Susie Dent asked people about the excruciating times they mispronounced a word in public – 17 of the funniest and most unfortunate

The great Susie Dent went on Twitter to ask people about the times they’ve mispronounced a word in public because they’ve only ever seen it written down.

The queen of Countdown’s dictionary corner was moved to do so after an audience member at the Hay Festival winter weekend shared the tale of the time their daughter didn’t quite get ‘epiphany’ right. Not right at all, in fact, and it’s a proper joy,

Thank you to the lovely audience member at @hayfestival who shared that her daughter had once corrected her pronunciation of ‘epiphany’ and told her it should of course be ‘epi-fanny’.

Which word have you royally mispronounced because you’d only ever seen it written down?

— Susie Dent (@susie_dent) December 9, 2025

There but for the grace of God and all that. And it prompted no end of people to get in touch with their own stories, and it’s a leading contender for this week’s loveliest thing.

1.

When we were about 11, our teacher asked us all to read a page of our book out loud in the class.
When it got to my best friend she read that the spaceship ‘arsed’ its way into the sky. ❤️ (arced)

— Jill Foster (@JournalistJill) December 9, 2025

2.

When I was a young child(7) the nuns would ask who we should pray for – I put my hand up and trying to be clever asked “Can we pray for the prostitutes(should of been protestants) in Northern Ireland. Sister replied “Well yes I’m sure they need our prayers”.

— Cristoir Toibin (@christobinsings) December 9, 2025

3.

When my eldest son wrote his first letter to Santa he asked where he should send it.

He was in the infants at the time, so I wrote clearly on a piece of paper in my best teacher’s handwriting: Santa Claus North Pole.

After much concentration with pencil in hand and his tongue…

— Loz James (@ContentChampion) December 9, 2025

4.

My older sister, now in her eighth decade, rarely misses an opportunity to remind me that, as a five or six year old, I pronounced ‘picturesque’ as “picture-skew”.

— Steve H (@sfh300) December 9, 2025

5.

My old dad was browsing through my mum’s cookery book when he asked her if she fancied having a go at a quicky. He was looking at a recipe for quiche, much to everyone’s relief and merriment.

— Wunt be Druv (@bigears1111) December 9, 2025

6.

Segue. I had it in my head as ‘Seeg’ rather than ‘Segway’ for years, and even thought it was a different word to ‘segway’.

— Sarcastic Fringehead (@Pragjag) December 9, 2025

7.

My 15 year old sister was in a fight with my parents.
She insolently declared, “I will not GROW-vel!”
They fell about laughing.
She stormed to her room and slammed the door.

— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) December 9, 2025

8.

Many, many years ago a friend pronounced ‘hereditary’ as ‘hairy-dittery’, to much laughter.

— DJ Alpha-T (@DJ_AlphaT) December 9, 2025

9.

Aged 12, I mispronounced ‘tarry’ when it was meant in context as ‘covered in tar’. I mispronounced ‘misled’ as ‘my-zled’. A bit older I was reading out loud an Ezra Pound poem and pronounced ‘whore’ as ‘war’.

— Michael Rosen NICE 爷爷 (@MichaelRosenYes) December 9, 2025