this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
58 points (95.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

34021 readers
2184 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Before I heard it being said I kept pronouncing the surname "Mangione" as "Man-jee-own" rather than "man-jo-nee" and I'm still ashamed about it lol I'm sorry

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (7 children)

All English town names, by spite and ignorance but mostly spite.

Oh, I am not pronounching "Glouchestershire" correctly? SPELL it correctly then!

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 20 points 1 month ago

For all native English speakers, this is how the rest of us feel about any words in English

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is that the one pronounced "Wooster"?

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, Worcestershire is pronounced woostershire

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

And Gloucestershire sounds like Glousteshire.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There was a YouTube video I watch ages ago and it explained it pretty well.

The differences depends on who settled the town. Roman, Saxon, or Viking

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I have American friends who couldn't pronounce it. it was always some variant of "Glow-kester-sheer" but tbh I can't blame them, the spelling doesn't do the pronunciation justice 😂

[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

I think I'm supposed to say "gl" and then the vocal equivalent of "asdfasdfasdf"

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 7 points 1 month ago

Start intentionally pronouncing "Pittsburgh" with the -burgh suffix from Edinburgh or Musselburgh to get them back

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

In his comments on the Jeeves & Wooster series Stephen Fry talked a bit about English family names. Among others, he said Mainwaring is pronounced "Mannering", and Cholmondeley is "Chumley".

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 1 month ago

When I was on vacation with my father in Scotland we wanted to see the highland games in Glenisla. We needed directions or needed to know the exact date when they'd take place or so, so we went to some tourist information. That poor girl there had no idea what we wanted when we asked about glennis-law. But she soon figured out that we meant glen-ila.

The highland games were awesome, btw!

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Pronounced Siobhan as SheOhBahn for years.

Sorry SheVohn!

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 6 points 1 month ago

omg I know the feeling. had someone in college named this and I pronounced it the same way until she corrected me and I was so sorry 😭 an apology to Siobhans everywhere!

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, and apparently it's the Irish equivalent of fucking "Joan" or similar. JFC.

[–] selkiesidhe@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

For me it's, Saoirse

I have to look it up every time I see it.

[–] ouRKaoS 2 points 1 month ago

If I remember this one, it's Sher-sha?

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I used to have a work friend named Siobhan and when I'd come home I'd mention her to my partner. Sometimes I would text him about her. He fully thought these were two different people for like a year.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Same here. One of my favorite bit-part actors is Siobhan Fallon, who played the wife of "Egger" in Men in Black. She absolutely stole the few scenes she was in. I didn't know I was mispronouncing her name for years.

[–] _LordMcNuggets_@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago

came here to say literally THIS name haha, crazy

[–] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Chongqing like "Chongqing Chicken". not pronounced "chonking".

"Añejo", not pronounced "ah-neh-joe"

"Hors d'oeuvre". funnily not pronounced "horse divorce".

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

"Hors d’oeuvre”. funnily not pronounced “horse divorce”.

That's a new one and I love it I like calling them "hours devours" which also adds in a non-existing consonant.

[–] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yeah, french (and borrowed words) is usually my hard-mode when it comes to pronunciations. this one is special because it's dessert (or so I think).

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

As used around here in the US it is fancy finger foods, usually appetizers. But we also tend to use the words differently than the source, like we use entree for the main part of the meal.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How's Chongqing pronounced?

[–] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wikipedia says it is like Chóngqìng. "Chong" with long o sound, then tsin.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Any Chinese name beginning with X. Took me awhile to figure out Nuyen as well.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 9 points 1 month ago

Nguyen

'N when did you find out?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not convinced there is a correct pronunciation for "Kirsten."

[–] zammy95@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Are you combining it in your head with Kristen or Kierstin?

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Apparently, any Indian names until I can see how they are spelled.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Etterra@discuss.online 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Ghislaine, but I do it on purpose.

I'm still trying to get some Irish names right in my head, specifically Rhiannon and especially Siobhan.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

Team Jizz Lane

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

I did so too but that's because I knew an actual Ghislaine who pronounced her own name like "djizlaine"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago

Loudon Wainwright

[–] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gonna use this thread as inspiration to piss off people, thank you for your contributions.

Also Gyro is pronounced j-eye-roe.

[–] underline960@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

I thought it was yee-row.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just mentioned this in another thread - Kraken. I say it phonetically - "krayken - but for some reason the world says "cracken".

[–] Venicon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Two common names in Scotland are Aileen and Eileen but damned if I don’t say the wrong one every time.

[–] hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I'll answer for the 99% of people in my life: Hiram

🫠

[–] hubobes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

I always pronounced Tolkens name as Token, apparently nobody else made that mistake.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 3 points 1 month ago

Lancaster (as in Pennsylvania).

Pronounced it as "LAN Caster" like some sort of cyberpunk mage.

[–] brendansimms@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Hasan - I feel like different people have different pronunciations of it and I can't keep track of which is for who.

[–] mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Internal monologue:

Fuck. Jeremy? Germy? Jehrehmy? Jerremy?

Yo! J-dawg how's it hanging man?

load more comments
view more: next ›