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Twelve Words You Didn't Know You Were Mispronouncing

Most of them, but the local Chipotle restaurant won't gain me as a customer just on the name alone. I'm assuming I won't be able to order anything they've got from the menu.
 
Got eight right. And I think nine, actually, because I used to work for a Captain whose last name was Nguyen and he pronounced it NEW-yen. However, I understand that it kind of depends on where in Viet Nam your family is from.
 
I got 8 right too. It would be 9, but I've never pronounced Gyro right, even though I know the correct pronunciation. :)
 
voluptuary_manque said:
Got eight right. And I think nine, actually, because I used to work for a Captain whose last name was Nguyen and he pronounced it NEW-yen. However, I understand that it kind of depends on where in Viet Nam your family is from.
Click to expand...

Naw, that's a correct pronunciation of Nguyen.
 
Only one I didn't know was Açaí - I don't even know what the fuck that is.

Couple more in Spanish, commonly mispronounced: Guacamole and Relleno.
 
Chipotle
Sudoku
Açaí
Espresso
Meme
Segue
Asterisk
Hermès
Nguyen
Gyro
Siobhan
Qatar

I got the bold ones wrong, and had never heard of the italicized ones. So seven correct.
 
Jack-in-the-Box ran a series of TV ads where Jack couldn't pronounce Chipotle. Some of his attempts were "chip-o-top-lay" and "chi-poodle". But thanks to the restaurant chain everyone around here tends to pronounce it right (helps that we're in the southwest, where the workers tend to be of Mexican origin).

Meme actually is controversial, as the accepted use differs from the term that inspired it. I believe the actual coiner, Richard Dawkins, pronounces it differently than most of us and is very angry about it.

Nguyen is tricky too, because it sounds a lot like "Win", with only one syllable. And I'm talking about when spoken by people who actually have the surname.
 
I got most of them. I've never heard of Hermes outside of the Greek God and Nguyen I heard differently - a friend of mine in high school prounounced his "win". I also had a friend named Siobhan who pronounced it "show-ben." I think, as far as names like that are concerned, that it's rather up to the families as VM pointed out.
 
Liar said:
Chipotle
Sudoku
Açaí
Espresso
Meme
Segue
Asterisk
Hermès
Nguyen
Gyro
Siobhan
Qatar

You do those correctly?
Click to expand...
Liar, quit speaking Swedish! You're on the English AH, speak English...or we'll have to deport you back to Mexico.

xssve said:
Only one I didn't know was Açaí - I don't even know what the fuck that is.
Click to expand...
You go to the wrong markets. Up-scale, expensive and faux-organic. They have the Acai juice. It's got lots of antioxidants. Yum!
 
JamesSD said:
Meme actually is controversial, as the accepted use differs from the term that inspired it. I believe the actual coiner, Richard Dawkins, pronounces it differently than most of us and is very angry about it.
Click to expand...

Really? That's excellent news. Given what an ass Dawkins is, any chance I might get to annoy him is an instant "good day".
 
Pretty much completely off the subject, but I tried to get the domain name lemondrop.com back in 02 but was too late by two months...
 
JamesSD said:
Jack-in-the-Box ran a series of TV ads where Jack couldn't pronounce Chipotle. Some of his attempts were "chip-o-top-lay" and "chi-poodle". But thanks to the restaurant chain everyone around here tends to pronounce it right (helps that we're in the southwest, where the workers tend to be of Mexican origin).
Click to expand...

So, how is it pronounced? I don't think I've ever heard it spoken.
 
sr71plt said:
Most of them, but the local Chipotle restaurant won't gain me as a customer just on the name alone. I'm assuming I won't be able to order anything they've got from the menu.
Click to expand...

"Rice"

"No rice"

"Black beans"

"Pinto beans"

"Chicken"

And there's also finger pointing. You'd do just fine. ;)

I'm not sure why it's important that we pronounce imported words "correctly." It's okay if you do, but is there shame if you can't? Wayne Newton's gonna have to re-do "Donkey Shane" then. :D
 
It's only American pronunciations. Canadians are to pronouns Nguyen as NEW-yen. Segue, the detour, is seg-way but the embellishment is say-g.

Chipotle has always looked to me like xi-POH-tul. Not many places offer it here so I have never actually heard any locals say it.
 
Shelebes is the only alien around who can pronounce "Xipotle" correctly the very first time. :D
driphoney said:
I'm not sure why it's important that we pronounce imported words "correctly." It's okay if you do, but is there shame if you can't? Wayne Newton's gonna have to re-do "Donkey Shane" then.
Click to expand...
The English make a virtue of it-- especially French words. Garage is "garridge" for instance...
 
We English don't care for "official" versions of pronounciation.

If we import a foreign word into English, we mangle it until it sounds right to us:

Café became Caff and the exact pronounciation of Caff defines the establishment either as a greasy spoon serving fried food to workmen or a faux-refined tea room for middle-class ladies crooking their little fingers.

Chai became tea.

Varieties of curry sold in Britain? I don't think India, Pakistan or Bangladesh would recognise the food nor the words used to describe them.

The UK version of Restaurant French is totally incomprehensible to a real French chef - and probably he/she would consider it inedible. As for the Dutch equivalent of Restaurant French? Let's not go there...

Og
 
TALIAFERRO is one that stumps most people; its Italian but not pronounced as its spelled or spoken in Italy. Tampanians always mispronounce Taliaferro Street.

The correct pronunciation is TOLLIVER.
 
My local Chinese takeaway doesn't really understand English except numbers.

If you tell them the number on the menu, their till prints the description in Chinese characters for the chef.

Whenever I visit them I hand over a piece of paper with the list of numbers with the English description.

Their children, aged six and four, are more fluent in English than their parents.

It doesn't help much if you speak some Chinese. He speaks heavily accented Mandarin, she speaks Hong Kong Cantonese. They talk to each other in their own version of both with English words interspersed.

Og
 
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I fear that there may be a mistake in that list.
Gyro, given it as a short-form of Gyroscope comes out "Ji Ro".

I always thought Qatar was 'KatArr' (as from the BBC).

Oh well, back to the English classes.

As for Chipotle (never heard of it); my guess would be the obvious one Chip Ottle
(think Bottle without the B).
 
i thought gyro was the sandwich thing, pronounced "yee row" or "yeah, that"

also Tchoupitoulas
 
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