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

I had a friend called Hermione decades before Harry Potter was invented, so I knew how to pronounce it.

My family was very pronunciation-conscious because we had a surname that wasn’t pronounced at all the way it was spelt. I’m not going to divulge it, but regret giving it up when I married. We might say ‘hyperbowl’ as a joke. My Australian MIL always talked about her ‘gaze-bow’, and that was also a joke.

I have a highly educated friend who talks about her ‘poinsi-etta’ every Christmas. I am longing to tell her to read the word more carefully.

As a young child I came across the word ‘decent’ in an Enid Blyton book. (It’s a very Enid Blyton sort of word, come to think of it.) I’d never heard the word, and pronounced it ‘descent’ to myself, but I don’t think I ever said it aloud.

My dad was always mispronouncing words deliberately and jokily (sp?) at home. I think it was because he was a bad speller and it helped him remember spellings. He always said he'd had to learn by rote every word that he knew how to spell and he would still get my mum, who was a natural speller, to check any important papers (of which there were a lot).

He was a lot of fun, my dad.

Actually, when I read the OP, I thought What's wrong with hyperbowl? Then I realised I was thinking of Super Bowl ?

Baggs Your mention of Bellerophon reminded me that the sailors on the ship of that name called it the Billy Ruffian – and what about those who fought at Wipers and other such places in World War I?

I remember as a child coming across to me unusual names in my favourite girls’ school stories and for years thought Fo-ebe was a girl’s name

Some surnames can be a minefield when it comes to pronunciation, for example:

St John = Singun

Featherstonehaugh = Fanshaw

Chalmondley = Chumley

X

Oops, should that be "Sinjun" ?

Magdelin College - Maudlin?

Oops. Magdalen

Bottomly = Bummly ????

One of the firms I worked for when I was a young slip of a thing, I made a faux pas of calling an important client Mr Death, "Dee ath" he bellowed back Not the greatest moniker to be lumbered with

Perhaps a bit like the Rik Mayall character, (can't remember the Christian name) B'stard!

I find it embarrassing when someone pronounces something wrong, but then I've been pulled up on things myself. As I've not lived in the UK for over 40 years now, sometimes there are words which I really have not heard pronounced and have been known to make a fool of myself. (e.g. "coelecanth")

However, I think it was also on Woman's Hour that I actually heard someone say "Indicktment" - surely that's not such an uncommon word?

Years ago I came across a child whose name was pronounced See Ann. His mother had seen the name written down and nobody could persuade her of the proper pronunciation of SEAN’s name.?

Only a few weeks ago a newspaper had an article about a mother who named her Daughter ABCDE.
She said it was.pronounced Ab,si, dee.

Poor girl

Percy phone is how one of my children pronounced Persephone back in primary school.

How about Gooey? A mother insisted that was how her son's name was pronounced.
She'd read a lovely book while pregnant with Guy the hero!

Mainwaring = Mannering

Dalziel = Dee - all

I had a friend who called their daughter Dalziel, a family name, pronounced as given. I think the child decided when she was 10 to be called by her middle name, something simple like Elizabeth

Quinoa . (Keen-wah)
Guilty of pronouncing it Kwin-o-ah, until corrected.

TerriBull
When my youngest son was a newborn my husband and I went out of our way to avoid the birth certificate being signed by Mrs De'ath at the local registry office.
We found out her working hours to try to avoid her.
I didn't want Death on the birth certificate of my baby.
Of course, she was filling in for a sick colleague the day we went. Of course she was.

Of course she would be gmelon that's the story of my life too.
Regarding the latte, I always say 'lattay' but why do some people say 'parsta' and not pasta.

Oh and have we had Menzies - Ming-iss?

If you go to Google Translate, put in a word and, if it doesn't come up with the original language (latte comes up as English) change it - in this case to Italian. Then click on the sound button and listen to a native speaker say it. Italians say 'latte' very differently from the English version.
I have a friend who always says, 'pronounciation', she quite a Mrs Malaprop but I get a bit of secret fun from her 'mispronounciation'.

I once corrected my Mum when she said Go-eth, rather than Goethe (gerter - approx) and she looked so ashamed that it's stayed with me as a moment I wish I could recall.

Oh and have we had Menzies - Ming-iss?
I was mispronouncing the name of our paper shop for all those years? Too late to make amends now!