I really only like to listen to books read by the author.

I would have said they are two totally different words...learned something.

If we are going to talk narrating we are going down a rabbit hole about spelling too.

Oh that's sad...

The narrator(s?) may have mispronounced them, but the director/producer/editor should have caught it

ETA: My sister said that pronunciation of Don Quixote is quite common if you've never heard the name pronounced

Last night I was watching Jeopardy! and Ken Jennings pronounced Coachella

”ko-a chella”

I turned to my husband and said ”Huh, that’s not how I thought it was pronounced.”

Is it ko-chella or ko-a-chella?

Here we pronounce it ko-chella or coach-ella.

I've heard hyperbole pronounced that way by others on tv.

Either is apparently correct. I thought it had something to do with the Indians there but their name was pronounced ko WEE ah. The town name was changed from Woodspur in 1901 or something but the name origin is unclear.

Mr. Rogers neighborhood had a character named Donkey Hodie

Here we pronounce it ko-chella or coach-ella.

Yes, same here.

I did a work-study in college and my job was to read textbook passages into a tape-recorder (it was a long time ago) for blind students. I can't remember what subject it was for but the word "paradigm" kept coming up in one the readings. I had no idea what the word meant so I pronunced it "pair-a-dig-em" at least 10 times. Later that day I asked my DH (who was my BF at the time) what "pair-a-dig-em" meant. He still makes fun of me to this day about that pronounciation.

The town is 90% Spanish speaking. I'd guess they pronounce it "Co-a-CHAY-a. Here is a link to Coachella's Wikipedia page with pronunciation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coachella,_California

It's funny to remember words you've always read and pronounced in your head before you ever heard them said aloud. Or sometimes you've heard them aloud but didn't associate that with the word you've read. I think hyperbole is one of mine. No one in my life growing up ever used that word in speaking, so I always read it hyperbowl. Epitome is another I mispronounced in my head for years. And I'll never learn how to properly pronounce GIF!

I spend half my time in Coachella Valley, and while there, I hear it pronounced Koh-CHEL-ah and koh-ah-CHEL-ah, although more often I hear the former. No one uses the Spanish pronunciation of Co-a-cheya - in fact, Spanish pronunciations are rare in California. San Rafael is pronounced "San Ra-FELL", San Pedro is pronounced "San PEE droh", and you know how Los Angeles is pronounced, with a soft "G" and not an "H" the way it is pronounced in Mexico. What really bothers me is when people say "Los Angle-es", which would be correct in German, but I guess since words like get, gear, gecko, geese, geld all have hard G's, then I can see why some people would want to use a Germanic pronunciation - even though "Angeles" is not a Germanic word.

My mother would get mad at me when I would return from Mexico to visit her in Texas and say that I was going to go back to "San Fran-SEES-co" with a rolled "R", I got used to saying it that way when I was in Mexico, and it took me a while to revert back to the American pronunciation. In fact, it would take me a while to stop rolling all of my R's, and I still roll my "R" when I say "three" for some reason. I've always said it that way, and so do my relatives.

Here, I often say "Mar VEES-tah" instead of "Mar Vista" and I get called on that.

ETA: I've always heard GIF pronounced as in the word "gift" but without the "T". Since it is an acronym, it would be confusing if pronounced "jif", since jiffy is a word.

Lars, I will never remember it, but when I look it up, it says the proper pronunciation is JIF.

I think either is correct?

However, the ’inventor’ of the word says jif.

🤠

Here's an interesting article on the history of the pronunciation of GIF.

Jif was the inventor's preferred pronunciation, because he liked Jiffy peanut butter, but since I do not eat (or like) peanut butter, I do not pronounce it that way, as I find it ambiguous. I've heard people say, "I'll be with you in a jiff," but I've never heard anyone use the word GIF with a hard G except to refer to the image format.

Even if one never encountered "hyperbole" in English class, surely one met hyperbolas in a different class...

The 'G' in GIF stands for 'Graphics', so I say GIF with the hard 'G' & I'm sticking to it.

And I do get hung up on what seem to be mispronunciations, tho I sometimes find out I was wrong.

I don't listen to audiobooks though - I prefer podcasts - many of which are storytelling. I get way too critical of people reading books aloud, and that spoils the enjoyment for me.

Well, I listen to books while I do other things, I am listening to one now as I type this. I read books that take more attention, but listen to light books. And the narrator makes a big difference. I listened to a couple books narrated by Prunella Scales and another book in the series seems to only be available on one of those sites where they books are read by volunteers, some of which are very difficult to listen to. So I will probably have to read it, which might not happen.

I listen to a lot of podcasts of intelligent people speaking. Lately I've been hearing some say CON-tri-bute instead of con-TRIB-ute. What's going on? Maybe just reading too fast and not thinking about the word?

My daughter who does tech pods insists GIF must have a hard G, same reason as carolb.

People at Longwood constantly mispronounce plant names, Pointsettia, Kalanchoe, Clivia...I never correct anyone and the correct names are a mouthful. But yes, I get annoyed when I hear (rarely) NPR folks butcher something.

I remember my mom falling over laughing when I pronounced the name Peen a lope. In my defence I was 10. Again, when I was describing the neighour's lovely fireplace herth instead of harth (hearth). Sadly, I was in my 30s when I discovered that one.

Bunny, I think they are trying to sound British, like people who have started saying "adverts" instead of "ads"...sort of how people now "go missing". :P

And get jabbed.

And fall pregnant.

Actually I never say gif, however you pronounce it. I just say attached image or picture.

British english is different. My son-in-law is english. Ask him what time it is and he may say, ”It’s hoff ten.” He says he has to ”wee.“ Last summer two of my granddaughters, ages 9 and 11, were playing with their two year old cousin, the englishman’s son, in my yard. After a while the three gkids found me in the kirchen. The 11 yo said, ”Grandma, Henry keeps telling us he wants to wee in the loo but we don’t know what he means!” I knew, and we made it to the loo in time.

Years ago, we lived next door to a couple from deep in the heart of Maine. Her accent was so thick you could cut it with a knife. We live in Oklahoma, and I'm sure our accents were just as thick to them. She & I spent a lot of time together, and we'd be rambling on in conversation and she'd say something I didn't understand, and I'd have to stop the conversation, and ask for clarification. She'd do the same with me. LOL

Example, she had this ground cover in her flower bed, and I asked what it was, "money -waatt." She repeated it a few times. I went to the garden center and they didn't have a clue what I was asking for. So I had her write it down for me. "Moneywort". (aka Creeping Jenny)

I've noticed our TV anchors, and mostly the younger ones, mispronounce words a lot. On the 6:00 news - It's amazes me how many do so, and apparently their editors/bosses don't correct them, because they repeat it incorrectly again on the 11:00 show.

Im another person who didnt realize the written word epitome (mentally pronounced epi tome) was the same word I assumed was spelled more like epitamy. I discovered this in my late 20s

4 years ago, my co workers informed me that a cache is pronounced like cash and is not a caysh.

i have trouble with the word gesture. I keep defaulting to a hard g, so I try to avoid saying it out loud :)

There's a county in Northern California called Del Norte - Spanish for "of the North." It should be pronounced del nor-tay, but the locals say del nort. Drives me crazy!

I saw this on Facebook recently, and thought that it was cute, though nowadays we can usually find correct pronunciations on dictionary.com and other sites.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hyperbole

Quinnipiac - used in the context of votor polling. I have always heard it pronounced QUINN-i-piac. Recently heard some TV hosts pronounce quinn-IP-iac. Which is correct?

I despise when an author reads their own book. I've been listening to audios since they started having them at the library on cassettes decades ago and when I was working as an illustrator, had to have a book going during much of the work.

Around 1998 my mother and father got sick and we as a family had always been extreme readers, and he would lie in bed next to her reading aloud paperbacks. So tender.

I suggested books on cassette and they were very negative but I brought one over anyway and a tape player, some highly entertaining thriller most likely and the next day, Holly, we need more.

So for the next 20 years my Dad always had bunches and I used his, mine and my husbands library cards so I could get 15 each week at the library,

He was super negative and anxious when we switched to "discs" but again, never looked back!

Such memories.

Don't get me started on the words salmon and comparable.

There's a county in Northern California called Del Norte - Spanish for "of the North." It should be pronounced del nor-tay, but the locals say del nort. Drives me crazy!

Though I'm not Hispanic, after living in Miami for 40+ years I instinctively give Spanish-origin names or words their correct-in-that-language pronounciation.

But down here there is a hyper-local pronunciation I've never heard before which always gives me a mental snag.

I want to call the state park named Bahia Honda buh-HEE-uh hahnda. Conchs say BAY-uh hahnda. My closest bilingual friend...well I can't really even roll it like Ana does but it's something like beh EEE uh ONDA. Words are funny things!

Fori, I don't think the speakers were trying to sound British, based on who they are and the rest of their speech patterns. I lived in England for 6 years and never heard it pronounced that way (unlike con-TROV-er-cy). It sounded more like a mis-pronunciation, like a robot voice.

One of the oddities of pronunciation is although it is Don Key Ho Tay, because that is a Spanish proper name, quixotic is not pronounced almost like chaotic, it is pronounce Kwik Zotic, because it is an America word that does not have a direct analogue in Spanish.

At my book club meetings, I am often struck by how differently we have been pronouncing characters names in our heads as we read the book. I cant think of any examples off hand, but it happens frequently.

Yesterday I was watching a video about pendulum exercises and the instructor pronounced it pen-doo-lum. I have always said pend-joo-lum. I think I’m right.

I cannot listen to a book being read, especially when I drive. I figured this out a long time ago. For one it takes too much concentration for me to pay attention to driving and I miss out on the book. Another thing that drives me crazy is when a narrator tries to effect a southern accent and it’s so fake. Same with movies although i dont hear this as much in movies anymore.

This discussion reminds me of when I was a kid. I always read in the car on family trips. I ran across the word ’colonel’ for the first time and you can guess what went through my mind. co-lone-el. I finally asked my mother and she straighened me out.

At my book club meetings, I am often struck by how differently we have been pronouncing characters names in our heads as we read the book. I cant think of any examples off hand, but it happens frequently.

I remember volunteering in my son's 4th grade classroom while the teacher was reading Harry Potter to the class. She pronounced Hermione's name as hermy-one. 😄

Hermione is what came to mind for me as well. Now that we have the movies, it's not an issue, but that name was not exactly common.

I didn't know how to pronounce Hermione until the character explained how to pronounce it--book 4, maybe? (I think I was saying MEE rather than MY in the middle, not quite as bad as Hermy-one.)

"Rapport" was one I got wrong for a long time.

My sister and I got giggles when my brother pronounced Genesis as guh-NEE-see-us (he was in elementary school and it was the name of a spaceship in a sci-fi book, so maybe the biblical connection wasn't obvious to him).

• I had a friend whose daughter was named Hermione. They were Scottish. This was before Harry Potter. However, they left out the r when they said it so it sounded more like Hem my oh nee.

Other Irish and Scottish names are difficult for me , too. A girl i my neighborhood was named Aisling, pronounced Aishling

Shioban is an Irish name that is not pronunced how it's spelled. My DH's grandmother was named Erie but it's pronounced Airie.

@ratherbesewing ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zzMxEyINP4

I would have to stop reading.

This is what I do when I read a typo.

Pre-HIPAA, a phlebotomist where I worked called out a patient’s name because it was his turn. His name was Stampone, which should be pronounced Stam-pone. She called ”Mr. Stamp One”. The guy said ”did you mean me? Stam-pone?”

We all had a good laugh.

After they stopped calling surnames, they called by first name. I was once the patient and 2 of us stood up when my name was called. I think then the phlebotomist offered first initial of surname. 🙄

Eventually, they switched to a number assigned as you checked in. That avoids mangling names or revealing identities. On the card they hand you with the number, it explains that the numbers aren't necessarily called in order because people are going to different testing areas (x-ray, lab, etc).

Although I’m not Hispanic, I’ve lived here in New Mexico for 39 years and am (somewhat) bilingual. It’s very noticeable to me not only tourists (who understandably might not know how to pronounce our Spanish words), but also the new newspeople who initially butcher some of our words. It doesn’t bother me, although I do mentally cringe every time I hear someone say , “Rio Grand” instead of “Rio GRAHN-day”.

Pal, how do you like Prunella Scales as reader?

I’ve listened to two books read by Gary Sinise and he is good. Although, he sometimes uses an inappropriate accent for a character (Southern accent for a character in Maine).

Re: Hermione…I am old enough to remember Hermione Gingold, so have always pronounced it as she did.

Me too Oly!

Gigi!!

I definitely remember colonel. Here's another one that I hear at times ( and DH does this) for the word worship. He always pronounces it as war-ship. We tease him about it as he never realized it. The other day we heard someone on TV say war-ship and DH was feeling validated.

How about shortlived?

When reading I always read it with the short i but I think the proper is the long i as in Life?

Sometimes the correct pronunciation gets you in difficulties. As a kid taking french, I told mother lingerie was lan ger EE not lon jer AY. No one knew what she was talking about so she went back to lon jer AY. When I say yama for llama most people don't know what I'm talking about. At least people do understand cwah- son for croissant instead of the cringe-worth cru sant. But it's "de TRI tus" not DET tri tus and it's a PI LEE ATE ed woodpecker, not PI lated.

But I do remember the time as a child I said "con science" and my parents started laughing. Another was a friend's child who said "DEE ter mine" for determine. And my embarrassment in school when we were doing vocabulary and the teacher gave me the lesson of looking up the pronunciation as well as the meaning of the word when I pronounced financier as "fin NAN shur".

Yet nothing makes you look more like an a$$ than correcting someone's pronunciation only to find out *you* are the one who's wrong. Ask me how I know! :)

My friend would say skee-on for scion, which i believe is pronounced sigh-un. He would not believe me!

Annie, i remember when i was a kid I thought determined was pronounced detter- minded.

Haha - I do actually use some faulty pronunciations to help me remember how to spell things 😃