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

Re Quinoa.. it can be pronounced either way: kinwah or kinowah..as local dialects in the regions, in S America, where it is grown vary!

After reading this thread I spent long periods of time trying to remember a word we always deliberately mispronounced when we used to holiday with one couple of dear friends many moons ago.
It came to me in the middle of the night as these things often do.
It was picturesque which we always pronounced pictureskew.
We got some odd looks if anyone overheard.

* maggie* I have known a Mr & Mrs Menzies for years. They get cross when folk called them ming-iss! Sometimes it is hard to know!

My late DM nearly fell off her chair laughing when I read Stephen as Step-hen (I must have been about 6).
And I say lattay and Pretzo.
And how is clematis pronounced? Some people say clem-ay-tis with the stress on the ay, and some say clem-a-tis with a short a and stress the clem bit. I never know!

PECS and Maggiemaybe
I quote...
“Sir Menzies "Ming " Campbell is one of the most respected and successful politicians of his generation. He was MP North East Fife.”
And rest the case for Ming-iss!

And I once taught a Hesione which was pronounced Hez-*eye*-on-ee

Of course. She was a character from Greek mythology as I understand

www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hesione

Pity it's not warm enough to sit out in the gaze-bow, eating cruddites.

annsixty pictureskew was one of my dad’s favourites, thanks for the memory

We had a mispronunciation incident in a small diner in deepest North Carolina once.

Waitress (aged about 15) can I get you guys drinks?
Us: Do you have wine?
Waitress <goes off to check, looking puzzled> yes Sir, we do.
Me: What kind?
Waitress: Red or white.
Me: what sort of white? Pinot Grigio?
Waitress: <goes away and comes back after some time> It’s Chab-liss, ma’am.

Almost needless to say, it wasn’t Chablis as we know it

What about when pronunciations are willy-nilly changed? On the quiz show Pointless last night, Alexander Armstrong said that Boo-di-ka was pronounced Bow-de-see-a when he was at school. (Boadicea).

That made me feel better for the time I was laughed at (really) at work for pronouncing it as Boodika.

I answered that question as Bow de see a Grannyknot when Armstrong’s pronunciation was Boodika I shouted, oh, make up your mind ?

We had one like that a few weeks ago Jane. DH went up to the bar in a theatre and asked for a glass of red wine. "ordinary or superior" "What's the difference" "Marrlott or Sovignon". We won't ever drink merlot again, it will now always be marrlott.

Do any of you remember a Birmingham meet up some years ago when we moved on to a hotel for a drink. We asked for a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and the waiter asked us if we wanted red or white. I seem to remember we all kept straight faces and said 'white please' until he had gone to get it.

DH's pet hat is dissection pronounced di- ssection.

And the dinosaur Diplo do cus has become Diplod o cus

I do indeed Nonnie (what was your name then?)
Poor boy, how we sniggered once he was out of earshot.

I was looking at ceramic hobs in Curry's and asked a young lad member of staff for more info. He said "Do you want a kerra-mick one?"

A senior staff member happened to overhear and said to me "I know, but we keep him on because he's a whizz with computers!"

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

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!

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

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.

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

Pacific instead of specific!

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

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.

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