words that should be easy to pronounce but you can't pronounce

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I've never been able to say 'economical' in my entire life. I remember being 7 years old and practicing on the schoolbus!

Remy (null) (x Jeremy), Friday, 4 March 2005 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

"excuse me" comes out "ex-cruise me."

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 4 March 2005 08:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i've recently developed a problem with saying 'regularly'

gem (trisk), Friday, 4 March 2005 09:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't say anything with a "th" in it. Nobody notices, but I notice, and it bugs me greatly.

Also lasagne. I say "la--saaaaaaa-neee-ur". I really stretch the "saaaa". Most distressing.

Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 4 March 2005 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Now I think about it Im not so sure I say "regularly" right either gem! I tend to say "regyarly". Wtf.

Trayce (trayce), Friday, 4 March 2005 11:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Reservoir = "reserv-wire" when i say it.

The Horse of Babylon (the pirate king), Friday, 4 March 2005 11:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i've had several meetings where i've had to talk about the 'ombudsman' and, man, i just can't say it no matter how hard i try.

colette (a2lette), Friday, 4 March 2005 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir will be able to help you on the correct pronunciation of "ombudsman"

Some Dadaismus Implied (Dada), Friday, 4 March 2005 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"Mwyn"

Though there's no reason that should be easy to say.

mei (mei), Friday, 4 March 2005 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

PHOTOGRAPHY

pronounced by everyone I know (incl. me) as 'fertagerphy'

i'm shy (Abbott), Thursday, 5 February 2009 20:34 (seventeen years ago)

I used to ax questions, but have since corrected my use of that word.

The Reverend (rev), Thursday, 5 February 2009 21:04 (seventeen years ago)

My mother

always

says

ALBLUM.

I can't get her to stop and now it just annoys both of us if I mention it.

How can there be male ladybugs? (Laurel), Thursday, 5 February 2009 21:17 (seventeen years ago)

pluralism is one i noticed recently. i don't know why, but it comes out something like plurllllsm.

Ralph, Waldo, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:13 (seventeen years ago)

My boss cannot pronounce "supposedly" for the life of 'im. He only says "supposably".

muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:16 (seventeen years ago)

He's really a catalogue of misuses and mispronunciations. One that I have bitten my tongue for years in not correcting: "simplistic" used when "simple" is correct.

muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:18 (seventeen years ago)

It's like "-istic" has saved "simple" from itself.

muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:19 (seventeen years ago)

I used to ax questions, but have since corrected my use of that word.

Wasn't there an Onion joke about this?

It is not enough to love mankind – you must be able to stand (Michael White), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:21 (seventeen years ago)

things i say:

sposed (supposed)
libary (library)
samwitch (sandwitch -- only occasionally)

Calling All Creeps! (contenderizer), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:24 (seventeen years ago)

caricature - this word is the bane of my enunciatory skills.

Ricky Apples (Pillbox), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:27 (seventeen years ago)

When I was a kid, my mother would ask me to explain how to pronounce words she had trouble with. The one thing she could never entirely get was the name "Charles." I think the idea that it was all one syllable was kind of ridiculous to her.

Long story short, now I can't say the name "Charles" without saying it kind of funny.

nabisco, Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:32 (seventeen years ago)

Atlantic

Bill Magill, Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:35 (seventeen years ago)

I love you.

•--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 5 February 2009 22:46 (seventeen years ago)

humididity - I think about it too much when saying it and introduce a stutter effect.

Bob Six, Friday, 6 February 2009 00:02 (seventeen years ago)

- architecture
- antibiotics

salsa shark, Friday, 6 February 2009 00:06 (seventeen years ago)

What Pleasant Plains said, i pronounce it "really, me too"

not_goodwin, Friday, 6 February 2009 00:34 (seventeen years ago)

Ugh I say samwich way more than I should and I don't know where that came from.

one art, please (Trayce), Friday, 6 February 2009 09:30 (seventeen years ago)

Hierarchy. Poxy word.

Frank Sumatra (NickB), Friday, 6 February 2009 09:54 (seventeen years ago)

My wife sometimes says 'ashume' and that drives me frigging bananas.

Frank Sumatra (NickB), Friday, 6 February 2009 09:56 (seventeen years ago)

"lil" never seems to roll off my tongue quite right. Or else it just sounds incredibly weird when you focus on it too much.

Nate Carson, Friday, 6 February 2009 10:04 (seventeen years ago)

After 36 years, I still find it difficult to say my last name. It looks simple, but it's hard to say it clearly without slurring it.

nate woolls, Friday, 6 February 2009 10:17 (seventeen years ago)

My brother kept saying eskliator for escalator the other day and I had to say 'Stop saying eskliator it's escalator'. I wasn't proud of myself but I was going mad.

'Orangery' for the win.

Abbe Black Tentacle (GamalielRatsey), Friday, 6 February 2009 10:20 (seventeen years ago)

For years I pronounced segue to rhyme with league - more through ignorance than an inability to pronounce it. I can't think of anything offhand that I can't say properly (or as properly as you can with Scottish rolling 'r's).

I have a friend who can't say pattern (comes out as pat-ren) and it annoys the shit out of me. Someone else I know says boppin instead of bottom.

I used to get annoyed with Rafael Nadal saying "sufrace" in interviews but then realised I couldn't pronounce anything in Spanish and should maybe cut the guy some slack.

super shareaholic firefox add (onimo), Friday, 6 February 2009 10:23 (seventeen years ago)

Wait, so how ARE you supposed to say segue?

nate woolls, Friday, 6 February 2009 10:25 (seventeen years ago)

segway. It got me for years too :/

one art, please (Trayce), Friday, 6 February 2009 10:28 (seventeen years ago)

libary (library)

YES. i had a girlfriend that used to give me hell about this - "and you get all huffy about W & nucular, lol!!"

it was cold, man.

now is the time to winterize your manscape (will), Friday, 6 February 2009 14:06 (seventeen years ago)

You guys are all pronouncing "sandwich" wrong. It's "sammitch."

Anyway, I have a friend who pronounces "compilation" with a long "i." Drives me batty.

Pancakes Hussein Obama (Pancakes Hackman), Friday, 6 February 2009 14:07 (seventeen years ago)

things i say:

sposed (supposed)
libary (library)
samwitch (sandwitch -- only occasionally)

I wouldn't say any of those are mispronunciations, just normal examples of elision and assimilation. I think lots of people would pronounce those words that way. I would say all of them like that, or possibly 'spose to', 'lie-bree', and 'samwidge'.

Teh Movable Object (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 6 February 2009 18:32 (seventeen years ago)

Erm... the first part of that post ^ is a quote from upthread, by the way

Teh Movable Object (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 6 February 2009 18:33 (seventeen years ago)

Anyway, I have a friend who pronounces "compilation" with a long "i." Drives me batty.

― Pancakes Hackman

i have this same friend

Calling All Creeps! (contenderizer), Friday, 6 February 2009 18:36 (seventeen years ago)

Wait, so how ARE you supposed to say segue?

In a twist, I must've heard the word before I ever read it, because I have journal entries from early adolescence in which I spell it "segway."

Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 6 February 2009 18:45 (seventeen years ago)

I never realized this until someone pointed it out a couple of years ago, but I actually pronounce all four syllables of "comfortable."

Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 6 February 2009 18:46 (seventeen years ago)

^ this is okay, unless it's comFORTable

i used to say "pahrahdiggum"

Calling All Creeps! (contenderizer), Friday, 6 February 2009 18:47 (seventeen years ago)

Oh BTW I can't pronounce my own first name correctly -- it's really embarrassing, okay thanks

nabisco, Friday, 6 February 2009 18:51 (seventeen years ago)

i always pronounce remember memember.
there are prolly others, i have a very lazy tongue.

ianmaxwell, Friday, 6 February 2009 18:57 (seventeen years ago)

There are mispronunciations that have become oddly ingrained in the corporate culture of my job. It's like 1 person says it incorrectly and then everyone starts making the same mistake.

A couple of examples that come to mind:
peripherals pronounced peripheeals
incidents pronounced incidenses

Moodles, Friday, 6 February 2009 19:03 (seventeen years ago)

murder

Jena (who is actually a man) (Jena), Saturday, 7 February 2009 05:11 (seventeen years ago)

san(d)*witch

* the d is there in that it affects the transition from n to w but is unpronounced itself. surely that's right? one thing that has always got on my tits is the southern based media's belief that northern (north-western?) english peepz pronounce the word 'fuck' as ' 'fook'. i mean wtf?

or something, Saturday, 7 February 2009 06:05 (seventeen years ago)

this week i've forgotten how to say "unequivocally"

PappaWheelie V, Saturday, 7 February 2009 06:08 (seventeen years ago)

i cannot pronounce the name Robert Rodriguez ever on the first try. thankfully i don't have to say it often.

circa1916, Saturday, 7 February 2009 11:06 (seventeen years ago)

also "edited it"

circa1916, Saturday, 7 February 2009 11:07 (seventeen years ago)


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