Words that bother you because they sound like other words

[Misty Avich]

Note: I like discussing words, so please refrain from posting sarcastic or obstinate comments about language evolving, as it's just light-hearted discussion, not a debate or a rant. Thank you.

If a word isn't too familiar with me and it's not a word many people use every day, but it sounds like another more common word, I sometimes hate the word.

For example, foosball. I always misread it at football, and foosball seems more of an effort to say than football.

Also Tabasco. I can't stand that word because it sounds like you're saying tobacco but with adding an S into it. Why does it have to sound so much like tobacco?

I also can't stand the word orifice because it sounds like office, and if said quickly it can be misheard as office.

And generic and genetic (reading only). Sometimes I have to read these words very carefully as not to get the two confused by missing the R or the T. There was another example of two words like that but I can't think of it right now. I'll come back when I think of it.

Anyway, does this sometimes stress anyone else out a little bit?

 

[thejuice]

I'm always misinterpreting words for other words In loud environments. So I guess what they say. Sometimes I upset people if I reply the wrong thing.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

My partner's very likely dyslexic. It happens often to him that he misreads store signs or street signs. Often, something funny is the result and he laughs about it. Sometimes in conversation with me he realizes that he has misspelled a word his entire life and pronounced it differently than it should be, that embarrasses him I think. I can't give good examples because they're not in English, though.
Not exactly the same thing you meant, Misty, but maybe a bit related.

 

[MildredHubble]

I don't like "Portal" and "Porthole". I know the difference but "Porthole" seems to be hardwired into my brain and I will always somehow say or write "Porthole" when I intend "Portal". Maybe has something to do with me being dyslexic I suppose.

 

[Misty Avich]

I don't like "Portal" and "Porthole". I know the difference but "Porthole" seems to be hardwired into my brain and I will always somehow say or write "Porthole" when I intend "Portal". Maybe has something to do with me being dyslexic I suppose.

Yeah, I know what you mean with those two words.
I'm not dyslexic though, as my spelling is too good.

 

[Misty Avich]

I also get bothered by "obsolete" because it sounds like "absolute" but with different vowels.

 

[Darkkin]

I love homophones:


each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling, for example new and knew

(Oxford English Dictionary)

As a hypervisual processor, these were words we had to learn by sight, not sound, so I wasn't struggling with the phonetics I absolutely hated. It is a giant game of visual recall.

See it, use it in a sentence, know it.

I still have my battered and adored copy of The King Who Rained by Fred Gwynne.

I have horrific trouble with the verbal processing of people's names/emails/addresses, so as a work around, I just keep writing material on hand.

People ask, I just ask them if they've played the game telephone? Yes...and the light clicks on. I see it, I know it. You say it; I don't have functional context.

 

[Jumpinbare]

A friend of mine likes to tell people that he is lysdexic.

I'm always misinterpreting words for other words In loud environments. So I guess what they say. Sometimes I upset people if I reply the wrong thing.

I gave up on this. Now I just tell people I can't understand them above the noise.