Don't use a word if you can't pronounce it correctly!

My son in law, who is Italian , says it is latte with a short a. Like pate. My friend always says Pacific instead of specific. Another friend always calls ciabatta- see a batta. I remember calling the famous tonic wine Sanna togen!

Thanks x

Mary doll. No problem x

And not a mispronunciation, but I used to work in a small town supermarket in the college holidays, and the doctor's wife used to phone up with her order - she was always called Mrs Doctor James by the manager.

I overheard someone in Sainsbury's once asking for a wine called 'Nuts of Saint George'....

Of course, Maw, I did know how it was pronounced! But I do know some people who would have said Hesiown....

When my brother was quite young he became fascinated with someone called 'Charlie Magna'. It took us a while to work out that he was talking about Charlemagne.

pensionpat, I didn't refresh, sorry if it sounded patronising. Not meant to be.?

pensionpat, lahtay, it's the Italian word for milk.

I hope I`m not being disloyal to her, but a very dear friend, non longer with us, was a massive fan of Daniel O`Donnell, but would insist on calling him Daniel O`Donald.

Nonnie, I was at the Birmingham meet up if you mean in October 2012, who were you at that time, there wasn`t a Nonnie there?

Nonnie - I was half listening to Woman's Hour and was instantly alert at 'hyperbowl'. Like Baggs I wondered whether it was related to the Super Bowl! Not what one expects from R4.
Somewhere on tv yesterday I heard 6th pronounced sick-th.

In a recent conversation I said idyllic as 'eye-dillic' and a friend replied with a firm 'Yes, it is an id-illic' place.'

As a child I thought that days were 'halycon' rather than halcyon when I first (mis)read the expression.

I also later briefly thought there was a French designer pronounced 'Versass', oh dear!

G70 two nations divided by a single language!

I would regard the Oxford English Dictionary as the best guide to pronunciation. It does record the different pronunciations of research (I’ve just looked), but says tradtional British English favours stress on the last syllable, while stress on the first syllable is largely American. I don’t want to speak like an American, because I’m not one.

The problem with online dictionaries is that Americans refer to their language as English, so it’s best to check the dictionary’s origins. Increasingly, though, there are references to British English and American English, acknowledging that they are rather different things.

The trouble is that adults who mispronounce words almost certainly don't realise that it's wrong, and most other adults won't like to come across as superior know-alls, and correct them.
It's different with children - nobody is going to be reluctant to correct them.

I thought Peen-lope was a very weird name when I first encountered it, on some new girl's peg at school. But I was only 6, and I soon heard it pronounced as Penelope.

My brother was a voracious reader very early on, and often came across words whose meanings he could deduce from the context, but had never heard spoken.
So he'd come out with things like, 'I know it was you, so you needn't denny it!'
And 'Gribble-ayter' (as in The Rock Of)
(We still call it Gribble-ayter. ?)

I know of someone who thought 'misled' was pronounced 'mizzled' ' until long after she was grown up.

Kalu you and me both.

Grandma70s but ... says who? (where is the definitive guide?)

Just cringing at REEsearch on Radio 4. The stress should be on the last syllable, reSEARCH.

Oh yes that pacific one. I have a friend whose DH has had prostate cancer for 7 years. After many, many hospital visits, treatments etc she still says 'prostrate'. Not that it matters obviously with what they have gone through.

Love that Sparklefizz made me chuckle.
We do the picture skew thing as well annsixty

Pacific instead of specific!

Astonishing the number of men who are reported to have 'prostrate' problems, are they unable to get up?

Family bloopers stick, don’t they? I’m surprised we haven’t been corrected by strangers when we’ve come out with ours - gargocoyle, my DF’s version of gargoyle, radiheater, ridiclious and instension, for extension. Ever since he first went to Eureka, the children’s museum, and one of the DGS called it Myreka, so do we.

I always remember the old pronunciations of Boadicea and Diplodocus, before they became Dee plod do cus and Boo di Ka......and now we have Euro nus (Uranus) but I don't remember anyone putting THAT connotation on what was always just a planet when I was growing up......probably because none of us knew what THAT word meant then

Well I have to (shamefully) admit I have never used the word hyperbole and didn't even know it's meaning until I just looked it up. And I would have pronounced it exactly as it is written!

Thanks for the laughs everyone. I get so embarrassed if I pronounce something wrongly but we shouldnt take it so seriously.