this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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[–] Apeman42@lemmy.world 76 points 5 days ago (10 children)

I read so many fantasy books growing up thinking "draught" rhymed with "aught", instead of just being another spelling of "draft".

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 37 points 5 days ago (5 children)

...Up until now, I still thought that. That's... significantly less fantastical, and I think a small part of me just died.

[–] Apeman42@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

I'm so sorry. I assumed I was the last to know.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Fret not! Hang on to "draut" in your mind with the rest of us early readers. And when you need to say draft, just spell it draft. Meanwhile in the privacy of your own head, you can think, "I'm hot, so I'll take a long refreshing draught of this draft beer whilst I stand in the cool draught from the door. " We'll never tell.

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Another good one: gaol = jail. I kept pronouncing it in my head like "gowl".

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Australian, I flat out refused to ever use 'gaol' from the moment I first encountered it in school.

[–] Sculptor9157@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Because prison colony, or ...???

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[–] tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 5 days ago

this language is bullshit

[–] BenVimes@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 days ago (7 children)

'Epitome' will forever be epi-tome in my head: 'epi' like in EpiPen and tome as in a big heavy book.

And the 'c' in 'indictment' also always gets pronounced when I read the word to myself.

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[–] Bring_Back_Buggy_Whips@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I knew that long ago, but it'll remain drawt in my brain, just because....

[–] mrbeano@lemmy.zip 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Yup. First pronunciation to make it to long-term storage, wins forever!

Like hyperbole, it's always "hyper-bowl" to me

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[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 50 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It's actually "Hors d'œuvre"...

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 13 points 5 days ago (3 children)

What the hell is going on with french keyboards anyway?

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 33 points 5 days ago

See you just type the o and e really really fast. That way the o doesn’t have the time to get out of the way of the e and they sorta get smooshed together. It takes some practice but you’ll get there.

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Wait have you never seen long press?

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[–] blinfabian@feddit.nl 9 points 5 days ago

horse doovrey

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 4 days ago

They had dined on horse meat, horse cheese, horse black pudding, horse d'oeuvres, and a thin beer that Rincewind didn't want to speculate about.

— Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 35 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You might as well just have said 'French' and be done with it.

[–] M137@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Every letter after the first is completely unnecessary.

[–] AlexLost@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Niche drives me nuts as a French speaker. It is not Nitch. It is Knee-shh. I will die on this hill

[–] brotundspiele@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

Could y'all please stop dieing on hills all the time?! I love hiking, but all the corpses are really disturbing.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

As a non-French speaker, I completely agree with you. If I use a borrowed word, I do my best to pronounce it like a native speaker would.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (3 children)

As a colonizer, I consider it my duty to butcher borrowed/foreign words. You should hear me say bolognese.

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Nietzsche

Here you go, now nobody's happy

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[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Any word with three consecutive vowels should be recalled

[–] mcz@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Škrt plch z mlh Brd pln skvrn z mrv prv hrd scvrnkl z brzd skrz trs chrp v krs vrb mls mrch srn čtvrthrst zrn.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Most normal czech/polish type sentence

[–] TheOneAndOnly@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (3 children)

From Google Translate: "A scythe of the nightingale from the mist A bridle full of carrion stains, the first pride shrivelled from the bridle through a cornflower cluster in the willow bush, a carrion deer quarter of a handful of grain."

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 days ago (4 children)

People will complain about that but not look twice at "rendezvous".

I don't think that I've ever heard anybody pronounce "chaise longue" correctly. It's "shay long".

[–] dave@feddit.uk 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Actually (pronounced acktschually) it’s ‘shayz long’ The ‘s’ is usually only silent when it’s the last letter of the word.

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You should hear how the French pronounce it. Can’t even recognise it as English anymore.

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Why do you say that? It's just chez long. At worst it's like chez long-uh. So it's really just a different accent more than anything. Also, the word is french not english so..

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I think you got whooshed on that last english part.

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Hah.. yeah, you're right xD. My bad

[–] ODGreen@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Shez Long

It literally means long chair. Not lounge chair.

Nobody pronounces "bruschetta" correctly; it's "broo-SKET-ta"

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[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 4 points 4 days ago

chez ≠ chaise

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[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Make it just a little bit worse, that œ hits the spot:
d'œuvre

[–] JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (3 children)

The word ok expecting me to spell it out instead of pronouncing it like oak.

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or derv

There, fixed it.

[–] jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk 2 points 4 days ago

Good name for an equine cleaner.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 8 points 5 days ago (7 children)

All the homonyms with different pronunciations.

Read / Read

Lead / Lead

Compound / Compound

Bass / Bass

Content / Content

etc.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 14 points 5 days ago

Dearest creature in Creation, Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

It will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye your dress you'll tear. So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,

Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it? Just compare heart, beard and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain, (Mind the latter, how it's written!) Made has not the sound of bade, Say—said, pay—paid, laid, but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you With such words as vague and ague, But be careful how you speak, Say break, steak, but bleak and streak,

Previous, precious; fuchsia, via; Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir, Cloven, oven; how and low; Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe,

Hear me say devoid of trickery, daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles, Missiles, similes, reviles,

Finally: which rhymes with "enough," Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough? Hiccough has the sound of "cup"... My advice is—give it up!

  • A shortened version of The Chaos by Dutch poet Gerard Nolst Trenité

Mostly the opposite situation to your comment since they're spelled the same but pronounced differently, but it feels relevant

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[–] Brown5500@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)
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