This thread of 27 mispronounced words is a hilarious phonics minefield
Just about everybody will have stumbled across a word that they struggle to pronounce correctly, sometimes without even realising it – like David Cameron trying to say “Sorry”, which he hilariously mispronounces as “It was the right thing to do.” It’s easily done.
When Twitter funny man and successful composer Nick Harvey‘s son spotted the word “chihuahua” in a book, he gave it a good try, and got there in the end, via some wonderful and logical attempts. Watch what happened.
https://twitter.com/mrnickharvey/status/1133471138980483073
We definitely prefer “chihoo-haha” to the usual pronunciation – just for the sheer joy of it, and the clip got people thinking of other mispronounced words, like these excellent efforts.
1.
The climbing plant outside our backdoor is still called a Vagina Creeper (Virginia) , much to the chagrin of our 18yr old who coined it as a toddler.
— Connor Byrne (@connorjbyrne) May 28, 2019
2.
I knew someone who had to read the word antelope out in a presentation. Somehow he had never heard the word or at least not connected the spoken and written word. He had a sister called Penelope
— itsallaboutcake (@Itsallaboutcake) May 29, 2019
3.
I remember being very disappointed when I found out hyperbole isn’t pronounced ‘hyper-bowl’.
My way sounded much more exciting, like the super bowl for kids who’d had too many sweets.— Jord Bowers (@jordbowers93) May 28, 2019
4.
My kids love to visit their Nana in the crunchyside. I love it too much to correct them.
— Beau (@DrBeauBeaumont) May 28, 2019
5.
I love this. A definite improvement. The other day my 5 year old heard me talking about coffee and asked me who Captain Chino is. 😂
— Lisa Hayter (@LisaHayter) May 29, 2019
6.
I went to dinner with a girl who ordered the turbot and pronounced it like a car accessory.
— Sierra Charlie (@sierracharlie1) May 28, 2019
7.
My grandfather in the 80’s referred to the new box that could heat food as the Mackerel Weaver.
— Matney Self (@MatneyComedy) May 28, 2019
8.
Both my girls have said “my” instead of “I” or “I’m”. It gets cute when paired with the bat voice pic.twitter.com/ANW6rXAmtG
— Pete Kimble (@SaucyTemeraire) May 29, 2019
9.
A friends mum thought she was a bit special, Hyacinth Bucket type and were round there one night and she said “I’ve got you a movie to watch. L.A. Confidential” but pronounced as if it was French Lá Confidentialle and that’s what I call it to this day.
— lee harvey (@heavy_flames) May 28, 2019
10.
The replies to this remind me of when my youngest wanted to watch Harry Potter and the fell off a stone.
— Dame Jayne with a Y (@JB_56_) May 29, 2019
11.
I once got in an argument with a girl who swore that les miserablés was pronounced less miserables (as in people who weren’t quite as miserable as others)
— ☀️ Abigail Laker ☀️ (@AbiLaker) May 28, 2019
12.
I was 15 years old before I knew that picturesque wasn’t pronounced “picture-skew” and that my mum had been deliberately mispronouncing it for years!!! I still read it the wrong way 😬
— petunia (@Petunia_trains) May 29, 2019
13.
In Geography at school while we were doing glaciation Janet Waywell pronounced “Cwm” as Quim. Even the teacher smirked.
— DAVID (@DIG60) May 28, 2019
14.
My nephew was doing his English homework and asked me what ‘grood gingly’ meant. I asked him to show me his book and turns out the word was ‘grudgingly’. Two years later, I still try to sneak that word into conversations with him – pronounced wrongly, of course. 😁
— Belle (@bellechick73) May 29, 2019