Sunday, March 29, 2015

Words we didn't know we didn't know how to pronounce

Even apart from our American accent, of course, we're always pronouncing words wrong.  We knew to expect advertisement or aluminium, but we weren't expecting adversary or glacier; compost (see previous blog post) or the letter 'z' to be pronounced differently, among a few.  Here are just a couple that make us laugh or shake our heads every time:

Fillet (rhymes with 'skillet' - /ˈfɪlɪt/, AU pronunciation, v. /fɨˈleɪ/, US pronunciation)

Baroque (pronounced 'ba-rock' - /bəˈrɒk/, AU pronunciation, v. /bəˈroʊk/, US pronunciation)

Decal (pronounced 'dekkal' - /ˈdɛkəl/ v. /dɨˈkæl/)

Scone (rhymes with 'on' instead of 'cone' - /skɒn/ v. /skəʊn/)

And our personal favorite, debut.  Pronounced 'dayboo', accent on the 'boo'. (/ˈdɛbjuː/ v. /deɪˈβjuː/)

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