Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Word on the Street...

I have a pretty good vocabulary. There aren't a lot of words that I'm unfamiliar with, and my stupid Latin background can help me figure out the rest. Most of what I know comes from reading, which I've been obsessed with since I was about 2. That's fine and everything, except for one thing:

You have to actually SAY the words in real life.

Facade ~ It's not actually pronounced fa-KADE. There's a little French thing on the C that apparently makes it an S...fa-SOD. The French would.

Vigilante
~ See this one I thought WAS French-sounding. vih-jil-AHNT. Little did I know, it's actually vih-jill-ANT-ee. Go figure.

Phoebe ~ I read a book about a girl named Phoebe when I was 8. I pronounced it POE-bee. Being 8, I didn't think about it. Then when I got to be about 13, I realized...that was little off.

Lambaste ~ I thought it rhymed with "cast." It rhymes with "paste." ...whatever.

Preface ~ It is not PRE-face. It's PREH-fiss. I hate words like this; they trick you with how simple they look, then all the sudden you find out you've been mispronouncing it since fifth grade.

Placate ~ ...yeahhh, I'm still not sure how this one goes.

Then there's the opposite problem, where I've heard a phrase all my life, but never actually seen it spelled.

You know the phrase "the whole kit and caboodle"? Until yesterday, I thought it was "kitten caboodle." Yes, I am seventeen, thanks for asking.

Ever heard someone was the "spit and image" of someone else? ...was I the only one who thought it was "spitting image"?

"For all intents and purposes." I finally saw that one written down a few months ago. Come to think of it, that makes a HECK of a lot more sense than "all intensive purposes." ...what was I thinking?

Hope this was good for a laugh, and maybe even a little bit enlightening XD

~Stephanie

8 comments:

  1. Okay, you have now left me disillusioned. I SO thought it was "spitting image". And I think a lot of people make that mistake, because I'm sure I've seen it written that way.

    I totally did the same thing when I was little--I read like crazy and learned vocabulary that I had no idea how to say. ;) I love your pronunciation of Phoebe... I'm pretty sure I said it "PHOBE". LOL.

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  2. Ha, that's hilarious! And yeah, I totally say 'spitting image' all the time. Now I might have to change my pronunciation....oh joy. 8D

    ~Lily

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  3. wait..... it IS spitting image!!! forreal!!!! it really really is. spitting image.

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  5. Yeah, it's "spitting image". I think I pronounced it "Phobe" as well, and I used to... wait, I still sort of skip over words when I'm reading, and I thought "Denise" was "Disney". Placate is pronounced pla-kate.

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  6. Thanks so much for commenting on my blog (^_^)

    At times I start to think no one gives a care to read my blog, so when I see comments from sweet people like you it pretty much makes my day.

    I love your blog, by the way. And your profile picture is very beautiful!

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  7. Angie: No problemo :D I thought you're blog was pretty awesome.

    Thanks! I have an eye obsession :)

    ~Stephanie

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  8. Whoever else said it too was right, it is spitting image. I can't think of any other ones I got s-o c-l-e-a-r-l-y w-r-o-n-g other than this humdinger from when I was young (that's my excuse) ... I thought Pulitzer Prize (which I had never seen written down at that point) was pronounced poulet (the totally I'm sure un French way of saying chicken in French - you should hear how I thought you pronounced oeuf [egg]) surprise. Yes, you heard that correctly, poulet surprise. LOL. A major literary prize named after a badly pronounced French chicken casserole. :)

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