Tell me words you can't pronounce correctly.

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Replies

  • viciouslitany
    viciouslitany Posts: 187 Member
    myriad..
  • loonalupe
    loonalupe Posts: 6 Member
    The phrase, '' Happy Canada Day" is a tough one for me. Always comes out slurry and sounding like I'm drunk.
    Hmmm..on further consideration, it may be because I usually have a few on that day...; )
  • obrientp
    obrientp Posts: 546 Member
    Saying thank instead of think: "What do you thank we should do?"

    Jewry instead of jewelry

    Creme Brulee. I can say creme, and I can say Brulee, but not together.

    Mallory

    Mitsubishi
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    Rear Wheel Drive
    Apparently this is one of those that lots of people have trouble with. That one in particular is just rife with "approximants", so your poor oral cavity is having to do a lot of work, I think, to switch between them, and I bet there's something going on in terms of the physics of the acoustics that make the sounds come out somewhat indistinct from one another. But phonetics is my weakest area, so I could be wrong.

    I still love talking about it.
  • GC527
    GC527 Posts: 272 Member
    I always want to say Pacific when I am saying specific.
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    I always want to say Pacific when I am saying specific.
    Is somebody keeping count of this one? I want a scientific answer about this. There's a friggin' reason behind it, I am positive!!
  • mariposa224
    mariposa224 Posts: 1,241 Member
    ...Dawn/Don - My uncles' name is Don. I pronounce it Dahn. My friends name is Dawn. I say her name Daun.
    I think at least for Texans, when surrounded by those consonants, "ah" and "au" are produced identically. Hence, they sound the same.

    I'm not from Texas but I live here now...

    so the first has less jaw movement. I try to shape the 'w' in Dawn.
    Don = Bomb
    Dawn = Awn(ing)
    "Bomb" and "awning" have the same initial vowel sound to us too.
    From central Ohio with no "discernible" accent (ie Midwestern sound), and this is the case for me as well. ALso the au/ah sounds being the same. I don't hear them different and I don't say them different. At least not in the words that have been shown as examples of how they should be different. :embarassed:
  • iPlatano
    iPlatano Posts: 487 Member
    sticker,375x360.png

    +1!

    I said everything perfectly. Bahah :happy:
  • SmoothRiko
    SmoothRiko Posts: 193
    Wall, coffee, talk, ball,
  • FoxBean
    FoxBean Posts: 910 Member
    Inevitable...it's always inevitable i'll pronounce it incorrectly or over pronounce it
    Breasts -breast-ist-ist
    Wolves, I say wolfs.
    Knives, knifes.
    there are other words but I can't remember...
  • EternalDecadence
    EternalDecadence Posts: 445 Member
    Adirondack, even though I know better, I always say Adriondack instead.
  • dwoodmanjr
    dwoodmanjr Posts: 89 Member
    Yesterday - I always end up saying "yes-tuh-day"

    Oh - and meteorologist - can't ever get it out without tripping over my tongue
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    I always want to say Pacific when I am saying specific.
    Is somebody keeping count of this one? I want a scientific answer about this. There's a friggin' reason behind it, I am positive!!
    It occurs to me that this problem probably does not occur in Spanish, seeing as there's always a leading "e" in s- consonant blends-- "estrés", "espinacas", "espaguetis", "esquina"...
  • digitalbill
    digitalbill Posts: 1,410 Member
    I have a difficult time with Jaguar.
    It come out as jagroar.
  • nomad1966
    nomad1966 Posts: 74
    Any word ending in a "...th" with me next an "s..."

    That transition always comes across as a huge lisp....or rather a lithp, only when I've been drinking though.
  • rsemsem
    rsemsem Posts: 63
    aluminum
    Massachusetts
    cinnamon
  • WillLift4Tats
    WillLift4Tats Posts: 1,699 Member
    I have trouble saying "rural" - my mouth just doesn't want to form that word well. lol

    Have you heard of the movie "The Rural Juror"?

    ETA: Damnit, beat me to it!
    sticker,375x360.png

    +1!

    I said everything perfectly. Bahah :happy:
  • laynerich15
    laynerich15 Posts: 1,918 Member
    Depends.. I am Australian living in Canada so almost everything I say isn't pronounced correctly
  • ShreddingIt_84
    ShreddingIt_84 Posts: 141
    Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    I have a difficult time with Jaguar.
    It come out as jagroar.
    That's the best one of all. It says what it does right on the tin! :laugh:
  • j_bark
    j_bark Posts: 1,274 Member
    specific. It comes out as pacific.

    exactly. It comes out eggsactly.
  • Saucy_lil_Minx
    Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
    I pronounce "envelope" as "onvelope"...drives my boss crazy. :happy:

    my 10 year old drives me crazy by pronouncing "vacation" as "VEE-cation"...drives me crazy!

    Guess turn about is fair play!
  • SmoothRiko
    SmoothRiko Posts: 193
    I pronounce envelope as ONvelope too.
  • Saucy_lil_Minx
    Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
    I pronounce envelope as ONvelope too.

    Nice to know i am not the only one :happy:
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    Depends.. I am Australian living in Canada so almost everything I say isn't pronounced correctly
    Reminds me of my first bass guitar teacher when I played something different from what was written... "But would I call it wrong?"

    I think for a given definition of correctly you pronounce it correctly. You just speak a different dialect of English. I don't mean this condescendingly, and maybe I'm weird, but I find all accents of English that aren't American charming! I suspect if I was fluent enough in other languages, I'd be able to pick up different accents in those languages and find them charming too. (I don't mean the characteristic ll/y of Argentine Spanish or the z/c distinction of Castilian Spanish. Those are broad features that don't require any nuance to detect!)
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    specific. It comes out as pacific.

    exactly. It comes out eggsactly.
    *Eggzactly!* And mark another notch for pacific!

    Thank you so so much for starting this thread. It's the best thing since tortillas!
  • Saucy_lil_Minx
    Saucy_lil_Minx Posts: 3,302 Member
    One of the girls in my office called a Buick Rendezvous a "Wren- dez- vus" (I work for an Auto Loan Company)
  • 281Danielle
    281Danielle Posts: 113
    There are way too many, I blame my father he has a horrible time pronouncing words and I guess I take after him, plus I from the south and let's just say my family isn't exactly the kind of family that speaks properly.

    Similarly
    Meal- I say mill, always have always will
    Crayon- I say crown, not because I can't say crayon but because that's what my family says
    Specific-pacific, now if I say it slowly I can say it right
    Bachelorette- yea forget about it, my mouth does not like that word
    Whale- I say well, my husband picks on my all the time because of this
    Jail- gel, I don't know why but I just can't say jail
  • The_Aly_Wei
    The_Aly_Wei Posts: 844 Member
    My Spanish inclided tongue isn't very kind when it comes to pronouncing anything that has a "CH" in the word...they come out as "SH" sound.

    : /

    Chair is Share.

    I find this endearing :)
  • feedmedonuts
    feedmedonuts Posts: 241 Member
    phenomenom
    It ends with an "n", dear, as it's a singular derived from the Greek, like "odeon", "acromion", or "criterion". PhenomenON. But it's fun to say it wrong... "phenomenomenomenomenon"! Sorta like Nanny Ogg knowing how you start spelling "banana", but wasn't sure how to stop.

    Interesting. Still difficult to pronounce though.

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