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Many youngsters who love to read at an early age have trouble pronouncing words. The trouble stems from them seeing big words in books - words so big they've never heard them before, so they come up with their own pronunciations. Sometimes, those pronunciations tend to stick with them, cropping up in the most arresting ways and at the most awkward moments. Words like:

paradigm: puh rad uh jim
facsimile: fass uh mile
epitome: eh puh toam

What were we taught when learning to read and speak? SOUND IT OUT !!

A local street that gives visitors trouble is Tchoupitoulas. Tourists love pronouncing this one

P.S. I was living in the Twin Cities for a few years(St. Louis Park) and PURPOSELY pronounced Shakopee, SHACK-o-PEE. The locals there loved correcting me I just liked the sound of a shanty full of pee ... haha I also called Edina, EDNA! along with a few other choice jokes on city names.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Many youngsters who love to read at an early age have trouble pronouncing words. The trouble stems from them seeing big words in books - words so big they've never heard them before, so they come up with their own pronunciations. Sometimes, those pronunciations tend to stick with them, cropping up in the most arresting ways and at the most awkward moments. Words like:

paradigm: puh rad uh jim
facsimile: fass uh mile
epitome: eh puh toam

I once didn't have that excuse, because I was 18 and should've known better. A couple of friends asked me if I knew the composer of Bolero. I said "yes, Ravel". Trouble was I pronounced it the same way you pronounce ravel as in unravel or gravel. They laughed and laughed.

When I was in the first grade in Pittsburgh, they taught us French because they had a theory that that was the best time to teach a foreign language. I didn't retain much, but I do remember "Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques, dormez-vous, dormez-vous, Polly la ma Tina, Polly la ma Tina, dormez-vous" I didn't understand what Polly was doing to Tina's mom, but I sang it anyway.[:D]

Love the Ravel goof! When I was the wing weather officer at Andersen our station chief was pretty well versed in classical music, but you can probably guess how he pronounced Herbert von Karajan (yep, kuh-RAJ-un).

ORIGINAL: CaptDave

Love the Ravel goof! When I was the wing weather officer at Andersen our station chief was pretty well versed in classical music, but you can probably guess how he pronounced Herbert von Karajan (yep, kuh-RAJ-un).

I and others reading this may not know the proper pronunciation, but I've always pronounced it the same as carrion. An unfortunate comparison, if true.

A pack of Americans trying to make fun of how people pronounce word, what a laugh!!

We start at Arkansas and work our way through it.........

ORIGINAL: JeffK

A pack of Americans trying to make fun of how people pronounce word, what a laugh!!

Yes, because that's something no Australian would EVER do under any circumstances. [8|]

I lived around a few places in North Am and as an anglophone Canadian
by origin one thing I have always loved about Americans is the ghastly
way they horrifically mangle their own French place names. It makes
my heart big. Hennepin and Joliet and Iroquois and Terre Haute and Pierre.
And Americans think Kanookis talk funny when we say out and about because
we say the "out" like one syllable instead of seven and without any "a"s or "y"s
in it.

We've got a lot of French place names to mangle, but we're not limited to that. Lima Ohio is pronounced with a long i. We pronounce Lima beans the same way. We mess up Spanish very well thank you, even though I can't think of any language that comes close to it in consistency between spelling and pronunciation. Perhaps Italian. But not Sicilian. Don't ever allow anyone to tell you Sicily is part of Italy. It's not even a colony. It's an occupation. [:D]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: CaptDave

Love the Ravel goof! When I was the wing weather officer at Andersen our station chief was pretty well versed in classical music, but you can probably guess how he pronounced Herbert von Karajan (yep, kuh-RAJ-un).

I and others reading this may not know the proper pronunciation, but I've always pronounced it the same as carrion. An unfortunate comparison, if true.

Sorry, should have mentioned that. You're a lot closer than he was! In most languages other than English an a is always pronounced as in far, so his name would be KAHR-uh-yahn (though people are often pretty sloppy with the last syllable, and it comes out more like KAHR-uh-yuhn).