>>Americans usually pronounce their English in a way which resembles English English almost perfectly, with some subtle differences. Here's a brief list.
last refreshed 07/27/2017 10:58:34 AM
| word | pronounced as | comment |
|---|---|---|
| -gn- (in Italian names) | -gn- | never like "ny" in "new" - that would sound too Italian. I wish I knew how do they pronounce "gnocchi" :) |
| 911 | nine one one | the telephone number of emergency services, never pronounced as "nine-eleven", because one lady tried to find number eleven on her phone and thus lost precious time |
| amphitheater | ample-theatre | also ampy-theatre |
| bologna | baloney | the sausage |
| chianti | chi-antie | never "kyanti", that would sound too Italian |
| city | siddy, siddeh | almost everywhere, can't remember hearing a tee there |
| clothes | close | |
| colonel | kernel | OK, this is a British thing, from Spanish 'coronello'. Over time, they switched the spelling to Italian/French and pronunciation to Spanish (sort of). |
| corpus delicti | core-puss deh-lec-tee | |
| E. coli | ee-coal-eye | |
| electricity | illektrisiti, illektrisutty | in all versions of 3-5-0-0 in "Hair" it's -sutty |
| et cetera | eksetra | |
| Eustachian | ewe-station | |
| february | febewary | |
| feudalism | foodalism | |
| Fredericksburg | frejburg | |
| harassment | harasmnt | so nobody would hear "her ass" in it |
| Helene | huh-leen, heh-leen | |
| karaoke | carry-okie | |
| knesseth | kenneseth | English language makes one forget how to pronounce kn, gn, pn or ps in the beginning of the word, while being perfectly capable of saying them anywhere else. |
| library | lie-berry | |
| mobile | mowbl, moe-bile | Dylan sings "stuck inside a moebeel". Go figure. |
| motorcycle | mowtisykle | so nobody would guess it has a motor? |
| Newfoundland | nooflan | |
| Nobel | nowbl | |
| nuclear | nucular | made popular by Homer Simpson, then GWB. |
| nucleus | noo-kew-luss | ok... not everyone says so, but many do. |
| personality | person-ul-uh-tee | |
| product | prodak | |
| status quo | staytus cow | |
| staunton | stanton | |
| temperature | temp-a-chur | |
| tracheotomy | tricky-otomy |