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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Wait, so how ARE you supposed to say segue?

segway. It got me for years too :/

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.

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.

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'.

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

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

― Pancakes Hackman

i have this same friend

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."

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

^ this is okay, unless it's comFORTable

i used to say "pahrahdiggum"

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

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

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

murder

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?

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

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

also "edited it"

I have a friend who can't say pattern (comes out as pat-ren) and it annoys the shit out of me.

My primary school teacher used to do this. She was one of those people who pronounces film as fillum as well. I presumed it was a regional thing.

I can't pronounce my own first name either. Well, I can, but I have two different ways of doing it, and I've never quite settled on which one sounds better.

I knew the word segue as a written word and the word pronounced segway as a thing as well, but i was about 18 before I worked out they were the same thing. I presumably never had cause to write it down/read it out loud before then.

not that anyone's right or wrong on this one, but i once had trouble understanding the name someone meant when she said i needed to talk to "cahr - uhhl." up until then i had only heard "carl" as a one-syllable name.

(i was like "carol? carla? what are you trying to say?")

niche

If I'm being lazy, I sometimes say "problem" kinda like "prollum" and "probably" like "probly". Also, nailing all the consonants in "exactly" can be tricky, ha.

(Is pronouncing "comfortable" with 4 syllables really unusual in the Midwest?? I do sometimes say "comftable" but I just thought that was laziness.)

I knew the word segue as a written word and the word pronounced segway as a thing as well, but i was about 18 before I worked out they were the same thing. I presumably never had cause to write it down/read it out loud before then.

dittz - 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". for so long i thought people who said "segway" were taking the piss.

For some reason, I've always said "melk." It's just a lot of effort to go from the downward "M" to the upward "I" when pronouncing it, if that makes sense.

i have trouble with "specific". usually comes out something like 'spaz-pacific"

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

italian, apparently. meaning "it follows" and taken from directions in sheet music.

"lesser" comes out "lessel" 90% of the time unless i am focused on saying the "er".

if french u would say" seh-gyew"
xpost

Puyallup, Washington.

"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?

quiche or kitch

I'm surprised no one has said hamster yet.

I cant say "statistics". It always comes out "sasiststics"

i always mix up "sale" and "sell"

but now i'm worrying that i invented this and that no one else says it this way?

I say it this way.

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.

saying "neesh" seems pretentious.

It's a French word. Either say it like it should be pronounced or say alcove. ;)

i can't pronounce my wife's last name. wtf dude

I never understood why Americans say nitch
I had trouble saying 'parliamentary' all week

Had the same thing above about 'segue'. Always pronounced it 'seeg'

wait, it doesn't rhyme with "egg"??

I have trouble with my own first name.