Funny mispronunciations and mishaps with accents/language.

I've greatly enjoyed the difference between the way US Americans and Canadians understand the phrase "to fuck off." For US Americans, if we say "I fucked off," it means we were generally lazy and frivolous. If a Canadian says it, she means that she went away, i.e. left.

So, in my first year at college, I was surprised when someone had said "Alright, time for me to fuck off." And I was like "alrighty," and then they left the room and didn't come back.

 

I had a non English speaking friend that was learning English in the work place. When we trained outside of work, we would sometimes joking say to our fellow employee... "step up to the fucking line." He did'nt realize this was a private joke and the next day he looked straight into this ladies eyes and said... step up to the fucking line! We hurried him away and the lady was actually very understanding once we explained. I love these kind of cross-cultural misunderstandings!

 

The one that comes immediately to mind, with me is the word 'chicken'.

I don't say 'chicken', I pronounce it like 'chiggen'. It's just something I've always done.

 

I think there's only one person in the world who thinks this amusing (other than myself), but oh well. In C# two of the most common method names I deal with are OnInit and Page_Init. I pronounce "initialization" correctly, but for whatever reason insist on saying the shortened form as "eye knit". I know that's wrong but doesn't matter.

 

My dad says the word syrup like "serp", as in rhyming with terp or burp. He also says roof the same as the word rough. He pronounces restaurant without the "au", almost like the word restraint. It's weird. I suppose it is lack of enunciation.

 

It's Chiggen McNuggets, but yes, it does.

=P

 

My name is a nightmare for pronunciation. Sometimes I can't even get my first name (Karl) across without some monstrous mishearing such as Kyle, Kal, or even Kale. Having a non-rhotic accent makes it difficult for some, especially rhotic-accented speakers such as most North Americans, to hear my name properly without the R pronounced. It happens on at least a weekly basis.

I don't even bother saying my surname any more; if people need it, I write it or spell it. Not even my mother can say my surname, even though it's only three syllables and she's had it for 20 years. Its pronunciation (especially the stress) is really difficult for most English speakers.

The only big mishap of different usage of the same word I can think of is when I was trying to explain what happened at a party to my Floridian friend who thought I meant "she was angry" when I said "she was pissed" instead of what I actually meant; "she was drunk", because it's far rarer to use "pissed" to refer to drunkenness in North America.

 

Speaking of names, for whatever reason apparently my name only exists within the boundaries of Spanish because I haven't met the first non-Spanish speaker that was able to pronounce it completely (let alone right). This is why I gave up long ago and now I just tell people my name is Curtis, despite that name having no resemblance whatsoever to my actual name. A lot of people call me Curt.

I'm always thoroughly amused by all the people close to me that have no idea of what my real name is.

Life is so hilarious.

 

If you hung around me long enough, you'd catch on. But some of the ones I've said...

Dahwg for dog

Budweezer for Budweiser

Officahl for official (not since I was a kid though)

Drahgone for dragon

 

Mine too. Bit of the same, Yorn. And where I live in the Netherlands, we pronounce it as if it reads Yoren, but then with the /r/ sound (same as the Finnish r). People pronounce my name in so many ways. Yon, Yoren/Yorin/Yoran (with the English r in read), ... I always have to write it down too, as in Dutch, one would Assume to write my name as either Yoren or Joren. :dry:

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My boyfriend said that I say eye-dee to idea, instead of the normal pronunciation for idea. I know that I pronounce tomato in 3 different ways, with the a in palm, the ay in way or the British /a/~/ä/ like in have.

If I don't pay attention, I mispronounce variable as variable (with y in why sound for the i), I sometimes say finnet to finite and I tend to drop certain letters that shouldn't be dropped.

 

Played rugby at a national competition, captain of a northern team came up to me and i couldn't understand a word he said. Spent about 2 minutes trying to understand him before we parted ways confused

 

Bulldog instead of Pit Bull. ("I thought you owned a bulldog not....that.")
Louisiana is pronounced "lose-ee-anna". ("Lost Anna? Wha....?")

 

Apple (ey-poll)
Picture (peek-ture)
Iphone (I-phone-knee)
Nautica (Naw-chee-kuh)

Gotta love those Brazilian pronunciations

 

Oh, "wee-fee" instead of wi-fi!? :eusa_doh:

 

I remember in 7th grade a girl in my class was doing a presentation and kept talking about the "nayzees" (rhyming with navies). It took a few minutes to realize she was actually talking about Nazis...that one was pretty bad.

 

I was told to be extra vigilante