4 ms·

The hard thing is that I read English the whole day, I don't often listen to it. And pronunciation is really unpredictable -- I once lost a bet because I couldn

The hard thing is that I read English the whole day, I don't often listen to it. And pronunciation is really unpredictable -- I once lost a bet because I couldn't believe that "finite" and "infinite" were pronounced so differently. I happen to know about "debt". But variants of it, like "indebted"? Who knows?

rahimnathwani 5y ago
Wait until you hear someone say 'caveat'.
- Scarblac 5y ago
  Good point, I really have no clue what that sounds like. The poem _The Chaos_ ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw&t=12s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw&t=12s ) is about this sort of thing, written by a Dutch teacher of English pronunciation. (but even that mass of examples does not include debt, doubt or caveat)
  - rahimnathwani 5y ago
    I had a colleague (very smart guy, with excellent written English) who didn't believe me when I told him caveat was not pronounced the same as 'cave at'.
- xeromal 5y ago
  Verbiage is another one. Most people I know say verbage instead of verb-ia-ge like the dictionary sometimes recommends.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
nicoburns 5y ago
I was quite a prolific reader as a child, and this caught me out with a quite a few words even as a native english speaker. My favourite instance being "awry"(pronounced a-wry). I was aware of and understood the word a-wry (having heard it on the radio), but I thought there was also a word "awry" pronounced aw-ry. I was in my twenties before I connected that these were the same word.
- tpaulin 5y ago
  I had a similar experiences to you on both accords: 1. It wasn't until a class aged 14 where I heard the word 'chasm' spoken aloud and realised I had it wrong all those years. 2. It took me a some time to realise a word which sounded like 'rederick' was actually rhetoric.
- billbrown 5y ago
  Mine was "hitherto." I was quite deep into my 30s before I found out it wasn't pronounced "hit-hurt-oh."
  - odiroot 5y ago
    "Albeit" was the one for me. After 20 years of speaking the language, I realised it's not "all bite" but "ahl-bee-eet".
  - jacobolus 5y ago
    > hitherto I’m sorry we don’t still have more use of hither, thither, whither, hence, thence, whence, hereby, thereby, whereby, herefore, therefore, wherefore, hereto, thereto, whereto, herefrom, therefrom, wherefrom, hereafter, thereafter, whereafter, herewith, therewith, wherewith, herein, therein, wherein, hereupon, thereupon, whereupon, etc. They are fun words.
- Ancapistani 5y ago
  Mine was "adjacent". My inner voice pronounced it "ad-ja-sent", with a soft "a". I said it that way until someone corrected me in my mid-20s; even then, I didn't believe them at first when they said that was the way it was consistently pronounced. I confirmed it through several acquaintances before I adapted my speech. My inner monologue still pronounces it incorrectly in some instances in text, as if there were two pronunciations that could apply depending on usage. Come to think of it, there are many instances of this for me. I use "data" with a soft "a" when referring to the abstract concept of structured information, but "data" with a hard "a" ("date-uh") when referring to an instance of that concept (i.e., the data used to generate a chart).
- jcal93 5y ago
tsimionescu 5y ago
It's funny that sometimes these mispronunciations can become "standardized" in non-native cultures. For example, almost all Romanian programmers will pronounce "integer" as in-teg-ur, not in-tee-ger, because that's closer to how the word would be read in Romanian (though, interestingly, not identical - the natural Romanian pronunciation given that spelling would be in-te-ger, with both 'e's pronounced like the 'a' in tap, and with a soft 'g', like in german), and it's not a word you often hear spoken aloud in movies or TV shows.
odiroot 5y ago
How about that "pneumatic", "queue" and "Worcestershire" ;)
mdavidn 5y ago
A running joke in my family is my intentional mispronunciation of "subsequent" as "sub-see-quent" (similar to "sequence").

rahimnathwani 5y ago

Wait until you hear someone say 'caveat'.

Scarblac 5y ago
Good point, I really have no clue what that sounds like. The poem _The Chaos_ ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw&t=12s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw&t=12s ) is about this sort of thing, written by a Dutch teacher of English pronunciation. (but even that mass of examples does not include debt, doubt or caveat)
- rahimnathwani 5y ago
  I had a colleague (very smart guy, with excellent written English) who didn't believe me when I told him caveat was not pronounced the same as 'cave at'.
xeromal 5y ago
Verbiage is another one. Most people I know say verbage instead of verb-ia-ge like the dictionary sometimes recommends.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

nicoburns 5y ago

I was quite a prolific reader as a child, and this caught me out with a quite a few words even as a native english speaker. My favourite instance being "awry"(pronounced a-wry). I was aware of and understood the word a-wry (having heard it on the radio), but I thought there was also a word "awry" pronounced aw-ry. I was in my twenties before I connected that these were the same word.

tpaulin 5y ago
I had a similar experiences to you on both accords: 1. It wasn't until a class aged 14 where I heard the word 'chasm' spoken aloud and realised I had it wrong all those years. 2. It took me a some time to realise a word which sounded like 'rederick' was actually rhetoric.
billbrown 5y ago
Mine was "hitherto." I was quite deep into my 30s before I found out it wasn't pronounced "hit-hurt-oh."
- odiroot 5y ago
  "Albeit" was the one for me. After 20 years of speaking the language, I realised it's not "all bite" but "ahl-bee-eet".
- jacobolus 5y ago
  > hitherto I’m sorry we don’t still have more use of hither, thither, whither, hence, thence, whence, hereby, thereby, whereby, herefore, therefore, wherefore, hereto, thereto, whereto, herefrom, therefrom, wherefrom, hereafter, thereafter, whereafter, herewith, therewith, wherewith, herein, therein, wherein, hereupon, thereupon, whereupon, etc. They are fun words.
Ancapistani 5y ago
Mine was "adjacent". My inner voice pronounced it "ad-ja-sent", with a soft "a". I said it that way until someone corrected me in my mid-20s; even then, I didn't believe them at first when they said that was the way it was consistently pronounced. I confirmed it through several acquaintances before I adapted my speech. My inner monologue still pronounces it incorrectly in some instances in text, as if there were two pronunciations that could apply depending on usage. Come to think of it, there are many instances of this for me. I use "data" with a soft "a" when referring to the abstract concept of structured information, but "data" with a hard "a" ("date-uh") when referring to an instance of that concept (i.e., the data used to generate a chart).
jcal93 5y ago

tsimionescu 5y ago

It's funny that sometimes these mispronunciations can become "standardized" in non-native cultures. For example, almost all Romanian programmers will pronounce "integer" as in-teg-ur, not in-tee-ger, because that's closer to how the word would be read in Romanian (though, interestingly, not identical - the natural Romanian pronunciation given that spelling would be in-te-ger, with both 'e's pronounced like the 'a' in tap, and with a soft 'g', like in german), and it's not a word you often hear spoken aloud in movies or TV shows.

odiroot 5y ago

How about that "pneumatic", "queue" and "Worcestershire" ;)

mdavidn 5y ago

A running joke in my family is my intentional mispronunciation of "subsequent" as "sub-see-quent" (similar to "sequence").