English words you have mispronounced for a long time

[djsander]

Here’s an interesting one that I learned from a speech pathologist.

Southern US including Texas will pronounce Pin and Pen the same.
Outside the South people will pronounce Cot And Caught the same.

I was born in the south, but moved when very young so I pronounce cot and caught the same but pin and pen differently. I even try to say cot and caught differently, but can’t seem to do it. Very strange.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, and then there's grammar, which I think CNN just messed up in their headline here:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2022/03/09/endurance-shackleton-ship-antarctic-lon-orig-tp.cnn

(I thought the correct usage would be "sank".)

Part of my English lessons was learning the past tense of verbs.

Examples: Sink/sank/sunk. Give/gave/given. Do/did/done.

I learned and memorized the above at the age of 12. Foreign English speakers may think it's hard, but it's quite a bit easier than memorizing French verbs.

 

[Jerry1]

I've definitely sang the wrong lyrics to a song, but I'm pretty sure I haven't mispronounced any English words in my life. Certainly not more than once. I have a family of people who have very good language skills and one just does not get away with that around here. In fact, DW had a friend at work that had some great mispronunciations and there were some good laughs from those over the years.

I remember one time when I misspoke and called my salary, my celery. DD still reminds me of that.

 

[braumeister]

Sounds familiar to me. My name isn’t easy to pronounce in Spanish

Same here. Living in Brazil I had to very quickly get used to responding to what they were trying to say instead of what I heard.

If you google "regional pronunciation quiz" there are a lot of sites that purport to identify where you're from by how you pronounce certain words.

 

[Chuckanut]

It is amazing how quickly young children can learn languages. Before she retired, the young wife taught child development and early childhood education. As part of the curriculum, she and her class of high school juniors ran a preschool for 3 and 4 year old children. It was a regular occurrence for her to get new preschoolers who did not speak English at all when they started. She would ask the parents of the new child to make her a cheat sheet in their language of common phrases, such as "please sit down", "listen to the teacher" "do you need to use the bathroom" etc. and teach her how to pronounce them properly, but aside from that, they did everything in the preschool in English. Within a few months, the children were chattering away quite happily in their new second language. Among others, I recall she had students who initially spoke only Urdu, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

Don't get me started on the screwball way we teach foreign languages here in the USA. Uh... to late! You already did.

For whatever reason the human brain has a rather easy time picking up a new language up to about age 14. After that the brain matures in such a way that learning another language is more difficult.

So, when do we start teaching foreign languages in our public schools (if we do at all)? Usually in High School. Maybe a bit earlier in Middle School or Jr. High. IOW, we basically wait until is is too late or almost too late to easily learn.

The one saving grace is the English is taught and/or spoken in many if not most other countries. I remember being in Turkey when an older French couple was having some issue with their room. The hotel clerk asked desperately, "Please sir, do you speak any English". Fortunately, a fellow traveler who did speak a little French helped out.

Of course when I go to Italy and want to practice my Italian, the natives stop me and say "Please sir, speak English. I cannot understand your Italian". Sometimes you can't win.

Back on topic. My grand mothers and parents spoke Italian at home. One thing that was common was not pronouncing the letter H, which is commonly silent in Italian. My grandmother over corrected and added an H where it didn't exist. She baked cookies in the hoven. She read harticles from the newspaper.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Outside the South people will pronounce Cot And Caught the same.

The cot-caught merger is not pervasive "outside of the South." Most of the eastern seaboard (other than NE/Boston) has resisted this merger, as have many of the large cities in the Midwest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot–caught_merger#North_American_English

On this map of English-speaking North America, the green dots represent speakers who have completely merged the vowels of cot and caught. The dark blue dots represent speakers who have completely resisted the merger. The medium blue dots represent speakers with a partial merger (either production or perception but not both), and the yellow dots represent speakers with the merger in transition. Based on the work of Labov, Ash and Boberg.[8]

 

[Montecfo]

Mary, merry, and marry are pronounced exactly the same to me. Upper Midwest upbringing.

Same, Texas.

Also same: cot and caught, pin and pen.

I recall a friend from NY who have the three pronunciations of Mary, merry and marry. We found it very amusing.

 

[braumeister]

Brazil has a federal law that all school instruction must be in Portuguese, no exceptions. So when diplomats or executives are assigned there and bring their families, it's interesting. I saw kids thrown into schools with no language training at all, and a year later they were speaking like locals with no accent whatever.

It seems that if you can learn a language before puberty, you're golden.

I think of Henry Kissinger, a prodigiously intelligent man. He came to this country at the age of 15 and has spoken with a pronounced accent the rest of his life.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

One of my friends used to say he was "gruntled", the opposite of disgruntled...

I'm Canadian and when I was a kid thought that Arkansas was pronounced "Are Kansas".

Me too....(Are Kansas)

 

[Sojourner]

The one that stands out in my memory the strongest is the word 'awry'

Of course I knew what it meant - but I thought there were two separate words - when I read it, in my head it was "ahhw-ree'.

Yes! I was trying to remember one particularly bad mispronunciation earlier today, and I just couldn't recall it, but 'awry' was it. I think I must've been in my teens before I realized the error of my ways and switched to the right pronunciation.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I recall a friend from NY who have the three pronunciations of Mary, merry and marry. We found it very amusing.

To me, it is obvious those three are pronounced differently. However, others find it amusing that I pronounce "merry" and Murray," or "ferry" and "furry" exactly the same. (Of course, those people have to pronounce "ferry" and "fairy" the same, which amuses me. )

 

[Aerides]

I still say "Kee-EV" for Kiev, although apparently "Keev" is more acceptable lately. But I checked online and both pronunciations are still used. I have pronounced it "Kee-EV" for over half a century so it's going to be hard to get me to change.

The way I understand it, Kiev is the english translation of the Russian name for the city, whereas Kyiv (Keev) is the translation of name in Ukrainian. So the old name is more of a pre-independence Soviet holdover. The Ukrainians are the ones who would prefer we say "Keev", so that works for me (but yes change is hard!). Technically I think it's more Kyeev but that's harder for the western tongue.

 

[CardsFan]

My family who live in Missouri can't even agree among themselves on how to pronounce the name of their state.

Yeah.

There is Mizzorah

Missory

And then there are those on the coasts that don't understand fly over country.

To them we are : Misery

 

[NW-Bound]

Mary, merry, and marry are pronounced exactly the same to me. Upper Midwest upbringing.

I recall a friend from NY who have the three pronunciations of Mary, merry and marry. We found it very amusing.

What's that all about?

I found a YouTuber's instruction on how to say the 3 words differently and correctly. At the end, she said "Give it a try. I know people are going to notice the difference".

Sorry. I tried to listen twice, with my eyes closed for concentration. Could not tell the difference in her 3 pronunciations.

 

[W2R]

My family who live in Missouri can't even agree among themselves on how to pronounce the name of their state.

Louisiana ("Looozy-anna"?) has a similar problem.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

What's that all about?

I found a YouTuber's instruction on how to say the 3 words differently and correctly. At the end, she said "Give it a try. I know people are going to notice the difference".

Sorry. I tried to listen twice, with my eyes closed for concentration. Could not tell the difference in her 3 pronunciations.

My interpretation of the video was a little different. Her video was presumably to help non-native speakers pronounce those 3 variations (which all sound the same) correctly. I think she was saying that if you pronounce those words using the techniques she describes, people will notice a difference (from the previous pronunciation the viewer may have used).

 

[CaptTom]

Wow, I learned something. As far as I ever knew, Mary, Marry and Merry are all pronounced differently:

Marry [ˈmær.i] rhymes with “carry”
Merry [ˈmer.i] rhymes with ‘cherry”
Mary [ˈmeə.ri] rhymes with “fairy”

But it turns out I'm in the minority (17%) in the US:

• All 3 are the same (56.88%)
• All 3 are different (17.34%)
• Mary and merry are the same; marry is different (8.97%)
• Merry and marry are the same; Mary is different (0.96%)
• Mary and marry are the same; merry is different (15.84%)

Source: https://www.angmohdan.com/the-difference-between-marry-merry-and-mary/

Language is such a fascinating thing! Oddly, I've known people named Mary and never heard anyone call them anything which rhymes with "cherry" or "carry." And I've never heard of a bride and groom getting "merried." I have heard "Mary Christmas," but that gets funny looks. I'm going to have to watch for this now.

 

[Dreamer]

What's that all about?

I found a YouTuber's instruction on how to say the 3 words differently and correctly. At the end, she said "Give it a try. I know people are going to notice the difference".

Sorry. I tried to listen twice, with my eyes closed for concentration. Could not tell the difference in her 3 pronunciations.

Thanks for this video. I could not imagine how the three words could sound differently from each other, but I think that I might have been able to hear a very slight difference. I definitely say each one the same.

I also can't imagine how cot and caught would be pronounced differently.

 

[MissMolly]

How do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky?

Is it Looey-ville?

Is it Lou-is-ville?

Is it Luh-a-val?









Nope. It's pronounced Frankfort

 

[NW-Bound]

My interpretation of the video was a little different. Her video was presumably to help non-native speakers pronounce those 3 variations (which all sound the same) correctly. I think she was saying that if you pronounce those words using the techniques she describes, people will notice a difference (from the previous pronunciation the viewer may have used).

I have the same understanding of her intention and purpose of the video.

But as I said, I cannot hear the difference between her 3 pronunciations.

That means the problem is not just my speaking. It's my listening as well.

You cannot enunciate differently, if you cannot hear the difference.

 

[NW-Bound]

Brazil has a federal law that all school instruction must be in Portuguese, no exceptions. So when diplomats or executives are assigned there and bring their families, it's interesting. I saw kids thrown into schools with no language training at all, and a year later they were speaking like locals with no accent whatever.

It seems that if you can learn a language before puberty, you're golden.

I think of Henry Kissinger, a prodigiously intelligent man. He came to this country at the age of 15 and has spoken with a pronounced accent the rest of his life.

I came here when I was already college age. Way too old to speak English without an accent, although I started to learn English at 12.

 

[Marita40]

In the example CptTom quoted, I pronounce carry, cherry, and fairy with exactly the same vowel sound, so it doesn’t help with Mary, merry, and marry. I guess we have a pretty flat accent here.

 

[Aerides]

I pronounce La Croix (the flavored fizzy water), like Christian, the french designer: "La Quah", cause I was raised proper like that. *yes I know the brand pronounces it LaCroy.

You should hear me ordering a Croissant...

 

[NW-Bound]

I pronounce La Croix (the flavored fizzy water), like Christian, the french designer: "La Quah", cause I was raised proper like that. *yes I know the brand pronounces it LaCroy.

You should hear me ordering a Croissant...

"La Quah" is correct, but needs an "r" sound in there. La Croix means The Cross.

The x at the end of a French word is generally silent.

 

[cbo111]

Sometimes my tongue gets a little lazy and I pronounce "probably" with an easier version "probly." This can degrade further to "prolly." I know many people who say "prolly."