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

Kalu you and me both.

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

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.

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.

G70 two nations divided by a single language!

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!

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Mary doll. No problem x

Thanks x

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!

That's how I say it seasider, but I hear most other people say lahtay.

My mum was from the NE so many words were pronounced differently to neighbours in London. I remember at school friends laughing at me for showing I had a plaster on my knee and not a plahstah! Sometimes it is dialect and not mispronounced! Do you think latte is more Italian the further away you get from the South's 'long a' ?

Would you correct an adult, though? (Not one of your own adult children, which is IMO a bit different.)

Some years ago we had an Aussie girl, daughter of old friends, staying here with her boyfriend. Both were graduates, 21-ish. .
After their first day out in London I asked whether they'd enjoyed themselves. Yes, etc. etc. etc. - and they'd had lunch at Pret A Manger (pronounced as in Away in a Manger!)

I didn't correct them - I knew that learning French at school is not so common in Oz, but did wonder afterwards whether
I should have. Would they have been embarrassed? Or would they have preferred to know, to avoid any future embarrassment? (Assuming they might be the types to be embarrassed about such things.)

Haha! My DD has a pal from NZ who is an accounts manager for Pret a Manger which they pronounce Prit ah Mon- jaay! Also could not call the baby Ben as it sounded like Bin when they said it! Some NZ vowel sounds are very different!

Is it really so important that someone pronounces a word or phrase in the way that you personally think is correct? Surely accepting individual differences, personal histories, local or regional variations and international differences is so much more important than correcting someone for not being like you? I would consider corrrection of a perceived mispronunciation by somebody other than a family member or a very close friend to be incredibly rude and patronising. Language is primarily about communication not oneupmanship.

I think it matters - though I wouldn’t point out a mispronunciation to anyone other than family members. Speech generally is getting sloppier and lazier, often because of the ‘it doesn’t matter’ attitude. There’s no reason not to try to get it right.

Just heard another one - reckernise. This goes with ‘deteriate’. Both are sheer laziness.

Just remembered , "its just a phrase he/ she is going through,"
about children, but of course this is wrong use of a word and not pronunciation.

Oh, yes, Pecs - NZ vowels can be a mite startling to UK ears. IIRC a NZ friend used to,pronounce 'six' like 'sex' and vice versa. (No, autocorrect, I did not mean Versace there!!)