Funny Mispronunciations You've Heard

[Psionic Roshambo]

I had a friend who pronounced Vanadium as Vandium.

Easy enough mistake since the only time you see the word is written really tiny on tools and usually they are covered in oil or grease. (Chrome Vanadium plated tools.)

Then there are the songs.... mistakenly heard lyrics are in a whole class by themselves and tons of youtube video's for those.

 

[loco365]

My pet peeve: Pokémon turns into Po-kaaay-mahn.

 

[the_randomizer]

My pet peeve: Pokémon turns into Po-kaaay-mahn.

The real pronunciation (at least in Japanese) would be poh-keh-mone

 

[loco365]

The real pronunciation (at least in Japanese) would be poh-keh-mone

That, I can understand, but when obviously-English people say it wrong... Actually, watch this ad. It clearly dictates what I hate:

 

[the_randomizer]

That, I can understand, but when obviously-English people say it wrong... Actually, watch this ad. It clearly dictates what I hate:

Ugh, that pronunciation is horrid. Hate to say it, but English-speaking folk trying to correctly pronouncing Japanese words don't usually mix that well I try to educate people on the correct intonations as, well, I love speaking the language

 

[Densetsu]

Here's something I remember from 25 years ago. Kind of a long story, but an interesting anecdote nonetheless, especially considering how far I've come in learning Japanese.

Spoiler

In my pre-pubescent years, I was part of a close-knit crew of 4 boys. One of my friends in that crew, John, is a Japanese-American who got us all into anime back in the late 80's / early 90's before it was cool to like anime

We got together every weekend and played AD&D (Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition) and NES. Some of the games we used to play extensively were Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga's Ambition and Ninja Gaiden.

My two other friends (Clint and Mark) and I used to pronounce Japanese words incorrectly all the time. John couldn't really speak Japanese but was always exposed to it at home (his parents speak it in the house and watch a lot of Japanese TV). He always pronounced the words correctly and would try to correct us.

Mark: Whaddya wanna play?
Me: I dunno, wanna play Ninja Gay-den?
John: Dudes, it's pronounced "Ninja Guy-den."
Clint: Shuddap John, you're stupid. It's "Gay-den." Everyone says it that way.

Me: You up for some No-BUNG-ga's Ambition?
Mark & Clint: Yeah, fire it up.
John: Man, you're saying it wrong. It's "No-BOO-na-ga's Ambition."
All Three: Shuddap John, it's "No-BUNG-guh."
Mark: *snickers* "No-BOO-na-ga," LOL! Who says that??

*While playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Kara-Tur campaign*
Clint: Dude, stop attacking my show-gun! ("shōgun," with "gun" incorrectly pronounced the same way as in "handgun")
John: How many times I gotta tell you it's "show-goon!"
Me: (In stupid mocking voice) Show-GOON LOLOLOL that sounds retarded!
Mark: Yeah, shuddap John, what do you know about show-guns anyway!?

*Again during Kara-Tur*
Clint: I'm gonna create a new character. I think I'll play a day-mo (he was trying to pronounce "daimyō")
Me: You're pronouncing it wrong, it's "day-myo."
John: You're both wrong, it's "die-myō."
All: Shuddap John, that sounds dumb!
Mark: I think I wanna be a day-mo, too.

Those are only a few examples of many Japanese mispronunciations of which we were guilty. And every time John tried to correct our pronunciation, we would say "Shuddap, John. That's stupid." and then proceed to make fun of the word by pronouncing it correctly (the irony).

Back then I couldn't possibly know that I would go on to master the language of the ninja, realize how wrong we were all those years, and eat a huge piece of humble pie.

I'm not sure if John even remembers that. Every now and then I meet up with him for lunch when we both have time. The next time I see him, I should probably bring it up and apologize to him

 

[the_randomizer]

Happens to the best of us, Japanese words, names, etc were a real killer, especially in the Mystical Ninja series, Sasuke, Yae, Ebisumaru and Geomon. Yeah, I mispronounced those for quite a while. Then the name in Final Fantasy, like Tifa and Yuffie (Tee-fah and Yoo-fee), yeah, I kept calling them Ti (like in Tim)-fah and Yuh-fee.

 

[RikuKawai]

Ugh, that pronunciation is horrid. Hate to say it, but English-speaking folk trying to correctly pronouncing Japanese words don't usually mix that well I try to educate people on the correct intonations as, well, I love speaking the language

Ugh 'po-kay-mon' my ears hurt, I've been saying 'po-key-mon', is that wrong?
I could see people in Japan saying it that way, as it is a shortened form of Pocket Monsters, which was popular enough to become the official title in other regions.

 

[Deleted-236924]

I had been mispronouncing ggwp(gee gee double u pee) as gee gee wee pee.

I tend to pronounce "w" as "wee" in my head too.

Ugh 'po-kay-mon' my ears hurt, I've been saying 'po-key-mon', is that wrong?
I could see people in Japan saying it that way, as it is a shortened form of Pocket Monsters, which was popular enough to become the official title in other regions.

"pokeymon" would be if it was "po-ki-mo-n", but it's "po-ke-mo-n"

 

[the_randomizer]

Ugh 'po-kay-mon' my ears hurt, I've been saying 'po-key-mon', is that wrong?
I could see people in Japan saying it that way, as it is a shortened form of Pocket Monsters, which was popular enough to become the official title in other regions.

In Japanese, it's different, more along the lines of "poh, keh, mohn" ポケモン (pokemon) a portmanteau or "ポケット"(poketto) and "モンスター” (monsutaa). Japanese is quirky that way Took me quite a while to get Japanese pronunciation down


Edit: Sorry, need to read posts more carefully, anyways, yeah, pronunciation is weird, that's for sure lol. I've always said it poh-kee-mahn.

 

[Flame]

for a very very long time i used to say mee-mee instead of meme.