Names/places you pronounce wrong

[RangerPooh]

Geoff is Jeff, shortened from Geoffrey, the correct way to spell that name. Corrine is cor-in, I’ve never heard it pronounced cor-een.

Growing up I had a few classmates with the name Corrine, all pronounced Cor-een. One of my daughters is named Cairrean (K-eye-ren), guess how frequently people mispronounce it.

I don't mispronounce this one, but only because it was the next town over; Moscow, ID. It's Moss-co, not mos-cow. Oddly enough we have a Moscow, TN nearby with the same pronunciation.

 

[RangerPooh]

Here in Southern California, my northern California upbringing cringes when they report a story from the bay area and talk about "San Rafael" (Rawf-eye-ell). Up there we call it "Ruh-fell".

Yes! I no longer live in northern California, but when I watch a news story, and they mispronounce a city name that I know I can't help but cringe. I cringe worse when people refer to California as 'Cali', and San Francisco as 'Frisco'.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Yes! I no longer live in northern California, but when I watch a news story, and they mispronounce a city name that I know I can't help but cringe. I cringe worse when people refer to California as 'Cali', and San Francisco as 'Frisco'.

I recently sent an email to the people at A&E, regarding Matt Iseman (on Live Rescue), asking PLEASE, SOMEONE tell him that it's "San FranCISCO" not "San Fran" (as he's so fond of saying)

 

[RangerPooh]

I recently sent an email to the people at A&E, regarding Matt Iseman (on Live Rescue), asking PLEASE, SOMEONE tell him that it's "San FranCISCO" not "San Fran" (as he's so fond of saying)

Ugh!!!

 

[Deb & Bill]

I’m from New Orleans. We pronounce everything incorrectly.

Oh, you're from N'awlins. I hate it when people say New Or - leens.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I mispronounce the chicken fast food place Popeye's. I say it with the accent on the pop eye's. But most say pipe eye's.

Just sing the song. "Love that chicken at Popeyes" It's not pipe eyes.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Ski-neck-ti-dee

I could always say it, but spelling it was a problem for a while.

There is a place here named Cairo. It’s not pronounced like the city in Egypt though, it’s “care-oh”, and locals will let you know

It was Kay-row when I lived in Illinois (Ill i noi - no "s" sound on the end)

 

[EMom]

Growing up I had a few classmates with the name Corrine, all pronounced Cor-een. One of my daughters is named Cairrean (K-eye-ren), guess how frequently people mispronounce it.

I don't mispronounce this one, but only because it was the next town over; Moscow, ID. It's Moss-co, not mos-cow. Oddly enough we have a Moscow, TN nearby with the same pronunciation.

I say Moss-co instead of Moss-cow. I think that's common.

 

[skeeter31]

For the longest time, Worcester. The other thing was that I had no idea how to pronounce the word "paradigm" until someone corrected me. I thought it was 3 syllables.

Umm, it is 3 syllables. So I’m not sure how you’re pronouncing paradigm now. The person that corrected you was most likely wrong. Pa-ra-dime.

 

[palavra]

Geoff too. Is it Jeff or Jawff? For the first time I know someone who pronounces it Jeff. When to primary school with a kid who pronounced it Jawff.

Is Corinne pronounced Cor-rin or Cor- reen? I work with a Cor-rin, every other Corrine I have known pronounced it Cor-reen.

Sean and Seamus are Irish names.

 

[NannyBeBe]

When I was volunteering in a Kindergarten class, we had a student named Jade. But she pronounced it Hi-day. I felt sorry for her because she will be correcting people her whole life.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

There are several cities named Reading. The proper pronunciation is RED-ing.

Reading, PA is not that far away from me. The first time I played Monopoly with my wife (who was not from the area), she said "Reeding Railroad" and I was very flummoxed

 

[bcla]

Umm, it is 3 syllables. So I’m not sure how you’re pronouncing paradigm now. The person that corrected you was most likely wrong. Pa-ra-dime.

Yeah - you got me. I thought it was 4 syllables - par-a-dig-um.

 

[leebee]

In Massachusetts, we have Worcester (Whoos-ter), Haverhill (HAY-vrill), Leominister (Lemin-ster) and Peabody (peebiddy). In Ohio there's Berlin (BURR-lin) and in Maine we have Detroit (DEE-troit) and Orono (OR-uh-no). Once in New Orleans we did a lot of driving around looking for "Chop-i-too-lis" Street, spelled "Tchoupitoulas."

 

[AurumPunzel]

When I was volunteering in a Kindergarten class, we had a student named Jade. But she pronounced it Hi-day. I felt sorry for her because she will be correcting people her whole life.

I hazard a guess that this was Spanish hypercorrection, since Hispanophones usually pronounce the J as a H (usually guttural), and always pronounces the word-final E. Non-native hypercorrection is very common among those whose first language isn't English. Where I work, I have a lot of Hispanic and Polish colleagues who often hypercorrect letters that sound different to their native languages - the latter especially tend to treat W as V as the letter W in Polish makes the V sound (the closest letter to the W sound would be Ł; L with a slash through it).

 

[NannyBeBe]

I hazard a guess that this was Spanish hypercorrection, since Hispanophones usually pronounce the J as a H (usually guttural), and always pronounces the word-final E. Non-native hypercorrection is very common among those whose first language isn't English. Where I work, I have a lot of Hispanic and Polish colleagues who often hypercorrect letters that sound different to their native languages - the latter especially tend to treat W as V as the letter W in Polish makes the V sound (the closest letter to the W sound would be Ł; L with a slash through it).

Yes, she was Hispanic. We had a boy whose name was Arian but pronounced Ah-dee-on. Nice name but everyone will think he's part of the Arian nation.

 

[AurumPunzel]

Yes, she was Hispanic. We had a boy whose name was Arian but pronounced Ah-dee-on. Nice name but everyone will think he's part of the Arian nation.

At least in Welsh, it means 'silver' or 'money', so it can have a positive meaning.

 

[mantysk8coach]

I can handle most cities named after Indians. Grew up in Waukesha, which was near Menomonee Falls, also close to Oconomowoc. i used to work in Manitowoc.

New Orleans trips me up every time. I know now that it is pronounced more like Naulins, one word. But my brain keeps thinking It is 2 separate words., so I screw this up every time.

omg I live in Manitowoc! Where did you work?

 

[clh2]

omg I live in Manitowoc! Where did you work?

It was a company in downtown Manitowoc. I’l keep them nameless!

 

[MamaLema]

I don't know, people from outside our area make some strange assumptions about how things should be pronounced.

We have Seamas Avenue here, pronounced as it is spelled sea-mas. People (from the south particularly) want to call is shay-mas. How they got shay-mas i have no idea, makes no sense.

People want to make everything Spanish. We have Don Julio Boulevard......pronounced Don Jew-lee-oh not Don Who-lee-oh because Don Julio was Portuguese not Spanish or Mexican.

The city of Vallejo is va-lay-ho not va-yeah-ho.

Yosemite is yo-sem-it-ee not yo-sa-mite

I have to admit, I pronounced all 4 wrong