Words that on first seeing their actual spelling blew your mind.

ordinary_girl

Arkansas. I remember when I first saw it written down trying to figure out why I had never heard of the state before. Cue several months of saying "Ar-kansas" instead of "Arkensaw" like some sorta gob****e.

Immaculate Pasta

Patrick Vieira

:cool:

uch

Bollíx

retalivity

annihilate - always thought it began with an i
diaspora - I thought it was an irish word that irish people used to refer to people abroad. No idea (til about 3 years ago) its used all round the world, pronounced differently, but spelt the same

hardCopy

ordinary_girl wrote: »

Arkansas. I remember when I first saw it written down trying to figure out why I had never heard of the state before. Cue several months of saying "Ar-kansas" instead of "Arkensaw" like some sorta gob****e.

Ah, now I get it!

Sky King

ordinary_girl wrote: »

Arkansas. I remember when I first saw it written down trying to figure out why I had never heard of the state before. Cue several months of saying "Ar-kansas" instead of "Arkensaw" like some sorta gob****e.

Everyone in Ireland calls Maryland Mary-Land but it's pronouncified Maryl-and.

Oh and add Segue to the list ('seg-way').

The King of Moo

"Geoffrey," whenever I read it, I'd pronounce it "Joffrey" in my head and think it was a completely different name from "Jeffrey," which I thought was the only spelling of that name.

Oh, and whenever I read the word "epitome" I'd pronounce it phonetically, thinking it was also a separate word from the one I heard all the time and never saw written, but assumed was spelled "epitomy."

floutingmaxims

Phlegm

Noo

minestrone

Miss Olenska

Here's reverse one: I would never had thought 'mores' as in "social mores" would be pronounced 'mow-res'.

The Radiator

diarrhoea

tolosenc

ordinary_girl wrote: »

Arkansas. I remember when I first saw it written down trying to figure out why I had never heard of the state before. Cue several months of saying "Ar-kansas" instead of "Arkensaw" like some sorta gob****e.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas#Toponym

Not as straightforward as it seems.

Adyx

The name St.John. What the fuck is that about?

The Big Red Button

Ancient.

I was reading out loud from a history book in 5th class and pronounced it "ann-see-ent." Everyone laughed, even the teacher. I didn't know why - I knew what the word meant, but had only ever seen it written down before. Mentally scarred for life.

kjl

mortgage.

rich.d.berry

phthisis

Richard

Adyx wrote: »

The name St.John. What the fuck is that about?

As in "sinjin"? Yes, weird...

Richard

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, A town in north Wales.

The full name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

trad

Gaol


and Lead as in lead on the roof and a lead for your dog

Vicxas

diarrhea..


Mad spelling words

kelle

Perpignan in France

I mean it sounds so sophisticated when pronounced, but seeing it's spelling and then breaking up the words takes away any thoughts of eliteness one may have had this town had.

some random drunk

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

Lingerie.

It still blows my mind to this day!!

Yeah as a kid I always thought it was pronounced Linger-y because it was for lingering in, or something.

The first time I saw the word choir written down it was spelt "quire", which is an old fashioned spelling. In my schoolwork I'd refuse to spell it "choir" because I thought "quire" made much more sense. Actually I still think "quire" makes more sense to this day. Who decided to change it?:mad:

smcelhinney

Recipe

thee glitz

ordinary_girl wrote: »

Arkansas. I remember when I first saw it written down trying to figure out why I had never heard of the state before.

Careful now, it's actually illegal to mispronounce 'Arkansas' while in the state of Arkansas.

M5

Another reverse the internet Meme

its actual pronounced like

cream

tallaghtmick

bouy and there,their and they're should all be unified to theiy're :pac:

biko

Gaol

Pherekydes

biko wrote: »

Gaol

English fans will be getting to know this one in Ukraine next summer.

"Oh no, it's another gaol."

Irish Guitarist

Xylophone. Psoriasis. Aberystwyth.

I have psoriasis but luckily I'm not a xylophonist from Aberystwyth.

some random drunk

some random drunk wrote: »

The first time I saw the word choir written down it was spelt "quire", which is an old fashioned spelling. In my schoolwork I'd refuse to spell it "choir" because I thought "quire" made much more sense. Actually I still think "quire" makes more sense to this day. Who decided to change it?:mad:

That was my thinking too. I didn't know quire was a genuine spelling though, that might explain it

gingernut79

coup. Couldn't figure out why the newsreaders kept saying it wrong.

Lia_lia

Am I the only person that actually cannot remember the first time I noticed how most of these words are spelled? Do people not see the spelling of these words from a very young age and just not think anything of it?

I can't say I've ever been shocked by the spelling of a word.




But then again my name is Aoife.

dxhound2005

Sadhbh, Tadhg, Terpsichore, Beaulieu

Sky King

Quay.

Sky King

Richard wrote: »

As in "sinjin"? Yes, weird...

Yeah. Though it did give us this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gPBO0CM78

dxhound2005

In the same vein Menzies pronounced Mingis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4595228.stm

jokettle

Coeliac.

Bodhisopha

Colonel.

Reamer Fanny

Miss Olenska wrote: »

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

wow- so this is what the geeks talk about on Board on saturday when everyone else is out getting laid

I'm usually getting nailed by the BF around this time on a Saturday but he's away, so my inner-nerd has made a rare appearance.

Go on...pics or GTFO!

Miss Olenska

Lia_lia wrote: »

Am I the only person that actually cannot remember the first time I noticed how most of these words are spelled? Do people not see the spelling of these words from a very young age and just not think anything of it?

I doubt most kids would have come across the spelling of all the words in this thread at a young age.

M5 wrote: »

Another reverse the internet Meme

its actual pronounced like

cream

Shít, really?

Blisterman

How did people think meme was pronounced?

Miss Olenska

Blisterman wrote: »

How did people think meme was pronounced?

Phonetically. C'mon, it's hardly intuitive how it is pronounced if you see it written down for the first time.

Sky King

Heard someone on the radio say Ek-Cetera this evening, and thought of this thread.

Firstly, I want to know how these people get radio jobs when there are plenty of people who can speak properly out of work.

Secondly, it's ET Cetera.

And you see this bad boy? *

That's an asterisk, not an Astrix.

paulosham

Meadhbh

d.anthony

Just outside Glasgow there's a town called Milngavie. Pronounced Mul-guy.

Blisterman

Miss Olenska wrote: »

Phonetically. C'mon, it's hardly intuitive how it is pronounced if you see it written down for the first time.

Meme is pronounced phonetically!

stupidusername

I always pronounce it like the french word meme, and it sounds wrong said like Me-m, which is what I thought it was meant to be...but phonetically?

saa

prescription I thought it was perscription for quite a while psssh mindblown.

JuliusCaesar

Yacht.

Quire is a measure of paper derived from old French meaning a set of four folded pages.
Choir is a group of people singing, derived from the Latin word chorus.
Etymology can be very useful!

But why is "bury" pronounced the same as "berry"?

portumnadaz

Gaol(jail)