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Comment by JacobAldridge | Hacker News Reader

Many years ago I had a friend apologise verbally for her "forx pass". Turns out she'd only ever read the phrase faux pas.

Then just last month a colleague of mine created the reverse in a group email, acknowledging a "fow par". It was a phrase she'd only ever heard and used, never (knowingly) seen spelled.

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Took me just a moment to realise you’re from a non-rhotic area. I thought those mispronunciations were really far off.

Ha! Yes, Australian accent may be required.

Exactly! There's a Frazz cartoon about how you can tell if a person reads a lot (mispronounces) or watches TV a lot (misspells). I know which category I'd rather be in.

Yep. I used to feel embarrassed about my mispronunciation fax passes, until I realized they mostly came from reading beyond my immediate opportunity to apply.

"Faux pas" literally means "false step". But "pas" in French also means "not". There is a city in northern France called "Pas de Calais", which roughly means the "steps" or entrance of Calais (there's a strait, and the Allies successfully fooled the Germans into thinking it would be the D-Day landing site).

For a time, while not knowing that "pas" also meant "step" I wondered why in the world anyone would name a city "not from Calais". :-)

I told my mother I'd meet her at the 'kway' for the same reason.

kyoo-ee-yoo-ee

I think vacri is referring to "quay", pronounced variously like key or kay, but not usually as it's spelled.

Those are almost eggcorns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn

A friend of mine once said "caffitary" for cafetière and for about three seconds I genuinely thought, "Wow, have I been pronouncing that wrong all my life?"

Some people pronounce it "cah-FETT-ee-ay." Is this closer to the french, or is it hypercorrection?

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