wouldn’t call myself a master of the English language but I’m not totally rubbish at it. I know what the word ‘literally’ means and I use it appropriately. I also know the difference between two, too and to and you will never get a text message from me that says ‘ur’ instead of ‘you’re’. Shudder. However sometimes, even if I know the correct way to pronounce a word, I will deliberately pronounce it the wrong way because I couldn’t be bothered making everything awkward. I know it’s lazy and I should care more but sometimes you have to choose your battles and the pronunciation of some words often loses. Here are 5 words you can’t say properly because it makes everything awkward.
Moet
The way everyone says it – Mo-ee
The way we’re supposed to say it – Mo-et
I really, really want to be the person who says this correctly but I just can’t bring myself to say ‘mo-et’ because I feel like Kath from Kath and Kim ordering a ‘cardonay’. I’m sticking with ‘mo-ee’. There’s safety in numbers.
Steve Buscemi
The way everyone says it – Boo-shem-ee or Boo-Schem-ee or Boo-sheem-ee
The way we’re supposed to say it – Boo-sem-ee (That’s how he pronounced it on Jimmy Fallon anyway).
Look I love Steve and he deserves all the fame and fortune in the world but life was so much easier when he was that guy who humped the bomb in Armageddon and no one actually knew his name.
Barcelona
The way everyone says it – Bah-sell-oh-nah
The way we’re supposed to say it – Bath-ell-oh-nah
The first few times I heard someone say Barcelona the proper way (when I was like 8 years old), I genuinely thought they doing a line from a movie where someone’s GBF (gay best friend) was all ‘Oh! Bath-ell-oh-nah!’. Turns out that’s just the way you say it and no one (in Australia) ever says it that way.
Paella
The way everyone says it – pay-ell-la
The way we’re supposed to say it – pie-ay-ah
This one is a fun family favourite at restaurants. Someone will be all ‘Let’s get pie-ay-ah!’ and then someone else be all ‘Oh… I wanted paella.’ and then shit gets really awkward. You have to say pa-ella otherwise no one knows what you’re talking about.
Jojoba
The way everyone says – jo-jo-ba
The way we’re supposed to say it – ho-ho-ba or yo-yo-ba… whatever I just know it’s not jo-jo-ba.
I know it’s not jo-jo-ba but if you say anything other than jo-jo-ba people be all ‘What?’ and then you have to say jo-jo-ba anyway. You might just well just open with jo-jo-ba.
Can you think of any words you purposefully mispronounce just because it’s easier?
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