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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"(p

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
I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who did this kind of thing as a child. For me it was "archive" which I was pronouncing "ar-chiff" as opposed to "ar-kive". Took a while to break that habit.

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

I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who did this kind of thing as a child. For me it was "archive" which I was pronouncing "ar-chiff" as opposed to "ar-kive". Took a while to break that habit.