So when I was flying home from Texas with my daughter, Leslie a few days ago, she held out her book and showed me a word: macabre. She asked me, how do you pronounce that? We both agreed we knew what it meant but neither of us was sure how to say it.
I gave it a guess. Big surprise, I was completely wrong.
But now that I found this website I'll be doing better at it.
Macabre - phonetically I'd say to pronounce it this way: muh-cob-ruh with the accent on the middle syllable. My guess was mack-a-bray.
Grammy's book of mispronounced words is getting shorter all the time, but I might throw out a zinger now and then, just to make 8 year old Caiden laugh. To use this website, go there, type in a word, any word and choose the option to hear it. Great stuff for those of us who have words flying around in our heads from years of reading books but when we open our mouths it's a bit too entertaining.
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6 comments:
I cannot resist sharing a few of our favorites over the years. These are some that my kids came up with when they were small, and they stuck to this day.
Instructions ... became destructions (apparently when we followed them things were destroyed)
Umbrella ... became underbrella (and that makes total sense to me. Don't you stand UNDER it anyway?)
I know it is not exactly what you were talking about, but it sure made me smile to think of these that came to mind for me.
That Caiden. He's a stitch!!
Oh, boy - I think I may be able to get some help from that site as well! Thanks!!
~ Leah
Oh, I need this site! My mother and I have been debating gyros (the sandwich) for years... now maybe we can order them by more than their number on the menu board!
Of course I have begun mispronouncing things on purpose now that I have two tweens... there is nothing (except my dancing!) that makes them roll their eyes faster than my intentional mispronouncing of Aeropostale.. among others:-)
Mom, did you see Kelly's comment about gyros?? See, we're not the only family with that problem! Although Chris' phone message did solve it, right?
You're such a dictionary diva. ;)
How DO you say Aeropostale, anyway? ;)
Two of our little friends forever changed the way I'll pronounce apple cider and underwear.
Apple cider became apple spider b/c it was served in the late fall, and we were talking about spiders.
And underwear became wonderwear b/c when you're finally out of diapers, it's pretty wonderful--at least to this little one.
Oh, one last word from my dtr...She was about 3 or 4 and I was polishing her nails. She looked up with those big blue eyes, and said, "Thanks, mommy. Now you should probably push back my barnacles."
Bev, I used to pronounce "macabre" the same way! In my head, whenever I saw it in writing.
Other funny ones:
Awry--I thought it was "AW-rey," like the bakery.
Paradigm--thought it was "pa-RA-da-jim"
Infrared--this is my favorite: I thought it was the past tense of "infrare" (which is not a word, as far as I know)
Amanda
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