Names which you mispronounced for years, before eventually realising...

Reply 680

lotii123

persephone out of the malorie blackman books :s-smilie:

always thought it was pronounced pur-se-phone.

Reply 681

pcorbett94

Original post by fredscarecrow

In my head I still say it 'sib-oh-han' but try and remember say it properly out loud.

It's not a name, but I say burial as 'bur-ree-all' rather than 'beh-rial' :colondollar:

People get my name wrong all the time. It's Teresa (Ter-ray-sa), not Theresa or Therese....(or any of the multiple options people provide me with). Te-rees-a drives me mad, but a lot of my associates call me it, and sometimes I just give up correcting them.

I have a stats teacher who spells her name the exact same way but pronounces it Ter-ree-sa, just to confuse matters. I never know how to spell it as there's so many variations but she has assured me that her name is spelt Teresa.

Reply 682

SnoochToTheBooch

17

I always thought nietzsche was pronounced knee-etsh, rather than neetshee.

Reply 683

StarsAreFixed

13

Original post by philistine

The irony is overwhelming. The Irish and their superfluous letters are like Tango and Cash, Tintin and Snowy, and Batman and Robin. :ahee:

As for Thailand, well, I think I stopped stepping on that syncopated landmine when I was about five. I can see the underside of that metal Corgi car now...

I still find myself these days, despite being very comfortable with the French language, mispronouncing certain names that, despite being quite obvious if one were to look at them within the ball park of French pronunciation, still muddle me due to my long acquaintance with my novice mistakes.

Here's a few I had trouble with at some point or other:

Albert Camus is Al-bear Ca-moo
Theophile Gautier is Tay-o-fee Go-tchay
Arthur Rimbaud is Ah-tuhr Ram-bo

Ah but all of our placenames are anglicised so you can't go on about the Irish language. Also, the 'extra' letters in Irish are neccessary as they change the entire pronunciation, but anyway. Some place names; Clonsilla, Blanchardstown, Celbridge, Maynooth, Ballyfermot, Chapelizod, Goleen, Glengarriff...I could go on but every single letter is pronounced. No silent letters to fool people. How DO you pronounce Thailand? We must all be very ignorant here as I here it a lot these days since everyone stops over there on their way to Oz.. :biggrin:

Reply 684

Teofilo

13

Original post by StarsAreFixed

Also, not you, but what is wrong with Dylan and Thailand? I know plenty of Dylan's pronounced as Dillon and everyone I know says Thigh-land...

People who go on holiday to sight-see or go to the beach go to Tie-land.

People who go on holiday to pay for sex go to Thigh-land.

Reply 685

StarsAreFixed

13

Original post by IAmTheKing

Dylan is a Welsh name, and it's pronounced 'Duh-lahn'.

Ah right, thanks. The same fate applies to many Irish names getting lost when the names move abroad I suppose.

Reply 686

Skaði

Phoebe. I used to say 'Feb' when I was little :ashamed:

Some people have had trouble with my name in the past. I've been called everything from 'Easter' to 'Star'. To be fair, it's not a common name amongst people my age, but it's six letters long. Don't get me started on some of the ways people have spelt it in the past either :colonhash:

Reply 687

08rbut

10

Original post by EmmaJane_

KESHA. I always said k-ee-sha, but apparently it's k-eh-sha.

no, its ke dollar sign ha, didn't you know? (Glee fans will understand or just watch the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh4T07xoluE

Reply 688

YB101

17

Faizal , and i've been friends with him for 10 years

opps

Reply 689

EllieJelly96

1

Until the films I would call Seamus from Harry Potter 'See-mus' and not 'Shay-mus'.

Also the name Siobhan was 'Sigh-o-ban' to me until about a week ago when I met my new boss at work and someone called her 'Shiv-orn'. I'd heard that name before but never realised the spelling.

Reply 690

izzaha

2

The name fergie is pronounced fer jee, i just said fer-gie

Reply 691

DragonHeartstring

9

Used to have problems with Niamh and Saoirse. But then, I'm sure everyone has problems with these names if you read them without having heard them before :rolleyes:

A lot of people mis-pronounce my middle name 'Nicoll'. I myself can't decide whether to pronounce it 'Nick-oll' or 'Nickel', but it's definitely NOT 'Nicole'. :smile:

Reply 692

StarsAreFixed

13

Original post by EllieJelly96

Until the films I would call Seamus from Harry Potter 'See-mus' and not 'Shay-mus'.

Also the name Siobhan was 'Sigh-o-ban' to me until about a week ago when I met my new boss at work and someone called her 'Shiv-orn'. I'd heard that name before but never realised the spelling.

Nope the 'orn' bit is just someone's accent changing it a bit. The correct pronunciation is shiv-AWN, emphasis on second part.

Reply 693

moregano

18

Original post by StarsAreFixed

There's a lot in English placenames that aren't pronounced and that is mind-boggling for me and I'm only from ROI. We pronounce everything! I was dumbfounded when I couldn't get a London taxi driver to recognise Chiswick until I showed him the booking details. Seriously? Why not get rid of the w then!

Also Leicester and Gloucester are problems for me. I kind of get it now but I wouldn't be too confident with them. Before I would have guessed them as being Leh-sester and glow-sester. So many unncessary letters!

English place names can be bad for that, I thought Worcester was pronounced wor-chester for a very long time. And I live in Ruislip, have fun guessing how to pronounce that one :p:

Original post by Skaði

Some people have had trouble with my name in the past. I've been called everything from 'Easter' to 'Star'. To be fair, it's not a common name amongst people my age, but it's six letters long. Don't get me started on some of the ways people have spelt it in the past either :colonhash:

Esther?

Reply 694

SneakyDoug

10

My friends called fazil and for like 6 months i called him fah - zil like bra-zil but it is fah-zeel. And then one day he just went " my names fah-zeel" That was embarrasing.