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Hellbent

words you get wrong?

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What are some words (or phrases) that you have gotten wrong or still get wrong? I used to think defected meant that there was a defect. My friend, after a moment, realizing that I meant defective, corrected me, but I thought that it sounded weird and I didn't believe him. He went on to explain that defected means you got kicked back to your home country and defective means the thing has a defect. I felt stupid for somehow completely being ignorant of the word defective and the proper meaning of defected. Well, my friend is Jewish and is helluva lot smart than me, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. This was when we I was maybe 13 or 14 (DOOM!)

Another one I used to get wrong is bystander. I used to think it was bystandard. Let's hope none of the bystandards get hurt watching the stunt!

What are some words you got wrong and were kinda surprised and felt embarrassed upon learning the proper word or meaning?

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I got "masturbating" confused with "doing some writing" and loudly announced at the dinner table, in front of my family and my nan, that I had spent the last three days furiously masturbating. In other news, no I didn't.

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MajorRawne said:

I got "masturbating" confused with "doing some writing" and loudly announced at the dinner table, in front of my family and my nan, that I had spent the last three days furiously masturbating. In other news, no I didn't.


Six is Sex in Russian. Yakov Smirnov likes to tell the story about how when he came to the USA in the 80s, he'd hear Six all the time. He was so shocked people would talk about how they're with their friends at six and their mothers will be there at six. He was just blown away that someone's mother would be there with them at sex.

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I didn't realize for the longest time that "pin" and "pen" are pronounced differently. I don't know if it's outright wrong, as it's really just a case of accent, and honestly, I still pronounce them the same unless I'm really thinking about it.

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Listening to my family get words wrong is always interesting. Its a struggle to not mispronounce things as they do. There is no R in wash. Its Na-va-ho. Not NAV-aho. Yes I know there's a j in there, but phonetic and all.

Lets see, they pronounced Tone as Tona. They say Idear instead of Idea. Those are all just mispronunciations.

Hearing people talk about ironic is another one. Unfortunate isn't ironic. Getting run over and killed by the ambulance that's going to save you is ironic.

Literally is another word that people mess up all the time with a metaphor. I remember helping a friend study with her English homework. Something about she and I got into an argument. She said Literally means its not serious. I thought she was joking, we had to look it up. Her mind was blown, she felt she was so right about it.

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geekmarine said:

I didn't realize for the longest time that "pin" and "pen" are pronounced differently. I don't know if it's outright wrong, as it's really just a case of accent, and honestly, I still pronounce them the same unless I'm really thinking about it.

I hate when people do that! (sorry). Are you British? Or maybe from the southern states of the U.S.? I suppose you also say pen as two syllables?

"The woman spoke with a heavy western North Carolina accent, which I used to discredit her authority. Here was a person for whom the word pen had two syllables."

Geo, where are your folks, from? Idear is a classic mispronunciation, heh.

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Hellbent said:

I hate when people do that! (sorry). Are you British? Or maybe from the southern states of the U.S.? I suppose you also say pen as two syllables?

"The woman spoke with a heavy western North Carolina accent, which I used to discredit her authority. Here was a person for whom the word pen had two syllables."

Geo, where are your folks, from? Idear is a classic mispronunciation, heh.

Grew up in Oklahoma. I don't say pen as two syllables, though, really, I just pronounce both as "pin." Have to stop and catch myself to make myself pronounce "pen" differently, and it always feels weird when I do it. On the whole, though, I don't really have an accent - or, that is to say, I have that bland, generic Midwest accent where I don't really sound like I'm from anyplace in particular (which makes it a popular accent for people who do the news). Though it's kind of funny, in times I've been back to Oklahoma, I've noticed that there really is an Oklahoma accent, but for whatever reason I never really picked it up, thankfully (my mom has it, though, and you can really hear it come through when she's angry).

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I realize this isn't the same thing as what the OP was asking about, but I often mix up the words 'Corn Pops' (a cereal sold in the US, not sure if it's sold internationally) and instead say 'Porn Cops'.

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Corn Pops are a thing in Canada. They're fucking awful.

I once asked my friend if I could usurp one of his french fries. Oops.

The one that pisses me off is people who says "Star Trek" as "Star Track."

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Necessary, I seem to find it difficult to remember how to spell that word and have found myself using spell check a lot of times, it's the only word I have trouble with surprisingly.

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Aliotroph? said:

The one that pisses me off is people who says "Star Trek" as "Star Track."


People really do this? I've never heard of that.

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Aliotroph? said:

Corn Pops are a thing in Canada. They're fucking awful.


Sometimes I have some corn pops mixed in with my multi-grain cheerios. :p

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Marnetmar said:

People really do this? I've never heard of that.


Yeah. I live with one! It's weird. Kids do it sometimes, but then they get to learn a new word. When adults do it I assume they're just thick.

Doom Dude said:

Sometimes I have some corn pops mixed in with my multi-grain cheerios. :p


The flavour is okay (at least it was when I was 12). The problem is they destroy the roof of your mouth with their big crunchy shape. Evil things.

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Aliotroph? said:

The flavour is okay (at least it was when I was 12). The problem is they destroy the roof of your mouth with their big crunchy shape. Evil things.


Haha, never noticed that issue. ;)

I've heard people say Star Track before but not in many cycles.

There was this guy my dad knew who would say 'conversation' when he meant 'condensation'.

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Marnetmar said:

People really do this? I've never heard of that.


Yeah and it pisses me off too.

Also, I think I wrote a blog once about how much spelling errors piss me off. Am I an old fart?

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Hmm, it annoys me when people say '************' rather than just regardless. EDIT: HAHAHA, "lrregardless" is censored!! That's fucking gold!

I always fuck up ie and ei. Words like thief, Beige, Foreign, Etc - I never seem to get it right..

I used to think "masochist" was the male equivalent of "feminist"!

Oh, when I was a little kid, I thought Confucius got his name from being confusing..

I know there are a few words out there that I've used wrong but I can't think of them at the moment. I always laugh my ass off at incorrect word usage, it can turn sentences hilarious.

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geo said:

Six is Sex in Russian.

In New Zealand as well, where they have an annoying tendency to transpose vowels.

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geo said:

Six is Sex in Russian.



Yeah, gonna have to call bullshit on this one.

In German, six is actually "sechs" though. (pronounced "sex")

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Doomkid said:

Oh, when I was a little kid, I thought Confucius got his name from being confusing..


That reminds me, when I was a kid I used to think Copernicus was pronounced Copper Nickus. haha

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"care-mel" -caramel

"wadder" -water

"zis" -this

"zat" -that

"bu'on" -button

"vaze" -vase

"whuh" -what

"wore-sest-er-shire" -Worcestershire

"sanic" -sonic (the hedgehog)

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For some reason I used to pronounce misled as "MAI-zuld", despite my full knowledge that "miss-LED" was a word. Though in an odd way, my mispronunciation somehow communicates the same idea.

I did pronounce Star Trek as "Star Track" until I was, like, 7 or something. Didn't take long for someone to correct me. :P I'm still not sure how to say Ouroboros but it's not like it comes up in conversation often. I think I've confirmed my pronunciation of revenant is correct.

There's another word I only just recently learned I was saying wrong but I'm blanking on which it was.

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Stupid bunny: I've also been wondering how to say Ouroboros, which makes me wonder, where did you come into contact with the word? I am addicted to a silly iPhone game called Lil' Alchemist, otherwise I would not have known the word.

Jaxxoon R: I also say Worse-stir-shur-shire sauce. :D instead of Worse-stir-shur sauce. And I say care-a-mel, not car-a-mel or carmel. I do say vaze, though I think the correct pronunciation is vozz (vawz).

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Doom Dude said:

That reminds me, when I was a kid I used to think Copernicus was pronounced Copper Nickus. haha

I just thought of another one - Not exactly misuse of a word, but I always got the Ammendments mixed up with the Commandments!

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sheridan said:

Yeah, gonna have to call bullshit on this one.

In German, six is actually "sechs" though. (pronounced "sex")


Mmmm, I'm pretty sure you did that backwards. While geo may not have ben clear I think he was imposing that the Russian word for sex basically sounds like six.



This seems to back that up if you listen to the pronunciation provided.


I used to think condone was synonymous with condemn. Boy did I have an English paper to correct THAT year :P

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The russian word for sex is "пол", a word which it shares with Serbian, Finnish and several other related languages. "секс" is merely the russian way of spelling the english word, which is pervasive enough to have entered numerous other languages as well. For example, in German, "sex haben" is a partially adopted phrase that means "to have sex"... not that they don't have their own words for sex too ("Geschlechtsverkehr", literally sexual intercourse. Yeah, german is just wordy, hence their appreciation for english slang)

SO, it's likely geo just confused his story a bit. The travelling russian who was familiar with the word "sex" mistook phrases involving the word "six" to be about sex. But the russian word for sex is still not really "секс", and the russian word for six is definitely not "sex" (nor does it sound like it)

source: I know german and linguistics is my hobby. Also google.

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Very well said sir, and I do apologize for my misconception. And as pointed out - Google. I will better research next time :P

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