What amusing mis-pronunciations have you heard?

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HAL9000

Lifer
Oct 17, 2010
22,021
3
76
i think you mean "al-you-mini-um"

I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"
 

eits

Lifer
Jun 4, 2005
25,015
3
81
www.integratedssr.com
I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"

in the states, we spell aluminum "aluminum"... in uk countries, it's "aluminium". neither are wrong, but i was correcting the poster's "aluminium" mispronunciation.
 

HAL9000

Lifer
Oct 17, 2010
22,021
3
76
in the states, we spell aluminum "aluminum"... in uk countries, it's "aluminium". neither are wrong, but i was correcting the poster's "aluminium" mispronunciation.

I did not realise that! Thanks for the info

I do however maintain the "you" part of my above argument
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,348
8,660
136
I always thought thru was a slang abbreviation for through,
It isn't? What is it???

didn't know it was an actual word in itself.

also, I'm guilty of:
Don't say: cannidate | Do say: candidate
Don't say: drownd | Do say: drown
Don't say: Febyuary | Do say: February
Don't say: libary | Do say: library
Don't say: mannaise | Do say: mayonnaise
Don't say: perscription | Do say: prescription
Don't say: pronounciation | Do say: pronunciation
Don't say: realator | Do say: realtor
Don't say: snuck | Do say: sneaked
Don't say: supremist | Do say: supremacist
Good stuff!

I usually hear Febuary. I hate that. Hear it all the time from TV folks, you'd think they'd know better.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,348
8,660
136
Ore-ee-gone as opposed to Or-uh-gun. This one doesn't come up as much as it used to, but it's still a handy tool to distinguish outsiders.

I'm still pissed that so many people mispronounced regardless as irregardless that the dictionary decided it would just make irregardless a word. That's just lazy, dammit!
Yeah, it's "ore-gun," as I noted in recent post here, and "ore-gone" is a tip-off to distinguish unknowing outsiders.

I've always thought that "irregardless" was a substitute for the word "irrespective," not "regardless." I don't hear "irregardless" a lot. Here's a story I heard a long time ago (and probably true) about the etymology of the word 'irregardless":

The old Amos and Andy show (originally on radio, and I think they may have done a TV thing later, when TV started up and became ubiquitous in the 1950's) had a couple of characters who would riff off each other and one of them would use the _word_ (not then a real, "official" word) "irregardless," as in "irregardless, Andy,..." I suppose that millions of Americans hearing that over and over resulted in it becoming a recognized word.
 
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sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,582
2,817
136
I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"

As eits mentioned, here the spelling is 'aluminum' so the 'mini-um' pronunciation would necessarily sound wrong. #1 is just plain wrong: "tune" and "dune" are 'toon' and 'dune' and "alu" is 'a-loo'.

cavalry as "cal-var-ee"...

Don't tell that to all the damn Calvary Christian churches.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,348
8,660
136
One word that took me a while to figure out its pronunciation was epitome.

There are a few words that are in my vocabulary that I don't know how to pronounce, i.e. words I've encountered in print but not heard spoken. There are quite a few, I guess, can't think of any ATM. I have on occasion made the effort to determine the correct pronunciation of such words, generally when I think I may have to speak them!
 

eits

Lifer
Jun 4, 2005
25,015
3
81
www.integratedssr.com
Yeah, it's "ore-gun," as I noted in recent post here, and "ore-gone" is a tip-off to distinguish unknowing outsiders.

I've always thought that "irregardless" was a substitute for the word "irrespective," not "regardless." I don't hear "irregardless" a lot. Here's a story I heard a long time ago (and probably true) about the etymology of the word 'irregardless":

The old Amos and Andy show (originally on radio, and I think they may have done a TV thing later, when TV started up and became ubiquitous in the 1950's) had a couple of characters who would riff off each other and one of them would use the _word_ (not then a real, "official" word) "irregardless," as in "irregardless, Andy,..." I suppose that millions of Americans hearing that over and over resulted in it becoming a recognized word.

so it's pronounced about the same as "organ"?

"or-eh-gan"?
"or-eh-gun"?
"or-eh-gon"?
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,348
8,660
136
Joe Theismann => Joe Thighs-man

His name is Joe Theese-man (rhymes with cheese-man). He "changed" the pronunciation in college as part of his Heisman trophy campaign ("Theismann for Heisman") and it stuck, but it's still wrong.
It's whatever he says it is. It's his damn name!
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
You kidding me? There are at least 10 threads with almost the same freaking titles that have been posted. The posts and participants are almost identical.

It's probably that people notice the trolls more...

Think he usually just argues about America vs the world. This one is a little different.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
I'd like to address this. It would seem to me that pronouncing Aluminium as "Al-you-min-ee-um" would be the most logical for the following reasons:

1) the U sound is generally a you sound when not prefixed by anything that changes the sound for example: Tune and Dune. They are not pronounced "toon and doon" but "Tyoun and "Dyoun" This therefore makes sense for the first part of the word to be "Al-you" not "Al-oo"
Nope. "Tune" and "dune" should be "toon" and "doon," except for you Brits.

2) If we look at the materials / elements with similar names we get "Calcium" or "Barium", "Einsteinium", "Potassium", "Magnesium" etc. All of these words end with "ium" making the sound "ee-um" For example you wouldn't pronounce "Magnesium" as "Mag-nees-um" so why would you pronounce "Aluminium" as "Al-you-min-um"
The difference is that "ium" has the "u" after a vowel. For "tune" / "dune" / "aluminum", it comes after a consonant.
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
64,095
12,419
136
As eits mentioned, here the spelling is 'aluminum' so the 'mini-um' pronunciation would necessarily sound wrong. #1 is just plain wrong: "tune" and "dune" are 'toon' and 'dune' and "alu" is 'a-loo'.



Don't tell that to all the damn Calvary Christian churches.


Um...there is a difference between "Cavalry" and "Calvary."

Definition of CAVALRY
1
a : an army component mounted on horseback

Definition of CALVARY
1
: an open-air representation of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Calvary, the hill near Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.
 

Mike Gayner

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2007
6,175
3
0
There was a poll here a while go - a significant portion of ATOT posters (half maybe?) pronounce "grenade" as "ger-nade" and think that's acceptable. That sounds like how a child learning to speak might say it.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
There was a poll here a while go - a significant portion of ATOT posters (half maybe?) pronounce "grenade" as "ger-nade" and think that's acceptable. That sounds like how a child learning to speak might say it.

Wow. I'm in the South and even I think "gur naide" sounds ridiculous.
 
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