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

HELL NO that would involve leaving the house and talking to people!

Also some of these pronunciation things seem regional rather than wrong, ya? Not espresso tho, I'm with Jeremy on that one - IT IS NOT EXPRESSO ARGH.

My nan says maintenance as "maintain-ants", ie the same way maintain is said.

My Dad has always pronounced available as 'avaidable'. I have no idea where he gets the 'd' from. It always frustrated me that someone could fuck up such a simple word. And in such a weird way.

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

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

PHOTOGRAPHY

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

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

My mother

always

says

ALBLUM.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Wasn't there an Onion joke about this?

things i say:

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

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

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.

Atlantic

I love you.

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

- architecture
- antibiotics

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

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

Hierarchy. Poxy word.

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.