Funny ways people mispronounce words or phrases,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alot of these are regionalisms or accents so sorry they infuriate you. Go to where they are from so that people can make fun of the way you talk.

oh, Debby, go back to Downersville.

Are you always this big of a drip?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm from the deep south and have no accent. Unfortunately, I do have mispronunciation tells and worse, I can't force myself to pronounce some things the right way so I avoid some words:

nuclear (I can't even HEAR the difference, it's that bad)
doesn't (I miss a syllable)
cement (there are two ways to say it and i"m not sure which is correct. I say C-mint so that must be wrong...it's sehMINT?)

I'm sure there are others...

This is all good.

Cement doesn't have any "mint" in it at all. The ment part is pronounced ment. And the stress is on the MENT.

Ah, but in the deep south it might be "mint" instead of "ment." After all, I know someone who was taught down there that pin and pen are homonyms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these are good, but I don't think you can make fun of non-native English speakers (unless you speak their language flawlessly).

My 9 year old commented to my latino MIL that she doesn't pronounce things correctly and she was very offended and gave him a good five minute lecture on non-native speakers.

My ESL husband regularly corrects my english:
roof - I say ruff
pillow - I say pell-o

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't pronounce ruwal. Much harder than rural!

I know! Sort of like nucular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alot of these are regionalisms or accents so sorry they infuriate you. Go to where they are from so that people can make fun of the way you talk.

So? Doesn't make it correct. However "regional" it is, my Dad's pronunciation of Washington as "Warshington" just isn't correct. And it's funny.

[Anonymous]

Maybe these are dialects, but my whole family (mom and dad sides) are from dc. We all say wooder, warshington, motha, fatha, mondy, tuesdy, wednesdy, etc (like Bob Ryan) pella. I thought this was all normal until I went to college. Now it's become embarrassing since my friends and neighbors are from elsewhere. DH is from Baltimore-don't even get me started on that! Like nails on a chalkboard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH and his family are from Long Island. They always throw "r"s at the end of words that end in "a". Pamelar Anderson, Alexandriar, Virginiar. It is so funny.

He is will frequently massacre random words. Often, I ask him to repeat it and crack up laughing.

My inlaws do this! From NY then lived in Jersey for decades. When they say they they are going back to Long-GUY-land for a Bar Mitzver, it kills me! MIL is a walking, talking cliche. She also says "BAH-ul" for bottle. Doesn't pronounce the "t" sound and says it with two sharp disjointed syllables. But her flaws could be worse...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe these are dialects, but my whole family (mom and dad sides) are from dc. We all say wooder, warshington, motha, fatha, mondy, tuesdy, wednesdy, etc (like Bob Ryan) pella. I thought this was all normal until I went to college. Now it's become embarrassing since my friends and neighbors are from elsewhere. DH is from Baltimore-don't even get me started on that! Like nails on a chalkboard

If you are like my ex, also born and raised in dc, it's more like favah, movah an brovah (and nor father, mother and brother.)

[Anonymous]

And*

[Anonymous]

Yes! I don't know what's wrong with me! I try to say them correctly and I just can't. I also say Vaginia (sounds scarily close to vagina) it's very embarrassing since I work for a southern company and my territory is virginia. My coworkers are always asking me to repeat it, it always catches them off guard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom says chipotle (either the restaurant or the pepper, doesn't matter) as chi-POLL-tea. Drives me batty.

Yes, lots of people do this and I HATE it. My biggest pet peeve is eXpresso though. ARRGGHH!!!

Also, everyone mispronounces bruschetta as brushetta. It is so common that I don't really mind unless it is a waiter at a restaurant that serves it!!! Clearly not an authentic Italian place!

I so TOTALLY agree about the "brushetta" thing. Especially if they are being pretentious and pronouncing other things on the menu with a pseudo-Italian accent!

[Anonymous]

my mother cannot pronounce anemone or amentiy and doesn't know which is which

[Anonymous]

Several times I've heard people pronounce the word "foreign" as "fAH-ren" ... which I think is funny, given the word! (Way to go making the word itself sound foreign!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and my name has an 'r' in it which my Chinese boss cannot pronounce!

Heard of the name Hans?
One Chinese thought it had something to do with the Han dynasty. He was confused

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and my name has an 'r' in it which my Chinese boss cannot pronounce!

Heard of the name Hans?
One Chinese thought it had something to do with the Han dynasty. He was confused

There is nothing remarkable here, in either case. For the former, it's true that people of certain backgrounds sometimes have difficulty with pronouncing the letter "r"; for the latter, Ok, it's not like he is representative of all Chinese people. The "Han Chinese" represent the largest proportion of the population in China, so no wonder he might automatically think of his own heritage if he heard a name sounding similar to his own background.