Words you didn't know how to spell (or say)

[webny99]

One would think that I should have figured out the entire English language after a while. But at 18 years old, I still come across the occasional doozy:
Until recently, I thought "quiche" was spelled "keesh" 
Until recently, I thought "awry" sounded like "aw-ree" 

This is usually the result of hearing a word and not seeing it, or seeing a word and not hearing it. Any personal favorites?

[Big John]

French words drive me crazy that way

[Brandon]

Watching tourists pronounce "Tchoupitoulas Street" in New Orleans is practically a sport.

[jeffandnicole]

There are some common ones people screw up all the time, such as 'a lot'.

Town and place names are invariably going to be messed up as well.  Let's take the Schuylkill Expressway or River in Philly, which is mis-spelled and mis-pronounced numerous ways.  The section of town I grew up in - Sewell, which rhymes with jewel, is often pronounced sea-well.  The town itself - Mantua, is pronounced Man-chew-ah.  Many will give it a hard T, sounding something like man-too-ah.

[MNHighwayMan]

All of them, up until I said my first word.

[1995hoo]

There are some common ones people screw up all the time, such as 'a lot'.

Town and place names are invariably going to be messed up as well.  Let's take the Schuylkill Expressway or River in Philly, which is mis-spelled and mis-pronounced numerous ways.  The section of town I grew up in - Sewell, which rhymes with jewel, is often pronounced sea-well.  The town itself - Mantua, is pronounced Man-chew-ah.  Many will give it a hard T, sounding something like man-too-ah.

Which is funny, because a neighborhood half a mile (walking distance) from my parents' house, as well as the name of the elementary school in said neighborhood where I attended fourth through sixth grades, is pronounced with the hard "T" sound.

A similar phenomenon often occurs when people from New York visit Thomas Jefferson's house near Charlottesville–many (certainly not all) New Yorkers will refer to "Montisello" (phonetic spelling) because of a village in New York whose name is pronounced that way. Jefferson's house's name is pronounced to rhyme with the musical instrument, i.e., "Montichello" (phonetic spelling).



Along the lines of the words the OP noted, when I was a kid, I once sounded out the word "choir" and came up with "quire," and I once referred to a pair of khaki pants as being "cackey" (at the time I had not heard the expression "kak" or "cack" to refer to a turd).

A mistake I never made but that I recall several of my friends making back in first or second grade was not knowing how to spell "once," as in beginning a short story with "once upon a time." I knew several people who sounded it out to come up with "ones."

[hotdogPi]

Potpourri: I knew how to spell it, but I didn't know how to pronounce it. (Now I know, obviously.)
For spelling, several of the ance/ence words. This continues to this day.
I thought slorydn's username was pronounced "slory din", not as a modification of "slow riding".
For a while, I thought "sow" was always pronounced as if it was a pig.
Until recently, I thought Amarillo, Texas was pronounced as "amarillo" is pronounced in Spanish.
"Awry" from the original post applies to me, too.
I once accidentally pronounced "flamboyant" as if the last syllable was "ahnt", emphasized.
For a while, I didn't know whether "recruit" was two or three syllables.

Most of these examples are known spelling, but unknown pronunciation.

[formulanone]

In second grade, we had a creative writing assignment, and was looking for just the right word. I spent 30 minutes looking up the word "business" in a dictionary and ultimately assumed it was a made-up word, since there was nothing under biz or bis to help out. It's a good thing I hadn't yet heard of the word "pneumonia"...

There's a few words I seem to always misspell on keyboards (form/from, prose/prize, though/tough) even though I darn well know how to spell them by writing or speaking.

[ColossalBlocks]

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

How the hell does one pronounciate that?!

[kphoger]

Until recently, I thought "awry" sounded like "aw-ree" 

"Awry" from the original post applies to me, too.

Yeah, I made it into adulthood before I realized I was wrong about that one too.

I thought slorydn's username was pronounced "slory din", not as a modification of "slow riding".

I just found out by reading your post.   

[kphoger]

There are some common hyperforeignisms I've noticed when it comes to Americans saying Spanish words:

habanero – This is said ah-bah-neh-ro.  A lot of Americans think it has the letter ñ in there (ah-bah-nyeh-ro), but there isn't.  In fact, the word means something from Havana, and you don't pronounce that city's name as Havanya, right?

empanada – Like habanero above, this is said em-pah-nah-dah.  There's no ñ in there, despite many Americans saying em-pah-nyah-dah.

Cartagena – Noticing a trend yet?  There's no ñ in the city's name.  It's car-tah-heh-nah.



The nation of Colombia often gets spelled wrong, and I've even seen TV news stations get it wrong.  Columbia is in South Carolina, Colombia is in South America.



Here's one I only very recently learned.  The word forte, when referring to a loud passage of music, comes from Italian and is pronounced for-tey.  However, the word forte, when referring to a person's strengths, comes from French and is pronounced fort.  I'd been saying them both the first way my whole life, and I bet you have been too.

[txstateends]

Until recently, I thought Amarillo, Texas was pronounced as "amarillo" is pronounced in Spanish.

When you hear most locals pronounce it, the -o is treated more like an -uh; really, only TV/radio announcers, most city officials, and most city police officers are the only ones you'll hear consistently using the -o sound there.

[hotdogPi]

Until recently, I thought Amarillo, Texas was pronounced as "amarillo" is pronounced in Spanish.

When you hear most locals pronounce it, the -o is treated more like an -uh; really, only TV/radio announcers, most city officials, and most city police officers are the only ones you'll hear consistently using the -o sound there.

I'm referring to the sound of the "LL". "LL" in Spanish makes a sound that's not an L (example: tortilla), which is not the case for the city in Texas.

[kkt]

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

How the hell does one pronounciate that?!

Just the way it looks. 

Medical terms look imposing but go a syllable at a time and they're easy.

[kphoger]

"Tortilla" is another interesting one. Most people I know say it how it sounds, "tor-TILL-a", as opposed to the correct (Spanish) pronunciation of "tor-TEE-a".

There's a Y sound in between the last two vowels.
tor-TEE-a would be spelled tortía.

[Roadgeekteen]

the basketball team in oakland

[Brandon]

"Tortilla" is another interesting one. Most people I know say it how it sounds, "tor-TILL-a", as opposed to the correct (Spanish) pronunciation of "tor-TEE-a".

The only place I've ever heard "tor-TILL-a" is in Napoleon Dynamite.  Everywhere else (including around these parts) is "tor-TEE-ya".  ("LL" = "Y" in Mexican Spanish).

[1995hoo]

"Tortilla" is another interesting one. Most people I know say it how it sounds, "tor-TILL-a", as opposed to the correct (Spanish) pronunciation of "tor-TEE-a".

I've never heard anyone pronounce it with the "L" sound. The tortilla-related word I have heard people mispronounce is "Chipotle" (the restaurant chain)–I know at least one guy who thinks it's like "chi-POAT-ull" ("ull" rhyming with the same three letters in the word "pull"). The guy in question isn't one who does sarcasm or dissembling well, so it would be pretty obvious if he were doing it to be funny or a smartarse. He's not.

[roadman65]

Why is pyschyatrist (see the word is so f**d up that unless you have a dictionary in front of you) spelled the way it is?  That is an age old question that no one thinks of asking. 

Better one is environment which is pronounced enviorment.  How about government with the n after the r and before the m.

That is why English is the hardest language to learn cause we break so many rules and are so inconsistent with phonetic spelling.  Take for instance Spanish which is always an ayy for the letter e.  Ah for the letter a, etc.

[Roadgeekteen]

"Tortilla" is another interesting one. Most people I know say it how it sounds, "tor-TILL-a", as opposed to the correct (Spanish) pronunciation of "tor-TEE-a".

I have never heard anyone say tor-TILL-a? Is that a midwest thing?

[roadman65]

Double L is always a wye sound in Spanish. 

[MNHighwayMan]

Better one is environment which is pronounced enviorment.  How about government with the n after the r and before the m.

That has to be a regional dialect difference because I pronounce both the 'n' and 'm' in those two words.

[Roadgeekteen]

Better one is environment which is pronounced enviorment.  How about government with the n after the r and before the m.

That has to be a regional dialect difference because I pronounce both the 'n' and 'm' in those two words.

Never heard the government one. I can't even consider it happening, it just sounds so weird.

[HazMatt]

I didn't realize people were saying 'bless you' when someone sneezed until I was probably 14-15.  It was always some one syllable utterance similar to 'blash'.  Good old mountain English.

[kphoger]

Re: Chipotle... I hear a lot of people say chi-pole-tey.

Re: Tortilla... The LL is not always like the Y in Spanish. It is always like that in Mexican Spanish, but there are parts of the world where LL is pronounced like LY.