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Comment by throwaway07Ju19 | Hacker News Reader

I've taken this even further. I no longer correct any factual mistakes or misspoken words unless the person making this error is either a student or someone who reads. Even then it may be best to not say anything.

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> or someone who reads.

Can you please elaborate? I don't follow.

Often, mispronouncing a word means you've seen it in print, but haven't heard it said aloud. So I've heard some people say that they mentally frame it not as an embarrassing mistake but as a sign that the speaker reads a lot.

Totally me. I’ve read far more than I’ll ever hear. And I’m terrible at pronouncing things correctly because it’s almost pure visual memory.

Also, to be fair, some words are just plain pronounced wrong.

Hyperbole

Epitome

Worcestershire

They break the phonetic rules of the language and you're kind of expected to memorize it and get on with it.

Yeah but the qualification "unless it's someone who reads" is obviously wrong. Lots of people read.

As a non-native english speaker it's a weird mix of confusion/joy/madness when I see native speakers who don't read spell a word in a horrendous way that only makes sense to me the instant I read it aloud internally. The same language but spoken or written it's two different worlds.

I meant someone who at least occasionally mentions a book they are reading / have read. This implies that they want to learn, much like a student.

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