Mispronounced words

On few occasions friends like Kok Heng, Krix and my Prof Comm teacher had told me some words that are so commonly mispronounced until they seem to be the right one. I've this idea of compiling a list of mispronounced words for long and decided to do now. It's time to improve it by myself before I need to attend those expensive courses. Resources are from various forums and sites, (mainly from SG,MY,HK) for free. So powerful is Internet. Hurray!

From here, I've copied the reasons for mispronunciation.

SOME REASONS FOR WRONG PRONUNCIATION
1 Silent letters
2 Wrong stress
3 Foreign words
4 Poor articulation
5 Mother- tongue influence
6 Wrong syllable division

(If you have any mispronounced word that's not in the list, please share. :D)

Learning about wrong syllable stress is still a step too far for me, and poor articulation of pair like "n & l", "r & l" and others has too many cases, hence the list contains mispronunciation mainly caused by wrong assumption and silent letters.

You can check the correct pronunciation of any word from these sites:
1. Yourdictionary
2. Dictionary reference

There are many phonetics standards, and for my convenience, I use the one yourdictionary.com is using but not the standard used in say oxford dictionary that you may be more familiar with.

P/S: Those mispronunciations with *** in front sound very obvious.

First and foremost

*** pronunciation: pro noun′sē ā′shən (X) || prə nun′sē ā′shən (√) (sounds nan but not noun)

Can you get your pronunciation correct if you cant pronounce it correctly?
Joking :)

Second

*** their: thēə (X) || ther (√) (sounds exactly as there, not they-are!)

Those that should be pronounced as ‘ə’

correct: ko rekt′ (X) || kə rekt′ (√) (sounds kə but not ko)
#So as many words like collect, continue, compare and ec cetera. One of the obvious exception is colleague. See below.

#Also, words with co have so many different pronunciations that's worth more attention as how "company", "colleague", "committee", "cold" are pronounced differently.

broccoli: bräk′ä lē (X) || bräk′ə lē (√) (sounds kə but not ko)
introduce: in′tro doos′ (X) || in′trə doos′ (√) (sounds trə but not tro)
opportunity: äpôr too nə tē (X) || äp′ər too nə tē (√) (sounds pər but not por)
restaurant: res′tô rənt′ (X) || res′tə ränt′ (√) (no torrent please! It's te-ront/te-rənt)
*** lettuce: let′yooz (X) || let′əs (√) (sounds təs but not tyouz)

fatigue: fa tēg′ (X) || fə tēg′ (√) (sounds fə but not fae)
*** purchase: pʉr′chās (X) || pʉr′chəs (√) (don't chase please...)
perimeter: pe rim′ə tər (X) || pə rim′ə tər (√) (sounds pə but not pae)
parameter: pe rəm′ə tər (X) || pə ram′ə tər (√) (sounds pə but not pae)
spaghetti: spe get′ē (X) || spə get′ē (√) (sounds spə but not spare)

parliament: pär′li mənt (X) || pär′lə mənt (√) (sounds lə but not li)

industry: in′dus trē (X) || in′dəs trē (√) (sounds dəs but not dust)

Those that should not be pronounced as ‘ə’

archive: ə chēv′ (X) || är′kīv′ (√) (sounds r-kaif but not achieve)
colleague: kəl′ēg′ (X) || käl′ēg′ (√) (sounds ko but not kə)
entrepreneur: än′trə prə nər′ (X) || än′trə prə nʉr′ (√) (sounds nur but not ner)

Between ‘ə’ and ‘a/ae’

*** analysis: a nəl′ə sis (X) || ə nal′ə sis (√) (sounds er-nae but not ae-ner)
*** awry: äl'ri (X) || ə rī′ (√) (sounds e-rye but not a-ri)
*** baton: bā′ tən (X) || bə tän′ (√) (don't pronounce bae-ten because of bacon)
***calender: kəlen dər (X) || kal′ən dər (√) (sounds k-lən but not kə-land)
*** lavender: läv′en dər (X) || lav′ən dər (√) (same with calender)

Those that should be pronounced as ‘a/ae/e’

*** bury: bur′ē (X) || ber′ē (√) (Yes, sounds exactly like berry)
*** deluge: di′lärj (X) || del′yooj′ (√) (sounds dae-liuch but not di-large)
gamma gäm′ä (X) || gam′ə (√) (sounds gae-me but not gaa-maa)
sarcastic: sär käs′tik (X) || sär kas′tik (√) (sounds kaes but not kas)

presentation: prē zent tā′shən (X) || prez′ən tā′shən (√) (sounds prae-sənt but not pri-sent)
precedence: pris′i dəns (X) || pres′ə dəns (√) (sounds prae- but not pri)
preferable: prif′ər ə bəl (X) || pref′ər ə bəl (√) (sounds prae- but not pri)
irreparable: i ri per′ rə bəl (X) || i rep′ə rə bəl (√) (doesn't sounds as repair)

Those that should not be pronounced as ‘a/ae’

altar: al′ tär (X) || ôl′tər (√) (sounds all-ter but not L-tar)
chamber: cham′bər (X) || chām′bər (√) (sounds cheim but not chaem)

Those that should be pronounced as ‘i’

*** granite: grana′it (X) || gran′it (√) (sounds nit but not nait as in nite)
market: mär′ket (X) || mär′kit (√) (sounds kit but not keat)
*** spinach: spin′ach (X) || spin′ich (√) (yes, the 'a' sounds 'i' but not 'a')
women: woo' mən (X) || wim′in (√) (sounds wi but not woo, woo is for woman)
deviant: dē′vī ənt (X) || dē′vē ənt (√) (sounds ve-ian but not vai-ian)

Those that should be pronounced as ‘O/ä’

knowledge: nōl′ij (X) || näl′ij (√) (sounds kn-all but not know)

Confusion of "ao"

*** clause: klaoz (X) || klôz (√) (this one specially for Eddie, LOL)
drought: drôut (X) || drout (√) (sounds drao-t but not dro-t)
lounge: lônch (X) || lounj (√) (sounds laon but not lon)

Words of double vowels

*** liaise: lī əz′ (X) || lē āz′ (√) (sounds li-ace but not lie-es)
hierarchy: hī′rär′kē (X) || hī′ər är′kē (√) (sounds higher-archy but not high-archy)

coalition : kō′ lish′ən (X) || kō′ə lish′ən (√) (please don't skip 'a')
*** oasis: ō ä′sis (X) || ō ā′sis (√) (sounds ay but not a)

*** flour: flä (X) || flour (√) (sounds flao-er but not fla)
*** flower: flouwʉr (X) || flour (√) (same pronunciation as flour, no w sound)
*** zoology: zoo l′ə jē (X) || zō äl′ə jē (√) (just doesn't sound like zoo)

language: laŋ′gweich (X) || laŋ′gwij (√) (sounds gwi but not gwei)
tuition: tyoo sh′ən (X) || tyoo i sh′ən (√) (please don't skip 'i')
suite: soot (X) || swēt (√) (sounds sweet but not suit)

Alphabet d which sounds j

procedure: prō sē′dir (X) || prō sē′jər (√) (sounds jər but not deer)
schedule: ske′dyool (X) || ske′jool (√) (sounds jool but not dyool)
education: ed'yoo kā′shən (X) || ej′oo kā′shən (√) (sounds joo but not dyoo)

Poor articulation (f & th, s & z)

path: puf (X) || path (√) (sounds pae-f not paa-f)
pleasure: plesh′ər (X) || plezh′ər (√) (it's not s but z)
pressure: prezh'ər (X) || presh′ər (√) (it's not z but s, @.@)

Dropping of r sound in double r words

library: lībər′ē (X) || lī′brer′ē (√) (double r sounds)
February: feb′ər′ē (X) || feb′roo er′ē (√) (same)

Silent letters

debt: debt (X)|| det (√) (silent b)
doubt: doubt (X)|| dout (√) (silent b)
climb: klīmb (X)|| klīm (√) (silent b)

yatch: yätch (X)|| yät (√) (silent ch)

Wednesday: wenʉrs dā (X) || wenz′dā (√) (silent d, it's wence-day!)

evening: ēvəniŋ (X) || ēv′niŋ (√) (silent e)
vegetable: veji′tə bəl (X) || vej′tə bəl (√) (silent e)
avalanche: av′ə lanche′ (X) || av′ə lanch′ (√) (silent e)
lambaste: lam bāst′ə (X) || lam bāst′ (√) (silent e, sounds lambeist)

shepherd: shep h′ərd (X) || shep′ərd (√) (silent h)

mischievous: mis′chi vəs (X) || mis′chə vəs (√) (silent i)
medicine: med'isən (X) || med′ə sən; Brit med′sən (if i does sound, it sounds de but not di)

almond: ä′lmənd (X) || ä′mənd (√) (silent l)
salmon: salm′ən (X) || sam′ən (√) (silent l)


isle: īsle (X) || īl (√) (silent s)
debris: də brē′z (X) || də brē′ (silent s)

rapport: ra pôr′t (X) || ra pôr′ (√) (silent t)
listen: lis′tən (X) || lis′ən (√) (silent t)
often: ôf′ tən (X) || ôf′ən (√) (silent t)
soften: sôf′ tən (X) || sôf′ən (√) (silent t)
fasten: fas′tən (X) || fas′ən (√) (silent t)
hasten: hās′tən (X) || hās′ən (√) (silent t)

sword: swôrd (X) || sôrd (√) (silent w)
prowess: prou′wəs (X) || prou′is (√) (silent w)
coward: kou′wərd (X) || kou′ərd (√) (silent w)

Foreign words (I think so?)

cliché: klee shā′ (√) (sounds shay)
sachet: sa chet (X) || sa shā′ (√) (sounds shay but not chet)
grand prix: (it's a french word gron-pre, not grand-prix!)
lingirie: län′zhə rā′ (√) (not linger-ie!)
rendezvous : rän′dā voo (√) (not ren-de-vous!)
parque: pär kwə (X) || pär kā′ (√) (sounds kay)
plateau: pla too′ (X) || pla tō′ (√) (sounds to but not two)

Wrong syllable division

backache: bak′āk′ (sounds backeik, not back | eik)

When I browsed different forums, I often came across heated debates over why should we improve our pronunciation. I do not want to drag myself into this meaningless debate. Choice. If you need to improve it and you want to, do it. If you don't need to, don't bother about it. Life will be easier if we don't enforce our thoughts onto others without empathy.

I am afraid I can't rectify all mistakes too, and hence I put it here to serve as my future reference, and also for your reference.

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble but not you,
On hiccough, through, lough and thorough.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead--it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness's sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat:
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five.

P/S: These sites may also be useful for you.
1. 100 most often mispronounced words - your dictionary.

2. Mind your language from - channelnews asia.

3. A compilation by Lafemmefatale - play park forum.

4. 双语桥 - RSI

5. Common mispronunciation - Putera

6. Importance of correct pronunciation - Cari

7. Got to pronounce these right - HKU

8. *pdf file - Glossary of words commonly mispronounced by HK students - HK VTC