Tet-nus

It’s Helico-Pter not Heli-Copter. It’s a greek word from hélikos (screw, spiral, winding) and pterón (wing).

And since I’m fun at parties, I consequently pronounce it with a slight pause before and stress on the P and not a miniscule pause after the I and a slight stress on the O.

I’m German. One day my house was renovated and they were working with jackhammers to remove parts of the facade. It was incredibly loud and I couldn’t bare it. I lived close to university and had recently stopped working in one of the institutes. I knew though that my former colleagues had couches in some of their offices so I thought I’d give them a visit. I walked over to the institute and greeted my Australian former coworker. I explained about the noise in my house and said I was “looking for asylum”. Knowing the word “asylum” only from written language, I had no idea it was not actually pronounced “ay suh lum”. He asked “you’re looking for what?” as he obviously hadn’t understood. I repeated “ay suh lum” confidently and he politely said “ah”. Not long after, I learned the correct pronunciation of asylum and that memory has haunted me ever since. It’s been almost 10 years but I still cringe about it.

Penalised. Is it from penal colony, or a penalty?

(allegedly both pronunciations are valid, and my experience has been others who were educated with a more British background pronounce it like penal-ized)

I still don’t know how you pronounce it. Im not sure myself but when my dad had a headache he would say he needed an assburn.

Two immediately come to mind.

First is “Comfortable”. I pronounce each part of the word: “COME-for-tuh-bull”. Many people give me weird looks and insist on “Comf-turr-bull”.

The other is more niche and has to do with League of Legends.

There is a champion whose theme is moonlight. His backstory is that he belongs to a moon cult who opposes a group that is am Order of the Sun type group. This character is an edgelord whose whole thing is darkness and midnight etc etc.

His name is a combination of the Greek “Ap” meaning “furthest from” and “Helios” meaning the sun. His name is Greek for “the one furthest from the sun” in this moon cult.

In Greek, “ph” does not make the “fuh” sound. His name should rightly be pronounced “App-Hee-lee-ose”

But all the casters and developers call him “Uhh-fell-ee-ose” and it drives me absolutely insane.

Buttons. I don’t say but-ins, I pronounce it like but-tons. Idk why I didn’t do the lazy American thing with that word but I didn’t.

Solder. I taught myself, never really talked to anyone about it, and for like a decade, I pronounced it like it’s spelled. With an L.

I just can’t break the habit

My SO’s family all like to pronounce “mauve” in a weird way, so I say it every chance I get to perturb them.

I sometimes like mispronouncing words to point out their sillyness or for fun.

Sometimes a window is called a winddoor. Go and ask someone to open/close the windoor and play it 100% serious straight as you point to it, its great.

Sometimes a knife is pronounced kuh-nife. Sometimes Arkansas is pronounced ar-kan-sas.

I like to have fun every now and again.

You know the famous mage from Forgotten Realms? I pronounce their name “EL-ah-min-ster”

Oh, I also have a terrible Boston accent so I nearly caused an HR incident when talking about “hooked horrors” aka “hookt ho-ahs” or as my coworker heard “hooked whores”. Horror is the best word to check for a Boston accent with.

“It is called ‘baggel’. I lived in New York.”

Since that Bob’s burgers episode it’s been Tattoo but said “Tuh-too”

Yes.

I pronounce “roster” like “rooster”, because it amuses me.

“Horror” and “Water.”

(“Hor-er” and “woo-tur”)