| Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > | Off topic: Pronunciation that makes you cringe (inwardly) Thread poster: Cilian O'Tuama
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We probably all have our pet peeves.
I'd like to restrict this thread to native speakers of English. Otherwise it could get out of hand quite quickly. 
What for you are the most annoying commonly mispronounced (not misspelled!) English words (not proper nouns such as Worcestershire)? Whether by ENS or speakers of other languages?
On German TV, whether sports or advertising, there is often me... See more We probably all have our pet peeves.
I'd like to restrict this thread to native speakers of English. Otherwise it could get out of hand quite quickly.
What for you are the most annoying commonly mispronounced (not misspelled!) English words (not proper nouns such as Worcestershire)? Whether by ENS or speakers of other languages?
On German TV, whether sports or advertising, there is often mention e.g. of a new product "series" - invariably it's pronounced by German commentators/speakers in 3 syllables - sounds more like serious. That can't be hard to learn!
And then there's "influencer", which they pronounce like influenza - with an r at the end and with the emphasis in the wrong place.
But of course we don't correct these people because we love them.
Any other candidates? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:43
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Need I say more?
+ "likely" instead of "probably".
[Edited at 2022-12-13 08:27 GMT]
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 15:43
French to English
For reasons I can't begin to fathom, the French always say "low" for "law". As a teacher I used to repeat endlessly "it rhymes with door" but to no avail. They have no problem with "jaw" or "paw" or "saw", so "low" is a complete mystery to me.
Another one is "idea", they never seem to get that the a is not purely decorative. Trouble is, I'm then left wondering why they're mentioning "ID".
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Could of, would of, should of
Mischeevious makes me smile, though.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 15:43
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Kay Denney wrote:
Another one is "idea", they never seem to get that the a is not purely decorative. Trouble is, I'm then left wondering why they're mentioning "ID".
You can know from context they are mentioning idea, not ID.
Am I the only one who thinks this topic is slightly politically incorrect?
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:43
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Party! Party! Party! | Dec 13, 2022 |
A friend of mine called Jackie, who "speaks posh", teaches English as a foreign language to students in London.
Jackie's boyfriend told me that one of her students asked him if Jackie goes to a lot of parties, because she's always saying "festival".
Jackie's boyfriend had to explain that Jackie was actually saying "first of all".
To those for whom English is not a first language, the very strange pronunciation of some English people must be a constant prob... See more A friend of mine called Jackie, who "speaks posh", teaches English as a foreign language to students in London.
Jackie's boyfriend told me that one of her students asked him if Jackie goes to a lot of parties, because she's always saying "festival".
Jackie's boyfriend had to explain that Jackie was actually saying "first of all".
To those for whom English is not a first language, the very strange pronunciation of some English people must be a constant problem.
The constant interjection of "sudduv" (sort of) into almost everything everyone says must be a particular problem.
To say nothing of the mispronunciation of common words like "choose" ("cheese").
[Edited at 2022-12-13 12:37 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not to say, slightly discriminative? | Dec 13, 2022 |
[quote]Lingua 5B wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks this topic is slightly politically incorrect?
I would love to join the conversation, but since this thread is for 'native speakers of English' only (which I am not), I better keep my mouth shut.
[Edited at 2022-12-13 11:51 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-12-13 11:52 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-12-13 11:53 GMT]
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 15:43
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Sounds very childish and unprofessional | Dec 13, 2022 |
[quote]Robert Rietvelt wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote: Am I the only one who thinks this topic is slightly politically incorrect? I would love to join the conversation, but since this thread is for 'native speakers of English' only (which I am not), I better keep my mouth shut. [Edited at 2022-12-13 11:51 GMT] [Edited at 2022-12-13 11:52 GMT] [Edited at 2022-12-13 11:53 GMT]
When I worked as an interpreter I heard all sorts of mispronounced words and various accents, but I did not have the time to stop and "cringe inwardly" because I had to focus on what's going on, interpret things and then afterwards carry on with my day. First and foremost, it is unprofessional. Very amateurish discussion.
To start off with my name, I heard all sorts of mispronounced versions of my name (by foreigners) that exist under the Sun. I know very well why they mispronounce it, what's behind it. and no room for cringing then.
When I was in Italy, this British teacher of English would mock their Italian students behind their back, because they use "h" a lot in front of the words that begin with vowels. Instead of eight, they would pronounce hate. I can't describe how nasty and unprofessional it looked to watch them mock the students. Unbelievable. But that's the thing, anybody can teach as long as they are native speakers. Learning how to behave while teaching comes with training (they are not trained).
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:43
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| All foreigners are stupid. | Dec 13, 2022 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
.... I did not have the time to stop and "cringe inwardly"
"cringing inwardly" is a very British thing. The British do everything inwardly. They consider it bad form to express anything outwardly.
in Italy, this British teacher of English would mock their Italian students behind their back.....
To the British, all foreigners (be they Italian or anything else) are stupid and must be made fun of. The mere fact of being a foreigner is hilarious.
They think this is one of the funniest things that have ever been done on television:
https://tinyurl.com/k244qxc
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:43
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Ice Scream wrote:
Could of, would of, should of
Mischeevious makes me smile, though.
"advocate for"
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 06:43
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
What makes me cringe inwardly is language professionals discussing language without having even a basic knowledge of linguistics.
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Michele Fauble wrote:
What makes me cringe inwardly is language professionals discussing language without having even a basic knowledge of linguistics.
I found linguistics so dull I dropped out after two classes even though the girl I fancied was there.
And I seem to have coped without it…
What have I missed?
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expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 14:43
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| I'm sorry, I'm not an English native speaker... | Dec 13, 2022 |
... it's obvious 
For me, it would make more sense to talk about badly written texts by native speakers for example, such as this one I have just translated, than to talk about pronunciation.
A language is made up of many elements and one of them is sound.
Of course, there are (many) sounds that do not exist in my native language and so I can pronounce certain words of a foreign language incorrectly, just as ther... See more ... it's obvious
For me, it would make more sense to talk about badly written texts by native speakers for example, such as this one I have just translated, than to talk about pronunciation.
A language is made up of many elements and one of them is sound.
Of course, there are (many) sounds that do not exist in my native language and so I can pronounce certain words of a foreign language incorrectly, just as there are (many) sounds in my native language hard to pronounce for a foreigner. We can "blame" our articulatory apparatus.
Linguists like us, translators, can observe how people use languages. Something to keep in mind and it's important is that the observations they make about it are not value judgments. I hope your intention with your topic is not that.
But all this is common knowledge. Any language professional knows this, and despite any mispronunciation, any native speaker, translator or not, can understand foreigners when speaking our mother tongue
[Edited at 2022-12-13 19:01 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pronunciation is not peeve-worthy | Dec 13, 2022 |
As long as anyone speaking in my native British English is making an honest attempt to communicate (which is, after all, the essential motive for speaking) then, frankly, I don't give a damn if they have difficulties with the pronunciation.
| | | | Cilian O'Tuama
Germany
Local time: 15:43
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | You're overthinking this | Dec 14, 2022 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks this topic is slightly politically incorrect?
Is it slightly un-PC to ask a Q from language A to B?
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