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20 commonly mispronounced English words!

If using English properly interests you, and you are afraid you might be mispronouncing some words, you can check this list of commonly mispronounced words…

1. Cabin: This word for a private office area is often heard mispronounced as kay-bin. It should be pronounced as Cab-in(cab as in taxicab). In offices around the country you can find people at all levels using this massive distortion, but once you get used to the proper spelling it’s an easy transition. 
2. Data: should be day-ta not daa-taa which is also usually heard in offices. Surprisingly people from the IT sector and database consultants also sometimes also mispronounce this word which is so fundamental to their work.
   
3. Dengue: This disease is pronounced as Deng-ee(pronunciation of ‘gee’ as in geese). It is not Deng-goo. People all over the world mispronounce this word – after all it is not indigenous to most of us. But there have been so many cases in India recently (unfortunately) that this is good to know.
   
4. Dessert: It is pronounced dizz-urt, (pronunciation of u as in sun). You would order dessert at a restaurant. It sounds different from desert (with one s) which is the pronounced dez-ert (as in Thar desert).
   
5. Bowl: It is pronounced bol (rhyming with pole). Not asba-ool which sounds very funny (and in fact sounds too much like bowel).
   
6. Truth: It is pronounced true-th and not tru-th (long ‘oo’ not short ‘u’). The same actually goes for the word tooth (it’s not tu-th)
   
7. Epitome: The correct pronunciation is ep-i-tummy, instead of what people, and again this is people everywhere, usually end up saying, epi-tome (rhyming with Rome).
   
8. Executive: Should be pronounced eggs-eck-uh-tiv, notexe-cute-tiv which is commonly heard. If you especially want to be a top executive at a major corporation – saying this word correctly would seem quite important.
   
9. Develop: The correct pronunciation is dih-vel-up, and not as day-vuh-lupp. Extending that to
   
10. Pizza: The correct pronunciation is peed-zuh, (peed pronounced as in weed). And not pi-za.
    
11. Wednesday: wen’s day is the correct way of saying the name of this day (the D is usually silent).
    
12. Opposite: Instead of uh-pose-it it should be pronouncedawp-uh-zit. The emphasis is on the first syllable ‘opp’. The same goes for the word ‘opportunity’ which is notup-port-unity but awp-urt-tune-ity
    
13. Biology: Once again, the first syllable ‘bi’ gets emphasis. Where we usually say bio-logy, it is instead more proper to say bai-awe-lojy. Other ‘ology’ words are the same – geology is jee-awe-logy, cosmology is cos-maw-logy, even the made-up word fakeology or phekologyshould be pronounced phek-awe-logy, not pheko-logy.
    
14. Monk: It should be pronounced munk (rhyme with drunk). It is often mispronounced mawnk (rhyme with donk from donkey).
    
15. Genre: The correct pronunciation has a soft j, like the French say it. jon-ruh, (j is the sound as in vision). It is often mispronounced as jen-ner.
    
16. Quote: The correct pronunciation is kwo-te. It is often pronounced as coat.
    
17. Salon: It should be pronounced as sa-lawn, (sa as in apple, lon as in John) It is often pronounced as suh-loon which is incorrect.
    
18. Police: The correct pronunciation is puh-leece. It is often mispronounced as pu-liss. Like Chulbul Pandey is a pu-liss wallah.
    
19. Gauge: The correct pronunciation is gay-j. It is often mispronounced as gauj.
    
20. Pronunciation : Ironically, the word ‘pronunciation’ itself is often mispronounced as pro-noun-ciation (the second syllable should be ‘nun‘ not noun).

Interestingly, I read somewhere the only English word understood and used universally across the world is ‘taxi’. I wonder where that came from… but now you know wherever in the world you end up you will always be able to get a taxi.

In the meanwhile if you want to hear any of the pronunciations of these words my favourite website to listen to them is www.howjsay.com, a free online dictionary for English pronunciations.
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Source……….input from a friend of mine

Natarajan