Inspired by the regional language thread....words/phrases you say incorrectly

How about crudités? I know how you are supposed to say it with the French pronunciation but it sounds silly in the middle of an otherwise American accented sentence to me so I usually avoid using it.

Is there more than one way to pronounce crudités? I only know one way and as I am involved in planning many events, I do use it frequently. You can always go with veggie platter. :slight_smile:

Well, the way my H pronounces the letter ‘W’ = DubYa and the word ‘Huge’ Uuugh
drives me outta my mind!

Are you Melania? :smiley:

Nope. The Southern pronunciation of ruin is “rurn” (Mom’s from Alabama - and she also says “bedroom suit”. :slight_smile:

You can say French words that are close to French without actually being a real French accent. So suite like sweet, not like sue-eet (that’s an approximation too). I say Crew-dee-tay. Not with a French “u” sound, or softer “ay” sound.

The picture file format acronym GIF is pronounced with a j sound and not a g sound.

How about how Chicagoans pronounce Goethe. ( Go-thee). Um nope. Oy!

I pronounce egg with a long “a”. I’ve been often told to pronounce it with a short “e” like Ed.
I knew people from college who pronounced tour like “turr”. Say the “s” in Illinois and Des Moines. Mispronounce Oregon - it’s not Ora-gone. Would shorten Jericho to two syllables, Jer-ko.

Warshington. Crick. Mango is actually a green pepper.
Indiana
Willumette
(Willamette) Oregon

Anyone from the The Centennial State want to chime in on Col-o-RAH-do vs. Col-o-RAD-o??

I once defended a deposition ( my client was being deposed) by an out of town Boston attorney in my Midwest offices which involved a copyright dispute and advertising that was in all sorts of media especially in those little blow out cards in magazines ( remember those. Lol). So when we took a break the court reporter who was transcribing the whole thing calls me over and says “ I’m very confused about how fish are involved.” And I was like, “what??”. She said, “You know, the cod, what’s that about”. I could not stop laughing especially when I told the other attorney how his pronunciation of “ card” was being interpreted!

My DH grew up overseas and was a voracious reader, so mispronounces many words that he learned by reading rather than hearing. I can only recall one off the top of my head, but he also taught the word to one of our s’s who now also mispronounces it. It’s a study carrel. They put the emphasis on the second syllable. Drives me buggy.

Oh that reminds me of the first day of ninth grade when they gave all us freshman a spelling test. The teacher said “Refud”. I asked her to repeat it “Refuhhhhd”. No help. Finally I just wrote “Refud”. I don’t know what the results were, but I didn’t get put in remedial spelling for not understanding a southern accent!

There used to be a TV commercial for a furniture store out of either Chicago or Milwaukee where the announcer wanted us to run in and buy the bedroom SUITS, although it was spelled correctly on the screen.

It is definitely “fine-ance” not “fin-ance” even if it is “fin-ancial”. I’ve never heard “fin-ance” in my life, and internet agrees.
On the other hand, I grew up saying “torn-ament” but “tern-ament” seems more common now. Fingernails on a blackboard for me.

Also, Kerry and Carrie are not pronounced the same–but there were two on my D’s softball team in HS, and one of them was called out for batting in the wrong order because the coach didn’t say them differently.
I tried to explain this to someone, who couldn’t hear the difference. I compared to Barry and berry; still couldn’t hear it.
I’m like are “bet” and “bat” the same?
No
Okay, take off the T and add Ree instead.
Couldn’t hear it. Sigh.

“It is definitely “fine-ance” not “fin-ance” even if it is “fin-ancial”. I’ve never heard “fin-ance” in my life, and internet agrees.”

Let’s just say that people who work in the finance industry, especially higher tier, use fin-ance. The internet can be wrong. :slight_smile:

I pronounced amphitheater as amplitheater for a couple of decades. I think I was assuming an outdoor theater amplified sound better?

I can’t pronounce brewery. Comes out brurr-ree unless I try really hard.

My D has always been a voracious reader and had so many words that she mispronounced. One of the funniest was when she was maybe in 1st grade and reading the Percy Jackson books. She was excitedly telling us the plot over dinner and was talking about a character named Po-See-Don, like we should know who she was talking about. Finally she got super exasperated with us and questioned if we had ever learned Greek Mythology. We assured her we did but neither of us remembered a Po-See-Don. It wasn’t until she made a reference to the god of the sea that we realized she was talking about Poseidon. We still laugh about that one!