Dan Smith
Words you knew, yet didn't recognize in print, because of English not being phonetic
This happens most commonly in elementary school, of course.

The one I remembered today was "lemonade." It isn't even very strangely spelled. For some reason I thought the accent was on the second syllable. I thought the <em>e</em> at the end was pronounced, rather than modifying the sound of the <em>a. </em>So, in my mind, I heard "leh-MAHN-a-DEE"--and didn't realize that it was a word I knew well.

Can you think of any examples from your own life?
Jun 10, 2020 1:09 AM
Comments · 13
5
When I was a child I had a story book which mentioned a party where meringues were served. Every time I read this, I said <em>meh-rin-gyooz </em>to myself.

It took a long time before I realised that these were the same as the confectionery I knew as <em>muh-rangz</em>.
June 10, 2020
4
When I was young, one of my spelling words was "together". Apparently I had difficulty spelling the word until my mother told me to break the word down into three parts - to get her. While now I don't have problems spelling "together", I do have issue when I read it, since my mind harkens back to the time I learned to spell it as three words put together.
June 10, 2020
2
For me, it often happens the other way around. I am in a conversation, hear an 'unknown' word, ask my partner to write or spell it for me, recognize it with a strong feeling of relief and smile.
June 10, 2020
1
Do you know the 60s (70s?) song "Buttercup"?

When I was a child and didn't speak English, I thought that they were singing about bath caps. The word for them in my local German dialect ("Badekapp" - the standard German is "Bademütze"!) sounded exactly the same as the American English pronunciation of "Buttercup".

I still think of that every time I hear the song.
July 18, 2020
1
When I was less fluent in speaking it was other way around, I used to be much better with writing. Now I am better in speaking and I need to think a long time about how to spell some words that I had never confused before. The most annoying are "then" and "than" bacause they sound the same for me)
June 10, 2020
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