Word pronunciations you've been too embarassed to ask

[Tiempo]

[QUOTE=Xanthoria;2945081]
I grew up near there. Used to get big tips from the tourists when waitressing for saying that place name. Over and over again… :rolleyes::winkgrin:

Gallod is tricky - the letter “LL” (two Ls is one letter in the Welsh alphabet, one L is another) is pronounced by putting your tongue as if to say “L” but instead blowing out. And the emphasis is on the first syllable. :yes:

Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg, Tiempo?[/QUOTE]

Oh my, you’ve got me, it’s been a looooong time :winkgrin:

I got siarad (speak) and of course Cymraeg, so I can guess and the answer would obviously be no :winkgrin:

Perhaps you’re familiar with my famous Welsh ancestor though?

Great Uncle Billy. Funny thing is, before I looked this up to provide a link, I didn’t know that he drove pit ponies before his days of glory…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Meredith

My Grandma had a bunch of his Welsh caps, but she didn’t understand their worth and donated them to a rummage sale years ago :eek:

[imaginique]

[QUOTE=Astraled;2942916]

I always have trouble with pronouncing Skowronek and Bask correctly.[/QUOTE]

In Polish the “W” is pronounced as “V”, therefore it’s Skov RON ek. Bask is Bosk.

Grulla is grew ya. Two Ls in Spanish are pronounced as Y.
Bosal is also Spanish and is correctly pronounced with a long O–Bo SAL, but many people, including me, pronounce it with a short O–BOS al.

Chaps and chinks can both be pronounced as either ch or sh.

Darrne Chia chia’s name is pronounced Cha Cha.

I’m sure there are some words I need pronounced but I’m drawing a blank at the moment.

[Xanthoria]

[QUOTE=Tiempo;2945131]

My Grandma had a bunch of his Welsh caps, but she didn’t understand their worth and donated them to a rummage sale years ago :eek:[/QUOTE]

Shocker! :eek:

[InstigatorKate]

Okay here’s mine:

Jodhpurs.

I say JOD-purrs, but I have a friend who swears it’s JOD-furs or JOD-i-furs (she puts like 1/2 syllable in there somehow).

I say she’s nuts, but I didn’t grow up doing the ponies and she did. What do you think?

Also:

Cavesson:

I say CAV-ess-sahn but have heard CAV-sun and CAV-i-sahn

[Fixerupper]

Pas de deux - paw de du (du as du in endure or durable)
Schleese - shlease (trust me on this one ;))
volte - voltay
Norman Dello Joio - Dell-oh Joy-oh
an Jod purr (fer shur)

[Somantu]

Hmmm…I would’ve thought:

Schleese = Shlay-seh.
Schliess = Shlease

[criss]

[QUOTE=Guin;2944188]
M - ih - ng - sks. MINX. Manx is a cat without a tail. ;)[/QUOTE]
Or an adjective for a resident of the Isle of Man, or the name of the dead language thereof. Anyway “minx” is certainly pronounced “minks” not “mink”.

Chaps comes from Spanish, as noted, so really should have the “ch” sound at the beginning, but most English speakers I know call them “shaps”. Chinks are a different object altogether; if you took a pair of chinks (always with the hard “ch” sound) and a pair of half chaps and stitched them together, you’d have a pair of full chaps. IOW, the chinks are only the top half of the chaps, like farriers’ chaps.

I can’t think of any of the words I can’t pronounce, but I know there are a few. What I hate most is that I often DO know how to pronounce something when I see it written down, and then when I go to say it out loud it goes all wrong.

[griffox]

[QUOTE=Fixerupper;2945480]

an Jod purr (fer shur)[/QUOTE]

Haha…for a second I thought you were trying to say that jodhpur was pronounced fer shur. :eek: :lol:

[Aristeia]

pas de deux is pronounced paw de de

In French, deux means 2 and is pronounced “de”

[lindac]

uberstrichen ?

[babygreenqueen]

her-meeze saddles but air-may scarves and lingerie (lahn-jair-ee) (lon-jury)

brett FAVRE (FARV) whats up with that?

[Fixerupper]

@Somantu;2945513

Hmmm…I would’ve thought:

Schleese = Shlay-seh.
Schliess = Shlease

that’s better…I’m not good at ‘fonetics’ :lol:

[OnThinIce]

Better say Favre right or you run the risk someone will tape his jersey onto you. Here are a few that’ve cause me embarrassment when I said them incorrectly.

Quimper - Kim-PAIR

Odetta - O-de-TAH

Bernard Hinhault - BEAR-nard EE-no

Onegin - On-YAH-gen

Beauchamp - in Britain it’s Beecham

Ditto for St. James - Sinjin

And if you’re in the Boston Area Peabody is Pea-be-DEE said really fast and rushed together.

[Anyplace_Farm]

@Astraled;2942916

Minx

It’s minks. Listen to the audio.

I always have trouble with pronouncing Skowronek and Bask correctly.

I was gonna say, ain’t no way Minx would be Mink.

I say Air-ree-ot.

OK, now how many of you make my ears bleed by saying jod-fer? Grrrr! jod-pur (jodhpur). I throw all social graces out the window when someone says jod-fer and I have to correct them.

[myhorsefaith]

Came up with another last night…

the vit/supplement company: Uckele.

[Anyplace_Farm]

Hermes - Air-mess
See here: http://fashion.about.com/cs/designers/l/blpronounce.htm . Scroll down and there’s an audio you can click on.

[Bogie]

I actually owned a Schleese when I found out that I was pronouncing it incorrectly. One of the dangers of buying used – no rep to coach you through the name pronunciation.

[ybiaw]

Not really a mispronounciation issue, more of a misspelling issue…

I always thought “Ergot” was “Egrot”

Egrot is a bird. DANG!

[kashmere]

Schleese = Shleee-suh when you say the last “s” you should channel your inner 12 year old valley girl; there’s a little attitude on the end of it. same for the correct pronunciation of “porsche” it’s sounds more like “portia” than “porsh”

[Guin]

@ybiaw;2945929

Not really a mispronounciation issue, more of a misspelling issue…

I always thought “Ergot” was “Egrot”

Egrot is a bird. DANG!

snork – The bird like a heron is an Egret (eeee - grett.) :lol: