Words you feel silly saying properly

[mickle]

Does Barcelona crop up in conversations a lot in your house?

 

[trustysteed]

My boyfriend for some reason always pronounces Barcelona with the c sounding like a th, "Bar-the-lona". Now I think this is the correct way to say it if you are Spanish but I don't know why he does it in English. The weird thing is that I'm picking up the habit from him...

i'd find that more pretentious than annoying!

 

[Fnaar]

My boyfriend for some reason always pronounces Barcelona with the c sounding like a th, "Bar-the-lona". Now I think this is the correct way to say it if you are Spanish but I don't know why he does it in English. The weird thing is that I'm picking up the habit from him...

In most of Spain, it would have the 'th' sound, but in Catalan, the 'c' of Barcelona would be pronounced as an 's', and so your bf would be wrong. Southern Spaniards too would make it an 's', as would Spanish - speaking S.Americans.
So there

 

[fimm]

Does Barcelona crop up in conversations a lot in your house?

LOL
His Mum went a trip there recently. Also there are middle- and long-distance triathlons there, and a marathon (all of which are the sort of things he likes doing).

 

[mangaman]

Espresso not "expresso".

My boyfriend for some reason always pronounces Barcelona with the c sounding like a th, "Bar-the-lona". Now I think this is the correct way to say it if you are Spanish but I don't know why he does it in English. The weird thing is that I'm picking up the habit from him...

Football pundits often half-heartedly try to pronounce the word in the local way.

Mee-lan for Milan seems a common one. Odd as the place is called Milano anyway

 

[trustysteed]

LOL
His Mum went a trip there recently. Also there are middle- and long-distance triathlons there, and a marathon (all of which are the sort of things he likes doing).

don't you mean triaclons and maracons?

 

[Andy in Sig]

Kill me. Kill me now.

A particular bugbear of mine is latte - the milky coffee drink. The first syllable rhymes with 'Hat', not with 'car'.
It is not a larrr-tay.

It's amusing to bring out the petty snob in the flunkies in coffee bars by asking for a big milky coffee and they say, "do you mean a grande latte" to which the only reply is "no this is England so I want a bloody big milky coffee".

 

[j66]

Can't force myself to say 'Linnux', much prefer 'Lynux'.

Had a girlfriend once a long time ago, who, having never heard the phrase out loud, once announced "No way, Josie!" to much amusement...

 

[palinurus]

Surely "lynux" is more correct considering the origin of the word?

 

[j66]

Perhaps I should have written it 'Lye-nux'. Linus says 'Linnux', actually, but then, he says 'chazum' for chasm so who knows...

 

[brokenbetty]

I find it almost impossible not to call starters "horses' dooffers" even though it wasn't funny in the 70s and has got less funny since. I make myself cringe let alone anyone else.

My mum finds it impossible not to pronounce words in their original language if she knows it, including the names of starsigns. Are-ee-ays, Pisskeys, Saggit-ar-eeus, Towrus...