Play Book Tag discussion

What are some words that you learned through reading, had never heard spoken, and you found out you said it incorrectly.

Example for me, I learned facade through reading and of course, read it faykaid. Once day I used it in a sentence and...sounded dumb. 🤣

Movie scenes vs the scene in the book. Does your imagination normally match up or completely different? .

Words - absolutely - tons - not that I can think of any at the moment. Pronunciation - all the time - and you made me laugh out loud at facade -- a word I as a real estate lawyer in NYC which as an exterior facade repair law that leads to my writing a lot of FACADE contracts.

Most of us don't take time to find out how to pronounce words or names, even though it's now easy using google to hear it pronounced. What bothers me is not someone mispronouncing, but those hearing you do it correct you in a tone that is judgmental or make a face when you do. I applaud that someone knows the word and is using it correctly!


Movie scenes vs. scenes in book -- they almost never match my mental image - I'm a very visual reader. I treat them as 2 separate things - the movie scene is someone else's vision, not mine.

I'm sure I've done some mispronunciations, I'll think about it, but a friend just said the other day he was going to see the "biopic" about Bruce Springsteen and he pronounced it "buy ah pick".

Then there are disagreements, I insist "short-lived" is pronounces with a short i, as in I live in a house, where my husband thinks it should be pronounced as in life I think we looked it up and both are in there. He also says Hilarious with the first i long, as in Hi there!

Movies are usually wrong, even books reissued with movie scene covers. For instance the TV series of Poldark has Demelza as a redhead and the actress is perfect for the part. But in the book it's clear she is dark (even "gipsy" blood). In the movie Master and Commander the actor playing Stephen Maturin is tall and rather fit looking, the books stress that he is small and spindly. On the other hand in the American movie of War and Peace some decades back (with Audrey Hepburn), Henry Fonda plays Pierre. One thing Tolstoy says over and over about Pierre is that he is fat, and Fonda was the opposite.

Years ago there was a TV version of the wonderful saga The Far Pavilions. I had already read the book. Although they had to condense the plot and characters, there was one scene with a plain and mountains in the background that struck me as looking exactly right. Overall I thought it was a good adaptation. When I read the book, I imagined it as a miniseries because many scenes are very visual. (I loved the historical books by M.M. Kaye, but I wonder now if they are too much the "White Savior" model.)

I think we all have more than a few of them, although its hard to recall them all in the moment.

Gnocchi - is it Knockey - or No Key? I always feel a little off with this one. Also, Norweigan, (We - gen), but how many of us (other than me) have actually said (Norwayan). Since the people are from Norway...

Knockey reminds me of when I moved from the East to Minnesota. I had no idea that people actually pronounced the K in names like "Knoche". Also in my first job as a typist, I brought to my supervisor's attention what I assumed was a mistake in a list of names, "Nobody has a name that starts with Gj" - she assured me it was correct. You see Fj more - as in Fjord, but there are names like Gjelstad, which are Scandinavian. And back in the 1960's, there really were more blonde people in Minnesota than in Philadelphia, where I had been living. (It's become much more diverse since then.)

I mispronounce words all the time, but these days rely on the internet to correct me and still sometimes I am surprised.

One of the earliest I remember is quiche and I only pronounced it in my mind. Luckily I learned the correct pronunciation before I ever used it.

As for movies, that happens all the time. The one I was most disappointed in was The Prince of Tides. Streisand had always been a favorite of mine, but the focus on the romance while leaving out the meat of the book was a big disappointment.

Robin P wrote: "Knockey reminds me of when I moved from the East to Minnesota. I had no idea that people actually pronounced the K in names like "Knoche". Also in my first job as a typist, I brought to my supervis..."

Ok, this makes me think of... is it a Monty Python sketch? Pronouncing knight as "Kuh-ni-get". LOL!

Amy wrote: "I think we all have more than a few of them, although its hard to recall them all in the moment.

Gnocchi - is it Knockey - or No Key? I always feel a little off with this one. Also, Norweigan, (W..."

I have a few Italian friends and between them they pronounce it 2 different ways, either No-key or gnaw-key

Knock - key, have never heard G-Nock-key. Naw-key, yes.. I like No-Key. And my youngest son loves the dish, when we have it for dinner. No-Key with Mini Meatballs.

Booknblues wrote: "I mispronounce words all the time, but these days rely on the internet to correct me and still sometimes I am surprised.

One of the earliest I remember is quiche and I only pronounced it in my min..."

Agree on Prince of Tides - completely wrong.

Of course there are regional pronunciation differences. Also, so many words in English were taken from language of immigrants, or other cultures, and pronunciation, especially where emphasis placed, varies. It is why there are so many 'exceptions to the rule' in American English.

Here's one I still have to think about before saying, even though I have lived in NYC for 52 years: the city in Texas is 'HEW - ston', but I walk down 'HOW-ston' street in Manhattan. No idea why the difference.

Words I mispronounced because I read them first? I can't recall how many since I wasn't going to get up and look them up in a dictionary once my mother stopped telling me what words meant and told me to look them up (I was a teen--no way was I getting off the couch to walk to the dictionary when I was lounging with a book.)

One was gunwales--I didn't even put it together when I heard the word in movies because "gunnels" sounds different. This goes for many British ship terms. I've seen it spelled gunnels in newer books and for once didn't mind the switch. Many British place names fit into that. How would I know cities called Reading sound like Redding, for eg?

There are other words as well, but I can't remember them now.

One that comes to mind is quay, which is pronounced kee not qway.

Joy D wrote: "One that comes to mind is quay, which is pronounced kee not qway."

Thank you, Joy! I had no idea.

so...my husband grew up in Houston Texas, I grew up near Detroit Michigan. As you can imagine, we have different ways of saying things. One of my favorites is the way he says naked, he says neck-ed. There are others, but after 45 years together, he has picked up my ways on some and I have picked up his on some. I guess it evens out.
We now live in Oregon. That's Or-uh-gun, not Or-e-gone. Just in case you didn't know ;)

English is a foreign language for me, but I have been reading and speaking it for so many years that some [wrong] spellings are so fixed in my mind, I am convinced they say it wrong on TV or at the movies. It's hard to come up with examples out of a hat, but I noticed when I write reviews that the autospelling function is often correcting me when I start to put in Romanian words with English sounding suffixes, or French, Italian or Spanish words that fit better what I have to say. Vernisaje apparently is spelled vernissage

Lyn, where in the Detroit area? I grew up in Detroit. I lived all over the suburbs until I got married and moved to Clarkston,

Jgrace wrote: "Joy D wrote: "One that comes to mind is quay, which is pronounced kee not qway."

Thank you, Joy! I had no idea."

Thanks from me too.. I always thought it was qway

Joanne wrote: "Lyn, where in the Detroit area? I grew up in Detroit. I lived all over the suburbs until I got married and moved to Clarkston,"

We lived in Garden City until I was in high school when we moved to Howell. My sister still lives in Novi.

Joanne wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "Joy D wrote: "One that comes to mind is quay, which is pronounced kee not qway."

Thank you, Joy! I had no idea."

Thanks from me too.. I always thought it was qway"

Meanwhile I always think it (not sure I've ever said it aloud in English) as 'kay' -- which is how the French version is pronounced (plus accent) - 'quai' - and of course I've said it frequently in French as most of the streets running along the Seine are named 'Quai de xxxx' , i.e. Quai de St. Michel.

So thanks from me as well - I will have to retrain my mind. 😅

@Algernon - I'm native American English speaker but since studying French and also later Spanish, I frequently lean toward the French pronunciation of similar words - and spelling too. I tend to give Spanish a french accent 😂.

I don't consider myself truly fluent in French but I can get by. It's funny though what pops out, how French will surface.

Theresa wrote: "@Algernon - I'm native American English speaker but since studying French and also later Spanish, I frequently lean toward the French pronunciation of similar words - and spelling too. I tend to gi..."

Le tire bouchon is one of my favorite French words, since it has been imported into Romanian wholesale: tirbuson. It mean cork puller. I remember a scene with Lawrence Olivier where he complains about the lack of poetry in the English language. I think he was a vol a tireur in Paris, in the movie 'A Little Romance'

Growing up I always said Quebec as Kwuhbeck, but the French is Kaybeck and some people say Kuhbeck.

Although I am a native English speaker, I am fluent in French and sometimes a French word seems more exact to me, or more expressive. And it drives me crazy when French words are mispronounced on audiobooks or on the news. Some American pronunciations are wrong but now the accepted way: lingerie sounding like lawnjuray, chaise longue instead of lounge, etc.

One of the Spanish words that has an American pronunciation is Nevada. In my state, they get upset if people pronounce it Nev-ah-da, which is correct in Spanish, but has been Anglicized. so, people living here say it with a "short a," Nev-a-da (the middle syllable as in cat.) I did not know this before I moved here.

Audio readers often mispronounce both quay and Nevada.

Audiobook narrators often mispronounce names of towns in the US, such as Edina, MN which is supposed to be pronounced with a long i, not an ee sound in the middle. There is no excuse for this in professional narration, since it is easy to look this up or if necessary contact the city. This summer I was in the town of Rio Grande, OH, which is pronounced Rye-oh. I suppose we butcher names of cities in other countries just as much.

An anecdote from my childhood:

My father, a man born and raised in Scranton, PA, who never studied another language or even traveled somewhere where English was not the native language, always pronounced the word 'deaf' not as 'deff - short 'e' - but as 'deef' - a long 'e' like in 'deer'. None of us mirrored that and my mother never pronounced it that way either - and she also grew up in PA - a bit farther west though - and never traveled or studied a language. She always said 'def' and that's how we all pronounced it. My dad was the anomaly.

Joy D wrote: "One that comes to mind is quay, which is pronounced kee not qway."

Another one I've been pronouncing wrong all these year?

Wait--Merriam Webster has three pronunciations and qway is one of them; the Cambridge dictionary only has kee for both countries, but is incorrect for the States. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti...

I feel a bit better now, although I still can't say foyer with an "er" sound at the end the way Americans do. It's from French.

Robin P wrote: "Audiobook narrators often mispronounce names of towns in the US, such as Edina, MN which is supposed to be pronounced with a long i, not an ee sound in the middle. There is no excuse for this in pr..."

I hope I never hear an audiobook reader saying the name of Regina Saskatchewan like the woman's name. The i is a long i and I never once thought of what it almost rhymes with nor heard any jokes about it until I was in the States and someone else commented on it.

I also am a francophile and love to speak french. I feel like it comes to me easily - like past life like. I easily start thinking and dreaming in French when I am around it. Its very natural for me. But here is the funny thing - once I began learning French, my Hebrew comes out with a french accent. No kidding.

So, I am wondering about the country of Qatar. I have heard it two ways. I have heard politicians refer to it as "Cutter" and also as Kah-tar. The second is how I always pronounced it. Does anyone actually know?

Amy wrote: "I also am a francophile and love to speak french. I feel like it comes to me easily - like past life like. I easily start thinking and dreaming in French when I am around it. Its very natural for m..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc-M5...

Amy wrote: "I also am a francophile and love to speak french. I feel like it comes to me easily - like past life like. I easily start thinking and dreaming in French when I am around it. Its very natural for m..."

I have a question for a francophile: I had a fiery argument with my best friend, who has been living in France since 1991 about the correct pronunciation of Tour Eiffel , its most famous landmark. She says eefel, and I say aifall since I took 13 years of German in school and the engineer's family was originally from Germany and took their name form the local Eifel mountains. But the French are very protective of their own language and refuse to acknowledge other roots

In School and Duolingo and when there, it was always Eefel.....

But Americans say Aifel, I guess so do the Germans. Theresa or Robin, wish to weigh in on this?

I liked BnB's video of Qatar. I think from the video, it seems sort of right in between the two with a little bit of gutteral emphasis .

I'm finding this conversation to be so interesting. Through it, I've learned that I have mispronounced more than a few words unwittingly.

I'm not good with languages and yesterday, the word "Memoir" came up in conversation with my neighbor. She happens to be a retired Literature professor. We were talking about the types of books we like to read. I like memoirs, but stammered over the pronunciation (with our PBT Sunday conversation in mind). I had to google it. I see that I've been saying it wrong.

It's "Mem - Wahr" - not "Mem - Wah (silent R).

Theresa wrote: "Of course there are regional pronunciation differences. Also, so many words in English were taken from language of immigrants, or other cultures, and pronunciation, especially where emphasis placed..."

Names of places has always been interesting to me. In Georgia was have a Houston pronounced Howston county. From Wikipedia, It was named after Georgia governor John Houstoun, with the spelling being a common 19th-century variation that later evolved to "Houston".[4] The pronunciation, however, remains to this day "howston.

We also have a Cairo Georgia, pronounced Kay-Roh and an Adel pronounced A-del, not Ah-del like the singer. Buena Vista is not pronounced with a spanish accent. BYOO-na VIS-ta instead. Albany is All-binny. Don't even get started on Unadilla, Hahira, Alapaha and more. I love hearing GPS say Alapaha. Ala-pa-ha. Ah-lap-ah-haw is how we pronounce it.

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Amy wrote: "I also am a francophile and love to speak french. I feel like it comes to me easily - like past life like. I easily start thinking and dreaming in French when I am around it. Its very n..."

it's EE-fell in France and an emphasis on the last syllable. Eyefell with emphasis on first syllable in US. Probably other variations in other countries.

Names vary by language. In France, England is Angleterre, Germany is Allemagne, we are Les Etats Unis. Americans pronounce France the 'a like 'and' which is not the correct pronunciation in French. My last name, which is German, is pronounced ROCK whereas the correct German pronunciation practically has you spitting up phlegm as you pronounce all those consonants - RACHT. We stick with the ROCK pronunciation though it causes spelling problems. Just call me Theresa, LOL.

As already mentioned by Jason and others, there are many regional differences as well in pronunciation of names.

Another thing that can affect pronunciation is native accents. The English 'th' is very difficult even impossible for many where English is a second language. And how well do you roll your 'R's when speaking French?

Amy wrote: "I also am a francophile and love to speak french. I feel like it comes to me easily - like past life like. I easily start thinking and dreaming in French when I am around it. Its very natural for m..."

It's amazing how the French accent comes out in your Hebrew! The brain is a marvellous organ, but sometimes does some odd things, doesn't it?

Amy wrote: "In School and Duolingo and when there, it was always Eefel.....

But Americans say Aifel, I guess so do the Germans. Theresa or Robin, wish to weigh in on this?"

I've always heard Eiffel tower said with the long "i" sound as if it were in German accent on the first syllable, even where I grew up in Canada (far from Québec and other francophone areas.)

When I moved to Massachusetts I had many shocks with name pronunciations! Peabody rhymes with CBD (emphasis on the first syllable).

The most interesting one is Raynham; denizens of this town say rain ham, but the rest of the state says Rainum.

I won't bore you with other ones. Most people don't speak with a Boston accent, either.

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "the correct pronunciation of Tour Eiffel , its most famous landmark. She says eefel, and I say aifall ..."

You've probably already had replies (I haven't yet read them). But I would say if you are pronouncing it IN French, it is "eefel". But Anglicized, I would say it is "aifell".

(As you asked, I immediately read it IN French. I am not fluent like a few others here, but I did grow up in a largely French town and I took French language classes from grades 1 - 12.)

Theresa wrote: "the correct German pronunciation practically has you spitting up phlegm as you pronounce all those consonants - RACHT ..."

LOL! Ok, you made me laugh as I pronounced it in German there! I, of course, also have German background (my last name is Wiebe for those who didn't already know); though I know more French than I do German, but I do know how to pronounce German words (or I can sound them out... usually), for the most part.

Since I've mentioned it, the Anglicized pronunciation of my last name is Weeb, but spoken in German (and I'd never actually heard it that way until my beginner German class my first year of university) is would be Veeb-uh.

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, though I'm sure I've mispronounced many a word that I've just read but never heard (or at least not recognized as such).

I remember the first time I came across victuals in a book and realized it was the "vittles" I always thought of as a part of cowboy culture.

My maiden name is a not very common Mexican / Spanish name ...

Escamilla ..

pronounced

ESS KUH MEE YAH (accent on the MEE)

My married name is of German heritage

My husband pronounces it with the accent on the second syllable.
His second cousins pronounce it with the accent on the first syllable. (their great grandfathers were brothers)

Amy wrote: "In School and Duolingo and when there, it was always Eefel.....

But Americans say Aifel, I guess so do the Germans. Theresa or Robin, wish to weigh in on this?"

I have always heard the French pronounced Eff-ell, like the 2 letters in English F-L. But in English it's Eye-full. Kind of like it is pretentious to say Par-ee when speaking English, but in French that's the pronunciation for Paris.

I notice that on PBS some of the commentators are very careful and say things like - Af khahn ee stahn for Afghanistan. My understanding is that Cutter is closer to the Arabic pronunciation of Qatar.

I recently learned that the US President John Quincy Adams and everyone from that family pronounced it Quinzy, as does the town in Mass. Maybe Karin knows about this.

Book Concierge wrote: "I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, though I'm sure I've mispronounced many a word that I've just read but never heard (or at least not recognized as such).

I remember the first..."

Yes, victuals/vittles! Ditto.

Robin P wrote: "I recently learned that the US President John Quincy Adams and everyone from that family pronounced it Quinzy, as does the town in Mass. Maybe Karin knows about this."

ETA--I do now say it with a light z sound, but haven't always. (I let it drive me batty for a wee bit and figured that out.)

I knew that about the city, but not the president--I should have made the connection, but then I'm so used to odd city and town pronunciations here I didn't think about it! I asked my two kids who are here right now, and neither can remember what they heard in brick and mortar high school here.

However, even though my eldest remembers me saying it Quincy, both ways sound right to me now; I may have unconsciously started changing it in my mind.

Gosh, this is going to drive me batty for at least two minutes.