USC - What English Word does your SO mispronounce most often?

[rsn 135]

Try to get a native Thai speaker to pronounce "squirrel" correctly. In fact, any words with 'r's close to 'l's are tough.

[thongd4me 69]

Try to get a native Thai speaker to pronounce "squirrel" correctly. In fact, any words with 'r's close to 'l's are tough.

I'd like to imagine how a native "Brooklyn" speaker would do with Thai words

Edited May 12, 2010 by thongd4me

[thongd4me 69]

Brits, Canadians & Aussies, etc. and their USC counterparts can also post here about how

their versions of English differ. My other thread is intended for any language except English.

Edited May 12, 2010 by thongd4me

[peejay 327]

My wife repeatedly mispronounces "catastrophe". She pronounces it (ca-tas-trof) instead of (ca-tas-tro-fee). No big deal since otherwise she speaks excellent English since she was an English teacher in Russia/Belarus. It is rare that she even asks me the meaning of a word or phrase she sees or hears, but sometimes she does. It is mostly little used technical terms that stump her occasionally.

[thongd4me 69]

My wife repeatedly mispronounces "catastrophe". She pronounces it (ca-tas-trof) instead of (ca-tas-tro-fee). No big deal since otherwise she speaks excellent English since she was an English teacher in Russia/Belarus. It is rare that she even asks me the meaning of a word or phrase she sees or hears, but sometimes she does. It is mostly little used technical terms that stump her occasionally.

That's interesting because there was in a time in the Russian empire when there was a mass-scale

importation of everything and anything French (language, culture, art, music, you name it).

That pronunciation duplicates the French for that word.

In fact, the English was most likely borrowed from the French as the French did indeed invade and

conquer England. The English duplicates the French spelling but we, assuming that English came first

may not be entirely right in this case.

Edited May 12, 2010 by thongd4me

[TBoneTX 43,410]

everything and anything French

Off-topic, but I remember the news story about the fireworks display at EuroDisney outside Paris that caused an entire French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists, si man.

On-topic, it's intriguing how Ecuatorianas from Guayaquil -- where they tend not to pronounce the ends of their words -- carry the same flaw into the speaking of English, si ma_.

[thongd4me 69]

It's a little but I had to post this:

Adult Engrish!

[trillium13 84]

I would really like to know why the word "**" shows up so often in Chinese > English translation.

[truebrit 4]

aluminium

[VanessaTony 3,567]

My hubby (USC) is a "ruff" instead of roof person. He also says Audi (ow-di) as "awdi", Mazda (said like it's spelt) he pronounces "mahzda", chassis has a hard "ch" as in chase at the start (supposed to be "shassy".. soft "ch"), and a few others. He's cute though so I'll let him slide. OMG the biggest one that ticks me off is "heighth". I kid you not, they put a "h" at the end instead of HEIGHT. Weirdos.

His biggest laugh is me saying Pawn. I watch "pawn stars" and apparently it sounds like Porn stars... which I found out when he got home and I said "you should've seen this thing they had on pawn stars".. the look on his face! His friend's mother laughs when I say "saw"... like I said "soar" or something.. it's bizarre 'cause i don't notice it

[BishopM 114]

Try to get a native Thai speaker to pronounce "squirrel" correctly. In fact, any words with 'r's close to 'l's are tough.

You should have heard my wife, a few years ago, when I was teaching her how to drive so she could get her drivers license. I told her she would have to 'parallel' park... It took her months to be able to pronounce 'parallel'. She also has had a tough time with words like 'Value' and other 'v' words...

[thongd4me 69]

My wife has 2 PT jobs - one in ladies' retail and the other at a supermarket deli.

She thought the deli job would be easier, until she came up against all the Italian names for cold cuts.

It's lucky she has 2 nice Italian ladies to teach her "prosciutto"

OMG!

[Moonandstar 6]

My girl often mispronounces "peanuts".

Guess how she says it

[luckytxn 2,263]

My wife has since the honeymoon been driving me nuts trying to pronounce "lobster". She will repeat it over and over until she knows I am about to crack and then real fast say it over and over until I get up and she runs screaming it. She is driving me nuts with that one friggin word. She even calls me up and says nothing but that word and giggling until I can't take it any more. I am sorry I am helping her learn English and plan on making sure she never learns another word.......ever.

[SMR 368]

That's interesting because there was in a time in the Russian empire when there was a mass-scale

importation of everything and anything French (language, culture, art, music, you name it).

That pronunciation duplicates the French for that word.

In fact, the English was most likely borrowed from the French as the French did indeed invade and

conquer England. The English duplicates the French spelling but we, assuming that English came first

may not be entirely right in this case.

And indeed, the Russian word for "catastrophe" is "катастрофа," pronounced ka-ta-strOf-uh. So PJ's wife is really just using the Russian pronunciation but leaving off the last syllable since it clearly isn't there. And likely Russian took this word from French.