wal-lla! vs Voila!

[SoybeanQueen]

It's touche'. What you wrote, tu chez, means "you in" , not "touched" as in "gotcha". You weren't educated at SOTDRT, were you?

Did you miss the humor course at your SOTDRT? :mrgreen:

[J'ean Skirt]

I actually knew someone who would sign her notes with 'chow' instead of 'ciao'.

I Weep For Humanity.

[Mela99]

I thought this was a greeting of one Waller boy to another

[yewnique]

It's touche'. What you wrote, tu chez, means "you in" , not "touched" as in "gotcha". You weren't educated at SOTDRT, were you?

Actually, it's touché. ALT-130 (on your numberpad) to get the é.

[HereticHick]

I miss the local radio ads of my Smoky Mountain hometown, in which the local drug store always boasted that they carried "Channel Number Five" perfume.

[My sister and I say it that way, for laughs, and someday we'll say it in France, without thinking, and be totally mortified].

I used to have a coworker named Jesus (sorry I can't remember how to put the accent in there), and our supervisor always just called him Jesus, with an American accent.

It always gave sentences like "Perhaps Jesus knows the answer to that" and "Did you ask Jesus where that file is?" a whole new meaning. ;)

[ems]

My mom says "Foy-yur" and you can't stop her, dammit! :lol: She likes to call things by their wrong names just to annoy me and because people think it's funny when she does. She has always called the movie "The quick and dead" "The dead in the dirt," and she always will.

I think there was some discussion about someone in my family pronouncing "duvet" as "duhvitt" but I don't recall who.

There was an episode filled with people using or pronouncing words wrong on How I Met Your Mother.

Sounds like my father.

[ems]

I never even made the connection to French because where I live, you constantly hear people say wallah, the Arabic version.

What drives me nuts is CARR-mel. No, it's ca-ra-mel.

I hate that too! I suppose it could be chalked up to regional differences, but I'm always like noooooo, there's a friggin "a" in the middle of the word! Not a silent one!

[clarinetpower]

LaTraviata, you're right, we do pronounce those words wrong, but were we to do it correctly, no one would know what we were talking about. :)

I lived in Paris for a year, and didn't even bother introducing myself by pronouncing my own name correctly, because the french just couldn't do it. They couldn't say it, they couldn't understand it, and they just had no clue what to do with it, so I frenchified it, and they always got it right away, even though it's not a French name (and it's a butchered English one, frankly.)

Sometimes you go with the flow, because it just takes too much energy to try to change an entire culture, even if you're right.

WALLAH!!! I bedder head oot to the lye berry. Chow!

*PS: I had a musician friend who, for years, thought there were two composers: Chopin and Choppin' (like choppin' broccoli.) She was pretty sure Chopin was spelled Showpan.

[ems]

Has anyone else heard "sink" as in "kitchen sink" pronounced like "zinc"? My mom still says this, and for years I thought it was perfectly normal and the way it was supposed to be pronounced, until my uncle gave her a hard time about it. I banished it from my vocabulary and would always correct her when she would say it. Then I read a "You Know You're From Maryland When" list (I think it was) that mentioned saying sink as zinc. I've only ever heard my mom doing this, but obviously she got it from somewhere, being MD born and raised..

[CrazyCatLady]

My mother-in-law cannot for the life of her properly pronounce the word "concierge". I learned this on a family vacation when she repeatedly asked me to call the "Con-sir-gee" of the hotel to make dinner reservations.

[Mrs Ms]

Shortly after I moved back to New Zealand, I ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc at a bar and pronounced it properly - the barman almost cried! I didn't realize that everyone in NZ just calls it sav and that most people here couldn't pronounce it right if their life depended on it.

One that I've heard a lot is smashed potatoes instead of mashed potatoes.

[latraviata]

LaTraviata, you're right, we do pronounce those words wrong, but were we to do it correctly, no one would know what we were talking about. :)

I lived in Paris for a year, and didn't even bother introducing myself by pronouncing my own name correctly, because the french just couldn't do it. They couldn't say it, they couldn't understand it, and they just had no clue what to do with it, so I frenchified it, and they always got it right away, even though it's not a French name (and it's a butchered English one, frankly.)

Sometimes you go with the flow, because it just takes too much energy to try to change an entire culture, even if you're right.

WALLAH!!! I bedder head oot to the lye berry. Chow!

*PS: I had a musician friend who, for years, thought there were two composers: Chopin and Choppin' (like choppin' broccoli.) She was pretty sure Chopin was spelled Showpan.

I know and other than my own children I really never correct anybody's pronounciation. Sometimes it is really annoying to hear Dutch politicians or other dignitaries say, I am septical ( Dutch sceptisch) instead of skeptical. The c in Dutch is pronounced either s or k it depends. It is a Greek word and the Greek alphabet has no C. Anybody (Dutch) with some education should know that. It is silly though that it is spelled sceptical.

[bluelady]

Out of nowhere, my step-mother started pronouncing Asia as A-see-a.

I clearly remember being 12 years old, listening to her lecture me on how I was mispronouncing that word (There is an i in Asia, bluelady! You just can't ignore letters!!!), thinking "I can't believe a grown up is that dumb."

[Markie]

My grandmother used to say "warsh" instead of "wash." My dad used to, too, but not so much now.

[Abi]

I quite often hear people around here pronouncing 'crisps' as 'crips'.

There is an extra 's' in the middle. PRONOUNCE IT.

Oh, and 'pacifically' instead of 'specifically'.

And 'pasghetti' instead of 'spaghetti'. :angry-screaming:

[Gertie]

I grew up calling the first meal of the day "breakfrist". I never realized it until a boyfriend corrected me (read: made fun of me). Later I realized my siblings pronounced it that way too, but I don't think my parents did. I could certainly spell it properly and probably never would have realized I was saying it wrong if it hadn't been pointed out to me.

[NjoyingNsanity]

I live deep in the Appalachian Mountains and sadly my ancestors were hillbillies who left us with words like crick instead of creek, winder instead of window, yont to instead of you want to, yellar instead of yellow and so on. My favorite mispronounced words came from my grandfather and my best friend. My grandfather could not say orchestra to save his life it always came out something like oyster-sure. My best friend had some speech issues growing up and always said F-full-ent instead of elephant.

[CustardTart]

Did you miss the humor course at your SOTDRT? :mrgreen:

Apparently. My apologies. I got too excited thinking I found a closeted SAHD masquerading as a FJer. :lol:

[Chicken bones]

My grandmother also said "warsh" for "wash."

[Trynn]

I'll mispronounce words for the fun of it, but when I do, it's clearly for the fun of it, and I would never do so if I thought it would be insensitive to do so (ie someone's name.) Conversations often go something like,

"So, I bought my friend some fancy Lin ger eee..."

"You mean, *pronounces word properly*"

"Yeah, that's what I said: Lin ger eee."

If I walked into a store, however, and asked for the lingere section, I'd pronounce it properly.