ever pronounce a word wrong for a long time

I've never seen anyone use that word out loud.

I feel so dumb right now for pronouncing the "bech" in "bechamel" like how I pronounce "Beckham". ^note It's "BAY-shah-mel".

I was confused by your pronunciation for a moment, then I realised you forgot the accent. Béchamel. "Bechamel" without accent would be "BEH-sha-mell".

This is one case where the pronunciation gives me no trouble, but the spelling seems counterintuitive. I mean, teatotaller would make a lot more sense: someone whose total beverage consumption consists of tea.

What if everyone's been getting it wrong all this time, and his name is actually pronounced "Shawn Bawn"?

This has made me think of times when I've done this with celebrity names: I already brought up Michael Bubble, but there was also "SHAY-nee-ya Twain" instead of Sha-NYE-ya. I place the blame on a tabloid headline reading "Shania Mania!", a wordplay that really only works in print.

edited 19th Mar '15 9:29:06 AM by MikeK

Here's one I just learned recently: I thought simulacrum was "simYOOluhcrum" instead it's "simyooLAYcrum

I thought it was "sih-MAH^note as in the a in "bat"-cu-lumr", though I don't know why, as I can't recall ever having seen or used the word before.

Me and most of my family thought "wrath" would be [raþ], rhyming with "rat", but our father told us it's [rɔþ], rhyming with "cot". (The effect of the now-gone <w>.)

But then this only came out the first time we actually pronounced it, in a game of charades where I used the Star Trek film.

Spelling pronunciations have bedevilled us in English, French and occasionally Italian (no stress mark), but in Gaelic it's gone the other way. The effect of a literate culture...

It is pronounced to kinda-rhyme with "rat" over here.

I know it sounds like a rhyming word for "path", but after reading I'm now tempted to say it like "Sephiroth".

I thought imprimatur was "Im-PRIME-uh-chur" rather than "IMP-ruh-mot-ur". I think the first one sounds better personally.

Thanks to The Magic School Bus, I now know that pumice, the only rock that floats, is pronounced "PUH-mis", not "PYOO-mees".

Looking at it just now, I think I would've pronounced it "im-prim-ah-ter".

"Rural" is basically the worst word ever.

Also this one is weird but I pronounced certainty as "cer-Tan-i-ty" for a while. I think I misread it and put the I in the wrong place.

Despite my love of being mischievous, for a long time when I pronounced it I was putting the Accent On The Wrong Syllable.

So, is it "MIS-chi-vus" or "mis-CHEE-vyus"?

Another one based on misreading: I thought vulgar was "VOO-gyoo-lar" for a long time

Both are acceptable, I think.

Roanoke

I like to pronounce emeritus as Em-mer-RIGHT-tus, rather than em-mer-rit-tus.

According to my mum, the first time I ever read "science" I pronounced it SEE-uns.

edited 15th Apr '15 10:38:50 PM by SmartGirl333

Saccharine as sack-a-rine rather than sack-rine.

edited 16th Apr '15 4:11:42 AM by The_Mattias

Weird, I always thought saccharine was pronounced sack-a-reen. Huh.

ditto.

I always thought chipotle was like Aristotle honestly. Apparently it isn't and nobody bothered to correct me.

Pronunciation...for the longest time, I said it as "pronounciation" since it went with pronounce...even now I catch myself doing it. My wife was very tickled when she heard that for the first time.

edited 16th Apr '15 9:39:20 AM by Willbyr