MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > What pronunciations of words bug you? Li...

What pronunciations of words bug you? Like regional/country variations?


Here's my list.

Australia - night. Some say this through their nose. Something like "nyeh-t"
America - Tuesday. I like it as 'chews-day' not 'twos-day'.
America - Opportunity. Similar thing. I like 'opporchun-ity', not 'oppor-tune-ity'. (i notice this is a region by region thing.)
America - Nokia. It's actually meant to be 'KNOCK-ee-ah', but they say "no-KEY-ah"
England - Room. I say "roo-em", they say "ra-um" (hard to write phonetically.) They say something similar with roof.
Ireland - Three/Third/Tenth - anything with TH. They don't pronounce TH, it's just a T for them. My aunt (from Ireland) recently said it was her 'tent' year in a job. I pictured a tent. Her son when he was little told me he was the 'turd smartest in his class'. I said "so you're the turd?" and he said "yes." (I'm cruel.)
New Zealand - more or less all of their words bug me. They use very sharp vowels, sort of like the words are cut in their length. They swap vowels too. So Jess is like "Jahss". The blacks there have a more musical way of speaking, which I actually like. It sounds very friendly.


reply

Not sure if it's regional, but I hate when people pronounce "again" as "a-gain", like it's gaining something.

Also, I never understood the "you say 'tomato', I say 'tomahto'" line. I mean, really, who actually says "tomahto"?

reply

Outside of the USA it is “toe-mat-toe”, not “toe-may-toe”.

This one I really hate, instead of “DEE-tails”, some say “da-TAILS”.

reply

[deleted]

I hate “da-TAILS”, too.

reply

If i think better,in my own country are so many dialects and pronunciations,but i'm not bothered by it.

reply

This isn't so much a pronunciation and both are acceptable from what I've heard.

135

I prefer one hundred thirty five not one hundred and thirty five.

Adding the "and" in there doesn't seem necessary to me.

reply

It's actually correct grammar to add 'and'. The other is technically slang.

reply

I've been looking at this.
From what I've seen it's common in British English to say "and" and not so in American English.
I was taught not to say the "and."

It also looks there are no clear cut rules in this from what I've seen.
Seem different people have been taught different things.

Do you have a reference to this?

reply

which one is correct ??

The book has hundred pages.

The book has a hundred pages.

The book has one hundred pages.

reply

I would say 'a hundred', then 'one hundred', but never just 'hundred'.

reply

correct

reply

I'm not sure if it's correct but I'd say "a hundred".

reply

2 and 3 are correct

reply

It's always "and" in British English but in America it's sort a contentious issue. With years, most say "two thousand five", not "two thousand and five". But for talking about the passage of time,it's more common to say "one hundred and fifty years ago", not "one hundred fifty years ago". Does that sound correct? A simple google search with "one hundred and fifty years" shows American articles, including a Princeton paper, and has about 3 times the results.

I saw one forum saying that "and" denotes a decimal, so "one hundred and three" would be "100.3". But I'd think that "one hundred point three" would be the best option in case of any confusion.



reply

That makes sense regarding the time.
That's the way I would say it too. What doesn't make sense is why I would say that
in relation to time but not numbers in general.

I found one article that stated- 400,360 = "four hundred thousand and three hundred and sixty"
This seems excessive. I don't think I've ever hear it pronounced like this.

I saw that decimal forum too. I would always use "point".
Based on that forum and my above example 400,360.73
would be "four hundred thousand and three hundred and sixty and seventy three."
Which is extremely confusing.


reply

I don't know why, but it drove me a little crazy that during the first decade of the 2000s, everyone said two thousand and one, two thousand and five, etc. Even into the 2010s they kept saying two thousand and twelve. Why not twenty-twelve? Or twenty-oh-six. Or even twenty-aught-six? I believe that's how they referred to the years in the 1900s. And of course, it went on as nineteen twenty-five, not one thousand nine hundred and twenty-five. Although, I suppose most people these days don't know what 'aught' means. 🤷

reply

I think it's strange that sometimes I say "and" and most of the time I don't.
It only seems when speaking of years for some reason.
Not numbers or money.
I don't say "a dollar and thirty five cents".

reply

Weird. Now that I think of it, I do the same thing.

reply

We had decades of practice, what with saying 2001 (A Space Odyssey) and all.

reply

Ooh, you may be right. I never thought of that. 🤔

reply

🤔

👾

🤖

(Blame TexasJack for this!)

reply

No, you mean CREDIT TexasJack!!

👀
👃
👅

reply

Credit, blame, same difference! ❣️

reply

"Axe" instead of "ask"

reply

Yes, that's another one that irks me.

reply

America - 'erbs. Sorry guys, you're not French.

America - Pedofile. Scottish is way better. Peedofile. 'Yah peedo' lol. US version sounds like it's a colourful folder with cycling information.

England - Cant instead of the second letter pronounced as a U. You can't tell if they're cursing at you or telling you you're not allowed to do something.

reply

I find the Brits saying "pee-doh-file" weird.

As for can't pronounced as "carn't", I say "can't", and I've had on two occasions Australians say that it is wrong. I say "how does contracting can and not add an R to the equation?" - So they're wrong.

reply

I thought Brits pronounced it cahnt rather than cuhnt. But like the US, there are many regional accents so it depends on which one you're talking about. Someday Dazed will set us straight. 😉

reply

I utterly, utterly loathe the pronunciation of the word 'known' as 'know-win' or 'know-one' in some parts of Australia. It's a one-syllable word! Others I can deal with, because it has more to do with the aurality of the speaker than actual mispronunciation of a word.

I don't have as strong feelings when I hear some Americans pronounce 'district' without the t at the end, like 'dis-trick' - but I'm not a fan of that either.

reply

I think I actually might say "know-in", thanks for the correction!

I haven't noticed the district thing. Someone pointed out that americans say the word missile different to British english. So instead of "miss-ile", they say "miss-sil", it bugged them, I don't really mind.

reply

I hear this one a lot: reckonize instead of recognize. There's a G in there, people!

Oh, and folks who pronounce police as one syllable - pleece.

reply

So you think people should say 'reh-cog-nize'? I say 'reh-kin'ize'

For police I say 'pa-lease', I notice black americans say 'POE-lease".

I heard tissue as 'tis-sue' today, I say 'tish-oo'.

reply

Well, the proper pronunciation is "rek-UH g-nahyz." However, regional differences likely explain the 'reckonize' pronunciation. 'POE-leece' is another one - and not just black Americans pronounce it this way.

reply

I say rec-oG-nise, and po-lice (but not PO-lice).

reply

Thank you! I grew up with a teacher (my mom) and she constantly corrected us when we mispronounced a word or used it improperly.

Another pet peeve of hers, which I have apparently inherited is ending a sentence with 'at.' As in "where are you at?" Um, no, it's "where are you?"

reply

:)

Oh boy, a teacher. Did she used to interrupt whatever it was you were saying to correct your grammar? I'll bet she did. My mom did that, and she wasn't even a teacher. Although, now I'm kind of glad she did it.

Not too long before she passed, she was taken aback when I told her au gratin wasn't pronounced as ah gra'-tin and had been mispronouncing it for all of her life.

God bless you, Mom, wherever you are 💕

reply

Oh yes, mother-interruptus. 😉 Quite often, actually. Although I guess it proved she was actually listening to what we said.

reply

Mother interruptus 😆

True, that's the silver lining. Although sometimes it felt like she wasn't really listening so much as she was poised to pick out grammatical errors.

reply

You may be right. She was listening but what was she hearing??

reply

Blah blah blah who (whom!) blah blah blah I (me!). Something along those lines :D

reply

Exactly! Mothers. 🙄 Oh wait, I am one.

reply

😂

I'm not, but am sure I'd be all too much like my own if I were. I think it's more or less inevitable.

reply

My mom has been gone for nearly ten years and I feel like I'm still fighting to not be like her (she was a negative sort of person, especially in her later years).

reply

I'm sorry for your loss. Negative or not, it's a big loss.

I'm pretty sure virtually everyone has to fight to not become their parents, or rather the aspects of them they didn't like.

reply

Everyone who pronounces the word "homage" quickly, the same was "mommas" is pronounced.

It sounds so much better to say "oh mozh." The other way makes it sound like a hobbit word, like some kind of soup.

reply

I thought it was oh-mahge'.

reply

That second part is hard to spell out phonetically, isn't it?

While both are considered correct, I find constantly that "ommage" is more widely used.

Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s-VsFLsUV0

The word just sounds so silly like that. I hate it. "Oh-mahge" is definitely preferable. It sounds classier.

reply

It is, and I'm sure we're going for the same pronunciation. Emphasis on the second syllable? That's how I've always pronounced it.

And yet I found this quote on a page devoted to the subject on the NYT:

"The oh-MAZH pronunciation is gaining a foothold beyond the arts world, and for some that’s a cause for alarm. In his book “The Accidents of Style,” Charles Harrington Elster calls this a “preposterous de-Anglicization” that is “becoming fashionable among the literati.” Elster had previously complained that good old HOM-ij was losing out to OM-ij “in havens for the better-educated like National Public Radio,” and for defenders of the “h” pronunciation oh-MAZH just adds insult to injury."

Looks like I'm a preposterous de-Angeliciser, all unaware! You too, maybe.

😬

reply

Wow, some people are SO SERIOUS about pronunciations! I hope he doesn't hurt himself over this.

reply

Elster appears to have survived this incident, but I heard he had to be admitted into the ER a couple of times.

reply