As we grow up and learn new words, sometimes the words we hear are not spelled quite like we imagine them. I’ve always been an avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi as our family bookshelf at home was stuffed with my mother’s large collection of the stuff. I was reading Tolkein in grade school and Ray Bradbury in middle school. Along with the territory came a lot of large words that sometimes required me to pull out the 50 lb, foot thick Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary that we had. I hated to pull that out often, so many times when I ran across a big word I didn’t quite understand, I took the context of the word and made a “best guess” and continued on. While most times I found this method worked quite well and allowed me to expand my vocabulary immensely, it backfired a few times.
My favorite example of an English word that sounds nothing like it’s printed (because it’s French): rendezvous. When I first encountered this word in print, I couldn’t pronounce it and wasn’t in a position to look it up (remember kids, this was before cell phones, internet and even personal computers). I pronounced it as “rez-a-ven-dus” for that was as close as I could get. In looking at the context of how it was used, I guessed the word meant “ron-day-voo”. A word I knew from TV and movies, but not one I ever encountered before in print. For many years, I read that word as “rez-a-ven-dus” and used the meaning for “ron-day-voo” until in high school when I finally had that word on a vocabulary test. I was surprised to say the least. 🙂 To this day, I still read that word as “rez-a-ven-dus” if I am trying to read quickly since that is how I learned it.
Another one that gets me tongue-tied every time is Worchestershire sauce. I look at that word and my natural inclination is to say “wor-ches-ter-shire”. No one understands me if I pronounce it that way though since everyone knows it as “wur-ster-sher”. I can’t bring myself to say that though. Closest I get is “wur-chester” and just leave off the last bit.
On another note, my oldest niece made me laugh because she couldn’t say C3P-O’s name correctly last year (the gold humanoid robot in Star Wars for those ignorant of the movies). At one point, she was teasing her younger sister about spelling words she got wrong and I put her in her place by asking her to spell “c” “3” “p” “o”. She came back with “c” “p” “3” “o” and she got all red in the face trying not to laugh (she’s a good sport most times). It stopped her teasing while the rest of us had a good laugh to boot.
Heh, I had the same issue growing up, Koth, though in my case I’d consistently read a word incorrectly, without fail, until one night when I was 16 or so, I used the word at the dinner table and my mother looked at me like I had three heads.
The word? Chagrin. While reading quickly, I swapped the “r” and the “g” around, so that I’d pronounce it in my head as “char-gin”. Funnily enough, I don’t think I came across that word on any spelling test in grade school, and though I was pronouncing it wrong I knew what it meant so standardized “chagrin is to -blank-” questions I always got right.
Cubicle is another one I got wrong a lot. I pronounced it “ku-bi-sil” for a long time. “C” is such a worthless letter.
hehe koth me and you have something in common i still can not say Worchestershire i use it all the time and hear it all the time but yet still can not pronounce it right so i finally gave up and now call it the Wor sauce 😛