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

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Pretty sure my pronunciations here are wrong.

Peugeot as per-jo
Porsche as por-shay
renault as re-nolt
Keynes (as in John Maynard Keynes) as key-nees

Reply 761

SilverArch

I used to say Cholmondeley phonetically like Coll-mon-del-lay. Took several years to work it out. Frankly, my pronunciation was much prettier :tongue:

I used to say Arkansas like it was Kansas with an Ar at the start. Actually it's Ark-en-saw
Said Niamh as Ny-amh, not Neeve
Saying Leicester as Lice-ester was embarassing. In my defence, I was about 7 and had never seen it written down

Reply 762

Palatial Veranda

Original post by z0tx

Dvořák

Yes, I was all over the place on this one. Emphasising the D and completely omitting the soft J sound.

Furthermore, it took me a while to get my head round Siobhan and when I was a very little boy I used to think that that the Grand Prix was the Gordon Prix.

Reply 763

Hester_23

Siobhan. I still to this day don't know how it's pronounced

Reply 764

AK0001

Meadabh is apparently pronounced as May-ve. :s-smilie:

Still used to call her meh-dah-bah

Reply 765

Costalo

I thought Rys was pronounced 'Ryhs' not Reece.

Reply 766

Tackla

Lingerie

Didnt know it was french, said it as lin-ger-ree

Reply 767

Sky_Dream

Original post by Danf159

Pretty sure my pronunciations here are wrong.

Peugeot as per-jo
Porsche as por-shay
renault as re-nolt
Keynes (as in John Maynard Keynes) as key-nees

I say Peugeot similarly to you, but I say Porsche like 'Porsh' or how a posh person would say posh :tongue:

.

I say Renault like Ren no.

Keynes (as in John Maynard Keynes) I thought was pronounced as 'Keens' like the place Milton Keynes, but I looked it up and a lot of people pronounce it 'Canes'.

Reply 768

x-Disenchanted-x

Seamus. Always thought it was "See-Muss". Turns out there's a magical invisible "H". Mind. Blown.

Reply 769

sammy-lou

Original post by Tackla

Lingerie

Didnt know it was french, said it as lin-ger-ree

same, literally until I was about 13

Reply 770

sammy-lou

Also, Sinead. As in Sinead O'Connor. I actually still don't know how to pronouce that. Is it "Shin-eyd" or "Sine-ade" or "Sine-ed" or what?!

Reply 771

livefires

Phytophthora. I studied it for 2 months before I finally figured it out! Got to love microbiology.

Reply 772

username782284

Original post by sammy-lou

Also, Sinead. As in Sinead O'Connor. I actually still don't know how to pronouce that. Is it "Shin-eyd" or "Sine-ade" or "Sine-ed" or what?!

shin-ade

Reply 773

StarsAreFixed

Original post by EllieJelly96

Aren't they exactly the same, just different spelling?

That would depend on your accent, for me they are very different.

Reply 774

flutterby23

I struggle with Niamh too
and thought Aoife was "I-o-fee"..apparently it is pronounced "ee-fa"

Also, Warwick as war-wick instead of war-ick

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 775

IAmTheKing

Daniel appears to present many people with problems.... It's not 'Dan-ee-aww' ....

'Dan-yul' will suffice :smile:

Reply 776

sammy-lou

Original post by seanfromtheblock

shin-ade

You've just rectified years of misery and confusion - thank you!

Reply 777

StarsAreFixed

Original post by AK0001

Meadabh is apparently pronounced as May-ve. :s-smilie:

Still used to call her meh-dah-bah

Yes, it's in Irish, that's why. It's spelled either Maeve, Meadbh or Meadhbh. Either way the ea/ae makes an ay sound in Irish, and 'bh' makes a v sound. We don't do v's- the first spelling is anglicised. You'll see this in Siobhán and Niamh too, 'mh' is another substitute for v. The 'd' is not pronounced, it just makes it go together really.

Reply 778

StarsAreFixed

Original post by Hester_23

Siobhan. I still to this day don't know how it's pronounced

Siobhán- Shiv-awn or shuv-awn, depending on accent. io makes an 'uh' soung, bh is a substitite for v which does not exist in Irish, and á is an aww sound.

Reply 779

StarsAreFixed

Original post by Rupi

How about Saoirse? I used to think it was pronounced how it was spelt, until somebody told me I was being a complete idiot and that it is pronounced seu-sha. :wink:

It's pronounced seer-sha, but since that's a bit difficult it does become see-ur-sha, but the r should always be there. It means freedom and was very popular when Ireland was fighting for independence. Not very common now. The 'aoi' makes an ee sound and 'se' in this instance makes a 'sha' sound.