this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

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Just based on how often I notice someone mispronounce a word without realizing it (or have done so myself and realized it later). Statistically I'm probably still doing it with some word.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Welcome to the world of Irish names!

We got:

  • Dearbhla (Derv-la, f)
  • caoilfhionn (kee-lin, f)
  • Meadhbh (Maeve, f)
  • Saoirse (seer-shuh, f)
  • Seoirse (shor-shuh, m)
  • Caoimhín (kee-veen, m)
  • Sadhbh (sive, f)

And many more!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hope do you pronounce Siobhan?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (13 children)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I believe it's pronounced "wstr"

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Close, that's Worcester. Worcestershire is "wstrshr"!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

One of my friends once called me pedantic, and I got to correct his pronunciation of it - he stressed the first syllable. One of the high points of my life.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Someone is peDANTic, but they themselves are a PEdant. Probably why they made that mistake

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (13 children)
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

A "niche" is not a "nitch"

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (12 children)

You're a bit too late for trying to complain about that one.

The latter has been the dominant American pronunciation of the word for so long that it now appears as the primary pronunciation guide in American dictionaries.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Both Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster agree that "nitch" was the correct pronunciation in both British and American English until very recently. You already linked Merriam-Webster, so here's O.E.D:

N.E.D. (1907) gives only the pronunciation (nitʃ) /nɪtʃ/ and the pronunciation /niːʃ/ is apparently not recorded before this date. H. Michaelis & D. Jones Phonetic Dict. Eng. Lang. (1913), and all editions of D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. up to and including the fourteenth edition (1977) give /nɪtʃ/ as the typical pronunciation and /niːʃ/ as an alternative pronunciation. The fifteenth edition (1991) gives /niːʃ/ in British English and /nɪtʃ/ in U.S. English.

(N.E.D is the original name of the O.E.D. "/nɪtʃ/" is pronounced "nitch" and /niːʃ/ is pronounced "neesh".)

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

For me it isn't "some" word it is "many, many" words.

charcuterie (shar-KOO-terr-ee) (TIL)

potable (POH-tah-bull)

prerogative (preh-ROG-ah-tiv) -- wait, wat? Damn. I say it (pur-OHG-ah-tiv)

preternatural (pree-ter-NAT-chur-al)

remuneration (reh-myoo-ner-AY-shun) -- I'm not admitting how I say it lol

surprise - let's just say I spelled it suprise for ages. sigh

victual (vittle) - wait, that's how you spell it??

Indefatigable (IN-dih-FA-tih-gə-bl) not in-dee-fa-TEEG-able

Primer: \PRIMM-er\ -- small book / short informative piece of writing. (Brits can use long-i for both the paint undercoat and the book).

Mischievous: \MISS-chuh-vuss\ though mis-CHEE-vee-us is a non standard alternate pronunciation.

Interlocutor: \in tuhr LOCK you tore. I had no idea how to pronounce this so I never said it.

I think some "mispronunciations" are down to regional pronunciation. Like, I say miniature as MIN-ih-chure by habit though I'm well aware of how it's spelled and "should" be pronounced. I swear that's how I heard it growing up.

Maybe it isn't regional and it is just me. That would explain some things lol.

And uh, yeah I have a bunch more, some I know but am forgetting at the moment. Undoubtedly I mispronounce many more while having no idea. What must people think of me? Lol

[–] RvTV95XBeo 11 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Look, I was on board until you started throwing out made up words like preternatural, victual, and indefatigable, then I knew you were pulling my leg.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (12 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll concede aluminium when the Brits adopt platinium

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

theyll adopt aluminum as soon as you wrap your lips around a fag

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't threaten ME with a good time.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

I was like 25 when I found out it was wheelbarrow and not wheelbarrel

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (14 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (12 children)

For the C/C++ nerds: Clang. There are still many people pronouncing it "Cee-lang".

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wait but...but that means I'm supposed to pronounce it like the sound of slamming metal doors? but it's for the C language!

am I seriously getting gif'd again?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hear so many people pronounce "cavalry" as "calvary," which is a different word altogether.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A coworker of mine always says chipolte it boils my guts

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I pronounce Chipotle with the same emphasis as Aristotle

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Worcestershire.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiasis.

I must be pronouncing them right enough for voice to text to understand me because I certainly cannot spell those.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Not exactly related to the question, but as a non-native English speaker, whenever I read something related to weights in imperial, e.g., 150 lbs, my mind reads it as 150 lubes.

I know it's pounds, if I would read it out loud, I would say pounds cause I'm not a weirdo (well...). But still, my internal monologue has lbs = lubes

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel you. My inner voice reads this as "libs".

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Mine was "daschund". I always thought that was a separate breed from a "doxen".

Even after being educated on how the word is actually pronounced, I still purposefully pronounce it literally "daschund". Fuck 'em - should've spelled it better.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I made the mistake of pronouncing epitome as "ep-i-tome" for a while.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hyperbole, not ‘hyper-bowl’ (like superbowl)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

superbowl like su-perb-owl?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I had a roommate in college that pronounced "epitome" like "epi-tohm." He also pronounced "tome" like "toom." Drove me nuts.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

As a non native EN speaker, this website helped a lot. Even has regional variants

https://youglish.com/

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You could record the times when you find out a new word that you've been pronouncing wrong. You should notice less and less new mispronounced words as your list of known mispronounced words gets longer and longer. If you graph the data out, you can extrapolate the curve out to infinity, and you can estimate how many total words you're mispronouncing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So swaive vs suave or deboner vs debonair? Maybe 'fisticated vs sophisticated? You could be a swaive, deboner, 'fisticated urbane 'burban urbanite.

Personally, I blame the French for the short comings of the English language, just because I randomly can.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And that is fine, when/if someone corrects you, you explain that you have never heard the word spoken, just read it.

Tri-ummm-vir-ate

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[–] threelonmusketeers 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Peregrine. It was only last week that I realized it has two r's and doesn't rhyme with penguin.

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