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Writer's pictureLucy Carter

Ten Terrible Mispronunciations We Have all Been Guilty of



English is a complicated language. For instance, the plural for "goose" is not gooses but geese, yet the plural for "moose" is simply moose, not meese. Likewise, words that are traditionally nouns can also have verb homonyms. For example, the word "buffalo" can either refer to the animal, the city, or the slang verb for "intimidate" or "baffle," hence the lexically ambiguous yet grammatically correct sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."


Then there, of course, are the twisted pronunciation rules of the English language. For example, "tough," "bough," and "cough" all end in -ough, yet they all have distinct pronunciations.


There are countless pronunciation errors we can commit in the English language. Below are ten words we have all had the guilty pleasure of mispronouncing:


  1. Colonel is pronounced "kernel," not "co-lo-nel!"


2. Archive is pronounced "are-kive," not "are-cheeve!"


3. Allegory is pronounced "Al-leh-gory," not "uh-leg-gory!"

4. Yosemite is pronounced "Yo-seh-mih-tee," not "Yose-mite!"

5. Anatomy is pronounced "uh-na-tuh-me," not "anna-tommy!"


6. Albeit is pronounced "al-bee-it," not "Al beat!"


7. Chauvinism is pronounced "show-vuh-nism," not "chaw-vuh-nism!"


8. Curmudgeon is pronounced "cur-muh-jn," not "cur-mud-gee-un!"

9. Alias is pronounced "ay-lee-us," not "ă-lee-us!"

10. Prestigious is pronounced "pruh-stee-jus," not "pruh-stee-jee-us!"


The English language provides us with some of the most bizarre, confounding words. Whether you are a native English speaker or are learning English as a second language, these words are destined to twist tongues and puzzle speakers.


Other common mispronunciations:

  • Severus (pronounced seh-vur-us, not severe-us.)

  • Adobe (pronounced uh-doh-bee, not uh-dobe.)

  • Porsche (pronounced poor-shuh, not porsh.)

  • Nutella (pronounced new-tell-u, not nuh-tell-u.)

  • Epitome (pronounced uh-pih-toh-me, not uh-pih-tome.)

How many of these words have you mispronounced before?

  • None!

  • 1-3

  • 4-5

  • 6+


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