Language can be weird sometimes. You usually find that out when learning a foreign language. Suddenly there are different sounds and a different-looking alphabet. You have to bend your tongue in ways you didn't even think was possible. Not to mention that words aren't spelled the way they're written.
So it's no wonder people make mistakes in pronunciation. One Redditor had an idea to ask people what's the most memorable incorrect pronunciation they've heard. And the people delivered – from "penglings" to "Cog Nack" and "poll-em" instead of "poem."
To know more about why we mispronounce words and why some words are harder to pronounce than others, Bored Panda reached out to accent coach Luke Nicholson. He's the mind behind Improve Your Accent and a member of the International Phonetic Association. You can read our conversation with him below!
More info: Improve Your Accent | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook
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Mispronouncing words is a natural part of learning a new language. It's a common occurrence even for native speakers. This time we'll discuss the English language and its phonetic aspects in more depth. But keep in mind, we can apply similar logic to the other languages of the world.
Our expert on English phonetics is Luke Nicholson. He has been teaching English learners how to communicate more clearly for over 10 years. Nicholson teaches a summer course in English Phonetics at the University College London and is also the creator of Funetics, a website that focuses on languages other than English
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In 2017, Luke became the UK Freelancer of the Year. He has also spoken for a variety of media, from BBC Radio London to the Rosetta Stone podcast. His goal is to provide high-quality teaching materials for British English pronunciation.
Nicholson says that people mispronounce words for different reasons. "If someone hasn't been exposed to a word in its spoken form, they may guess the pronunciation based on the spelling," he explains.
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Sadly, spelling sometimes can be your worst enemy, especially in the English language. "Unfortunately for English learners, English spelling doesn't clearly reflect how we pronounce words today," the accent coach says. He gives one example: "We spell 'lamb' with a 'b' because we used to pronounce it, but we don't anymore."
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People who are learning English are not the only ones struggling with having to pronounce words differently from how they're spelled. Native speakers can fall victim to this too. "Who could deduce that 'wind' (the movement of air) and 'wind' (as in winding up a clock) are pronounced differently?" Nicholson observes.
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"Guessing pronunciation from the spelling is even challenging for those who speak English as their first language," the accent coach reiterates. "Place names are particularly troublesome." He gives one interesting example: did you know that "Cholmondeley" is actually pronounced "CHUM-lee"?
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Are non-English speakers doomed then? "For those who don't speak English as their first language, there may be sounds they find tricky to pronounce," Nicholson explains. "For instance, the Spanish language doesn't have a distinction between a 's' and a 'sh' sound. This means English words like 'sash' may be mispronounced by Spanish speakers."
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Those to whom English is a second language most often struggle with how to pronounce the 'th' sound. Surprisingly, we can find the sound in other languages spoken in Europe as well. "The 'th' sounds in English (like in 'this' and 'thing') are found in a few other languages," Nicholson says. Among them are Icelandic, Albanian, Welsh, and Greek.
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Unfortunately, the 'th' sound is not that common in other languages. "This suggests they could be trickier to articulate," the accent coach tells Bored Panda. "For those speakers who don't have the 'th' sounds in their native language, the English 'th' sounds might be tricky to master."
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What's interesting is that Nicholson advises not to stress too much over this. "This isn't actually that important," he says. "Many English speakers in the UK actually pronounce the 'th' sounds as 'f' and 'v' instead. So 'first' and 'thirst', and 'sliver' and 'slither' sound the same."
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Some people use pronunciation to assume people's level of sophistication. If a person pronounces a word or words incorrectly, that somehow reflects on their intelligence. Luke Nicholson says that such stereotypes are simply not true. "As I mentioned, sometimes it's impossible to guess the pronunciation of a word based on spelling alone," he explains.
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Nicholson also has a solid argument against prejudices about incorrect pronunciation. "If someone is mispronouncing a word because their first language isn't English, we should remember that they are clever enough to speak more than one language!"
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My wife still says "Rhino-saurus" every time she tries to pronounce "Rhinoceros."
To be fair, her way is better.Ooohhh ooohh the "penglings" by Benedict CumberbatchWorcestershire sauce. He said 'wash your sister ' sauce and I about died laughingSomeone who thought the word "vicariously" was bi-curiously. "You're going on vacation with your friends? Wow! I'm gonna live bi-curiously through you!"It’s Christmas time, which means lots of chocolate ads. Friend of mine informed us that his favorite chocolates where the “feral ranchers.”Had a friend that pronounced the b in "subtle." Was annoying as f**k.Pah-harmacist. I think about that woman a lot lolWe had a training at work, taught by an outside organization. The lady was talking about the Irish potato famine. Except she kept calling it the potato phantom. She did this at least five times20 years ago my wife and I were behind a woman at Target at the register. She began arguing with the cashier over the price for an item, and after a few rounds back and forth loudly proclaimed, *"I ain't no mathematic, but I ain't no stupid neither!"*
We still use that whenever the "math don't math" on something.
I was, for reference, a mathematics major."It's ponunced nukular!"I work in the legislative/policy field, and my boss pronounces statutes "statue-ettes." It's wild.Extracurricular as "Extra Kickler". The bad part about it is that it was one of my high school teachers. We even starting calling him The Midnight Kickler what kickles at midnight.Facade.
Worked for a guy that was an "intellectually overconfident" type, to put it in the most civil way I know how lol.
He kept using the word and had obviously never heard of it until he read it somewhere. Kept pronouncing it "fake-aid". He would go on rants about "fake" people and use this to describe their personalities. It was really cringe inducing.
Eventually the stars aligned and we were together on a business trip, I saw a building under construction. "That place is going to have a really beautiful facade", I said (it genuinely did) and there was no response but about a month later I overheard him using the word and saying it correctly. So whatever.An old colleague once claimed she was ‘unindated’ with work. Now i have to say ‘inundated’ ten times in my head before out loud because that has ruined me for life.Girl in college:
Word -- "Annihilate"
Her pronunciation --- Annie - Hilly -AteMy high school girlfriend travelled with me to visit my family in SoCal after graduation.
We were playing Trivial Pursuit and it was her turn to read the question.
The question was something like "which south american king ruled with a chihuahua?"
Only she pronounced it as "cha-whoo-a-whoo-a".
It took a good 30 seconds to understand what she word she was trying to pronounce. And a good 30 minutes for my entire family to stop laughing. We still joke about it to this day.My old boss.
Escaped goat : scapegoat
Interpretate : interpret
Pacifically : specifically
Every. F*****g. Time. In front of some clever people before he would introduce me to carry on with the presentation...When I worked at Subway, I asked a customer what kind of dressing he wanted, and he said, "do you know, uh, chipotle?"
Which he butchered so badly I heard it as "do you know a cheap hotel?" So I told him, "yeah, down on 39th Street" and we were both thoroughly confused.Ex girlfriend pronounced rhododendron as RaDonDaDronWorking in web development, there was *one* person on my team who consistently mispronounced the word "cache". Drove me nuts.
It's one syllable, folks, not two! "Cash", not "cash-ay"!Lingerie. She pronounced it lin-jeer-ee and argued with me over the pronunciation until Google stepped in with the correct answer lolWhen reading an award at a US Army ceremony, the Personell clerk was reading "He is a fine outstanding soldier all his peers should seek to emulate", he pronounced it "eliminate"My Mom back in the 70s used to pronounce a "resume" for work a resume(re-zoom) as in resuming work. It made sense to her.Friend pronounced "meme" as "memmay"At a Chinese Restaurant and my coworker asked for General Toes. I still laugh about it to this day.I was in a miss teen type of pageant & during the panel I was asked, “if you were handed a red crown what would you draw?”
I had to ask the moderator to repeat the question & with a chuckle, I asked for clarification on if she meant a red “crown” or did she actually mean a red crayon. None of the judges were happy with me smugly correcting the moderator.It was a brunch time first date at a restaurant fancier than I’m usually comfortable with. Was looking to get a little buzz to take the edge off. I pointed to the mimosa carafe that was on the menu and asked if she would like to share one. We were in agreement that it looked wonderful so when the server came over, I confidently declared that we would like the mimosa care-a-fay. The server laughed. My date laughed. I was mega embarrassed.
We dated for about a year and a half after this incident and she would occasionally ask if I’d like a care a fay of whatever liquid was in close proximity.
TLDR: Carafe is pronounced more like giraffe. Definitely don’t say care a fay on a first date or ever.Co-worker got charged with DUI. He was writing down the facts to show his lawyer and he asked me "How do you spell so-vi-it-e?"
He was saying sobriety but with a V instead of a B. I told him I thought it was S-O-B-R-I-E-T-Y. He told me that was wrong "cuz there is no v in it."
I told him there wasn't a V in sobriety and he said, "Then why is it pronounced so-vi-it-tree? See there is a v in it." I gave up and told him he was right and I had no idea how to spell the word.A former neighbour was talking about a movie she saw and it was called Malice - pronounced 'mah lice'.
I really miss her though.Coworker was saying stigmata instead of stigma. Multiple times. Also claimed to have a photographic memory. Irony.I worked in a breast health clinic and the scheduler would call people and confirm their "mammyograms."
She was also the kind of person to say "pacifically" in place of specifically.Playing Taboo, you know the game where you have to give hints to a key word but there are words you are not allowed to use to describe it. This guy who nobody knew well at all was bombing and getting frustrated like we were all so stupid. I forget his clues but we surmised it was about drinking and alcohol. And time runs out. He goes "Ugh. Cog Nack!"I've got a friend who pronounces "flamingo" as fallamingo... I thought she was messing around cos I often mispronounce words for fun... but no, she's serious...Oh my poor younger brother.
One night out for a fancy dinner he decided the filet mignon was what he wanted to have. With a straight face he ordered the FLAMING YONG. Even the waiter struggled to stifle his laughter.
We still tease him about it to this day over a decade later.A proctor at my son's middle school academic team meet, said "hyper-bowl," for hyperbole. He is 34 and it's never been forgotten.My ex-husband lived in a small town with no ethnic restaurants. He also went to college in a small town with no ethnic restaurants. So, we start dating and I take him to Mexican restaurant. He’s obviously very outside his bubble and keeps asking me questions about the menu. No big deal.
So, the waitress comes over to take our order and he orders a QUASA-DILL-A. The server and I just stare at him and then start laughing. I felt so badly for laughing but, I couldn’t help myself. I gently corrected him and he started laughing too. It became a running joke and is still one to this day…24 years later.A fifth grade teacher I was assisting in the lab had a student that didn’t know what a word meant. She said, “ what does co man deer mean?” She meant commandeer. I gave the correct pronunciation and definition to the student. This was a teacher who looked down on me as an aide. Another point for Floriduhworking as a server people used to pronounce chipotle in a myriad of wrong ways, but usually just “chip-olt” or “chip-ottle”.
one day a guy came in, looked me in the eye, and said “i’ll have the **chipeetle** burger please”My son said he had to do a poll-em for school. It was poem
In Kansas city Missouri there is a street names belfontaine, but if you ask for directions it is pronounced bell-fountainGuy walked into a liquor store looking for a wine for his wife "yes it has extra vaganza in it." The clerk kept being confused until the guy found it. Extravaganza!My Dad had an employee who pronounced “favorite” as “Fray-ver-it.” Every damn time!Knew someone that pronounced "stoic" like it rhymed with "oink".
My dad was the king of mispronunciation. The ones I remember are "galaxy" like "gal-AX-y", "avenger" like "AV-eng-er" and "lava" with a short a like "magma"Nicotine. Knee-Co-Tie-N.Whenever my mother-in-law has difficulty breathing (she has asthma) she’ll say, “I can’t get air into my bronicles.”
First, it’s “bronchioles.” Second, no one says that anyway. Just say “lungs.”
My wife is a nurse and I have a minor in biology and we joke about our bronicles all the time.
