ever discovered that you've been using/saying/spelling a word wrong for years?

lvpiggy

lvpiggy

feels like pigsomnia
O.G.
Jan 24, 2008
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#1
during the course of my latest apartment makeover project, i discovered to my great embarrassment that there is no such thing as a "chaise lounge" . . . the correct word is actually "chaise longue"

similarly, when i first got into the lingerie business, i discovered that i'd been misusing the words "négligée" and "décolletage" since high school!

:Push:

has something like this ever happened to you? someone tell me i'm not alone! hehe (^(oo)^)v
 
#2
You're not alone. For the longest time, I never knew how to pronounce "epitome." I'd always come across it in reading, but had yet to hear it aloud. It wasn't until I was maybe 16 years old and reading a teen novel that I discovered I had been reading it incorrectly. In the book, one of the characters was teased for pronouncing the word epitome "eh-pee-tome" as opposed to "eh-pi-toe-mee," and I had a light bulb moment. Ding!

Also, chaise longue was another one for me. I used to read it the same way you did.
 
#4
fabae said:
Slap me and call me stupid: Will someone please tell me (phonetically) how to pronounce chaise longue?
Click to expand...

For me, I transposed the letters in the word. Instead of reading it as longue, I would read it as lounge. Since the word is French, it should be pronounced as "shehz lohng" (or roughly as such).
 
#5
Oh, okay. I've taken Latin, Spanish, and German, but never French. As such, I've never been comfortable saying French words (unless I REALLY know how to pronounce them), so I avoid doing it at all. I also read chaise longue as chaise lounge, though, too.

BTW, thanks!
 
#7
Hey, for 40 of my 50 years I thought "gesture" was pronounced "guess-ture". It took my third husband (dear man that he is) to tell me that I was GUESSTURING the wrong way. Sigh. And I love that word, I really do. And I use gestures all the time when I'm talking. Too.
 
#8
I'm a pretty good speller and know my grammar pretty well too, but for some reason I tend to say "information" like "imformation." I JUST realized this about a year ago - it's so subtle yet when I just say it to myself I realize I'm saying it wrong!! :lol:

But I do say "info" properly. :shrugs:
 
#9
My mother is generally very conscious of using words correctly, but she has used the phrase, "I feel badly" her entire life, thus for a long time I did, too. Then I was taught that the -ly ending is improper in that setting because a person can feel bad, but it is impossible to feel badLY (in other words, you feel the way you feel, and you cannot do it improperly. Additionally, the meaning of the sentence is not in regards to how the feeling was done which would be the proper use of the -ly ending, but in regards to the way the person felt). So the -ly ending is appropriate when applied to activites that you can perform poorly, but is not appropriate when it comes to feeling.

I also learned the difference between gantlet and gauntlet at University. I had used them interchangeably prior to that.
 
#10
My dad was sick and tired of me prefacing everything I say with, "My French pronunciation sucks but . . . " so the agreement is that I'd say what I was going to say and then my dad would correct me if I was pronouncing it wrong.
 
#12
fabae said:
Hey, indiaink! I was just wondering yesterday where you've been!!!
Click to expand...

Hey to you too - 'slap me and call me stupid' - :heart: - very funny. I've been hiding out in plain sight ... and becoming addicted to ONE bag, just one. See sig.:yahoo:

And, FWIW - I just always call the damned things 'patio chairs'.
 
#15
I learned the other day that the color mauve is pronounced "mohv," not "mawv." Problem is, if you use the correct pronunciation in a conversation, people will laugh at you, thinking you're wrong!
 
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