Pronouncing Words Wrong on Wheel of Fortune & The Hardest Words to Read

This clip is making the rounds on the interwebs again:

Frankly, it’s a travesty. I would 1000% mess up in the same way. Luckily, we read The Song of Achilles so I may have actually gotten this one, but there are plenty of words that would be my… Achilles heel (sorry had to do it, see below). 

Now, I’m not a big Wheel of Fortune guy, I’m more of a watch Jeopardy and get zero answers right, type of guy. But how dumb is it that the whole game is based on spelling but then you get penalized for mispronouncing words? How you pronounce words is different depending on how/where you grew up. Are people with different accents or dialects not allowed to play? There are literally idioms about this very thing, “tomayto, tomahto”.

This reminds me of my 7th grade science class when we had to learn bird calls. Hint: they all sound the exact same. When I took the test I got about 10/15 right but was given a 3/15 cause I spelled 7 of them wrong. It’s not a fucking spelling test! This is the exact same scenario (although I guess this is a spelling test). But why does it matter how they pronounce the words, especially when all the letters are filled in? And why the fuck were we learning bird calls anyway? Teach me how to be a grown up!

From here on out I am boycotting watching Wheel of Fortune, that’ll show them (I honestly don’t even know if this show still runs). But anyway here is a list of words that I am unable to read the first go around. Always have to do a double take.

Hardest Words to Read

Archive – “Arch-ive” – great map in Goldeneye, I started calling it ‘arch-ive’ then and I haven’t looked back.  

Chelsea – “Chel-see-a” – in the true Queen’s English they pronounce the “a”.

Chipotle – “Ch-po-tle” – I live in San Diego, I shouldn’t have to know how to pronounce this word. Local Mexican spots only.

Colonel – “Colon-ial” – a military man that captures colonies.

Expedite – “Ex-ped-iate” – expediate is just a faster version of expedite.

Hyperbole – “hyper-boll” – not to speak in hyperboles, but this is the worst fucking word to read.

Mediocre vs. Mediocrity – why are these words pronounced so differently?

Patronize vs Patronise – Anyone that corrects you is both patronizing you and patronising you.

 

There are probably 1,000 more that I’ll remember after posting this. If you’re interested, you can hear us mispronounce them on the Podcast or misspell them in on our blogs. Let us know what were missing, reach out.