Do you ever hear a word that you pronounce differently than others? Do you make note? Ask? Give a rat’s patootie? Another hobby of mine is to bring the offensive pronunciation into the ring. I love this kind of battle, where common word pronunciations are positioned against each other.
The following stories are all true.
Eat Your Fruits + Vegetables
A good friend of mine likes to say tow-MAH-toes, poh-TAH-toes, and even the herb BAH-zil. Since this word debate actually has a battle song, they seem to be the most socially acceptable pronunciation discrepancies in American English. Despite the way we say it, we both agree, surprisingly, that tomatoes are fruits and potatoes are vegetables. <Ding> Round Two…
You Mean, Annoy
Put yourself in a fine hotel retail store, the one that sells 2-3 overpriced yacht outfits , suitcases, and jewelry for some reason. You have sunburn and need. You ask, “Do you have any aloe?”, pronounced AL-LO. The saleswoman replied, “You mean, “uh-LOY”?
A verbal crime! Wade in the sha-LOY stream? Quietly tip-LOY out of the room? I’m craving some mah-LOY-mars? I need to find that woman. She haunts me.
Howda Hell
My BAH-zil friend was over and she had brought gouda cheese, a favorite of both of ours. As she pulled it out, she called it “GOW-da”. Now… I can be overly confident and wrong, but c’mon, gouda? It’s GOO-da and everyone knows it, right? I confidently challenged her to the dictionary pronunciation.
On the gouda reference page there is one little speaker icon, revealing the proper way to say what I knew was goo-da. I press for sound and we both lean in. Very clearly the man’s voice responded “HOW-da”. WTH?
At least it wasn’t GOW-da. My word war with BAH-zil continues.
Not Pot
A local storm had made the city water unpotable. Relaying this to a friend, I said the water was not “PO-ta-bul” and I was quickly corrected with a voice saying “POT-uh-bul”. Get those Oxford folks on the horn. These games are going into overtime.
With what words have you disagreed on pronunciation?
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