinder, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:07 (ten years ago) link
Had the same thing above about 'segue'. Always pronounced it 'seeg'
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Friday, 26 April 2013 18:07 (ten years ago) link
wait, it doesn't rhyme with "egg"??
― clouds, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:08 (ten years ago) link
I have trouble with my own first name.
― WilliamC, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:09 (ten years ago) link
it's pronounced 'neitzsche'
― ampersand cooper black (elmo argonaut), Friday, 26 April 2013 18:11 (ten years ago) link
I guess the 'seeg' thing must have come from a mixture of 'vogue' and 'siege' in my mind
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Friday, 26 April 2013 18:16 (ten years ago) link
Oh, regarding niche -- boy, do I have stories when I moved here. I say <i>neeeeesh</i>. 'Nitch' sounds so strange to my ear.
Talking about phraseology and moving here, it's funny how some people 'corrected' my English because they thought it was incorrect, when really it was either another way of saying something or <i>they</i> were the ones in the wrong. It was frustrating at first, but I got used to it.
― c21m50nh3x460n, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:18 (ten years ago) link
neitzsche otm
― how's life, Friday, 26 April 2013 18:23 (ten years ago) link
clichéquichecrèchecliquequickie
are a bunch of fuckers.
― ^ sarcasm (ken c), Saturday, 27 April 2013 08:17 (ten years ago) link
albeit
― ^ sarcasm (ken c), Saturday, 27 April 2013 08:19 (ten years ago) link
incentivize always gets me. after the first few syllables i give up and slip into the last bit of "synthesize"
― chilli, Saturday, 27 April 2013 10:12 (ten years ago) link
by the way what's the deal with putting an "L" sound in "both"? is this a common thing?
― chilli, Saturday, 27 April 2013 10:15 (ten years ago) link
Now that I think about it, I have trouble pronouncing my own last name sometimes. It's H0lm, and sometimes I get hung up on the transition from the o to the l.
― how's life, Saturday, 27 April 2013 12:54 (ten years ago) link
Say what?
― Bees Against Racism (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 April 2013 12:57 (ten years ago) link
so it sounds like "bolth." have you never heard this? it's fairly rare where i'm from but i hear it enough that i figure it must be some sort of variation in dialect.
― chilli, Saturday, 27 April 2013 20:49 (ten years ago) link
noticed that I had the same pronunciation issue when I was talking about Mulholland Drive last night.
― how's life, Sunday, 28 April 2013 12:06 (ten years ago) link
"curriculum" and "Lily" cause me serious difficulty (which sucks when you, like I do, live with someone called Lily).
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Sunday, 28 April 2013 12:40 (ten years ago) link
Girl at work says 'ibrufen' instead of ibruprofen
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Sunday, 28 April 2013 14:04 (ten years ago) link
dog latin says 'ibruprofen' instead of ibuprofen
(sorry)
― Pyotr Ilyich Chai Latte (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:01 (ten years ago) link
lol snap
― the late great, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:04 (ten years ago) link
scooby doo says "ribruprofen!"
― the late great, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:05 (ten years ago) link
My mum calls it ibrufen as well. Google suggests this is definitely a thing. A WRONG thing.
― ailsa, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:06 (ten years ago) link
'Canada Day'--my brain wants to eliminate the middle 'da', so I end up overemphasizing it and going 'Can-NUH-DUH-day'.
― lazulum, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:08 (ten years ago) link
Puyallup, Washington
You pronounce it 'pwee-AWL-up'. But this is non-obvious. Humptulips is much easier.
― Aimless, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:14 (ten years ago) link
pull a yup?
― the late great, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:19 (ten years ago) link
until recently i had no idea people were saying "segue" when i heard "seg-way".
― sleepingsignal, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:28 (ten years ago) link
i always thought it was c'est guaix
― Aimless, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:30 (ten years ago) link
Speaking of the Northwest, I'm glad I don't live in Oregon because I can't say it. Always comes out "organ" or "or-gon."
― Josefa, Sunday, 28 April 2013 20:29 (ten years ago) link
i can't say "water" normally i can only say it with a gross long island /new jersey accent, "wuh-dda". (shudders) i've tried to correct it.
― Pat Finn, Sunday, 28 April 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
maybe it's more like "whugh-der" but still, it's wrong
I panic inwardly a little when I have to say "schedule" because I can never remember if sked- or shed- is the British pronunciation. I pick at random and worry people will jump to conclusions about my class and/or education from my choice. This is bad with other words with an older/French pronunciation vs a less pedantic pronunciation as neither option seems 100% safe, but I guess that's off-topic-ish.
For some reason "duplicate" I end up saying as doo-plicate so as not to say jew-plicate, even though I can successfully say dyu- without angst in other du- words.
When I say "thanks" the th- sound sometimes gets rushed and I feel like I just said "nanks" instead.
I have a very slow mouth, I think. I trip over lots of words, though usually not consistently, and just crash on and hope nobody noticed.
― susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Sunday, 28 April 2013 21:29 (ten years ago) link
the hardest word of all is PATHS. there is way too much going on there. any word beginning with a P is difficult, especially a P and then certain vowel sounds-- pussy is really hard to say too!-- and anything ending in THS. how do you know how long to say the th and the s?? i feel like i go on forever. paathhhhssssszzz. having to do readings during mass in grade school and the microphone just blowing up in your face on the plosives-- a reading from the aPOSTle PAUL's letter to the philiPPPPPPians or whatever has probably caused some deep anxiety forever.
― ehkarl, Sunday, 28 April 2013 22:00 (ten years ago) link
Oh yeah re "ths", "tenths" is bad. "Tense". "Tennuths". "Tenthuhs-uh". For some reason "months" is easier. We should all go back to saying "tithes" iirc
― susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Sunday, 28 April 2013 22:13 (ten years ago) link
something
― infinity (∞), Wednesday, 31 January 2018 17:40 (six years ago) link
How to pronounce “midwifery”? Is there a US/UK split?
― Time Will Show Leo Weiser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 August 2020 18:00 (three years ago) link