Troubles of English-learners

Just when we start thinking that we know enough English, one is surprised on coming across such words the pronunciation of which is least expected as against the way it is spelt.

Lately, I read the word Silhouette which I've known for years. It means a figure in a darker shade and a light background to show the outline of an object.

It's one of those words of which you know the meaning, but you're not quite sure about its pronunciation. You never use it in your writing and it also has tricky spelling. This time I thought of checking its pronunciation and someday perhaps even using it. 

I always thought it would be pronounced somewhat like 'Silhoot' but it actually came out as 'Silh-wet'.

Other such words with tricky spellings which you have to double-check are:

Psychiatrist: 

Meaning - A doctor specialising in mental disorders.

Consisting of a redundant P and a messed up order of I and A (in some distant thought, it may be to reflect messed up state of mind of the patients), it is read as Sai-kai-trist. 

Subtle: 

Meaning - Not obvious

Initially, when I came to know it is a word with weird pronunciation, I thought it would be with silent T, and called 'S-ble' whereas it actually is 'S-tle'.

Maintenance: 

Its spelling deviates from the actual word and uses E after T, as against a-i after T in the original word 'Maintain'. So, back in school, when the teacher was dictating, I got two minded that it would be spelt as 'maintainance'; it didn't seem right.

Benevolent: 

Meaning - Kind and gentle attitude

In my office, a fund goes by this name. Given the fact, it is not an office dominantly working in English, people are not supposed to use it in the official language. So, the spelling 'benovalent' is used more often than the actual one; to the extent that frequently seeing those spellings made me wonder if I have gotten the wrong spelling in my head.

Then, there are those words regarding which you have no doubt about their pronunciation. But, you are caught off guard.

Rendezvous: 
Meaning - Meeting point 

I was watching an English movie and I didn't understand a word, so I turned its subtitles on. Then I got to know that it is spoken as 'Ron-day-woo'.

Schedule: 

The general version, as taught by the British, that goes around uses the 'sh-dule' sound. Though, nowadays with Americanisation taking place, another version that is catching up is that you say it as 'ske-dule'.

Education:

All of us have learnt to read it as 'Eju-cation' but the modernists would rather call it 'E-due-cation'. The originality of this modern trend still eludes me.

Memo:  

Only the people employed in age-old government organisations will relate to this one. 

Under normal circumstances, any given person would read it as Memo (with 'Me' as in 'Ma' in magnificent). However, in government establishments, everyone says it as 'Meemo' without even a shadow of a doubt.

Personnel: 

Similarly, personnel is called 'Per-sow-nl' instead of its actual pronunciation 'Pers-nail'.

Router: 

The device used for setting an internet connection is called what? 'Raa-oo-ter' or 'Roo-ter' as in the word 'route'. It's the former, but I'm not sure. Let me check. Urgh!!! Again, it's British - American contradiction.

Modem: 

British version - Mo-dem

Americans call it 'Maw-dum'

Economy:

UK people say it 'eco-nomy' whereas in the US it is called 'e-cono-my'.

Moving on, the sequence of letters H-E-I can be pronounced in 3 different ways, which makes English altogether confusing. For instance:

In Heir, you would say it as 'Hair' and not I what I used to believe, that is, 'Higher'.

Whereas in Heist, you would speak it as 'High-st' and not 'Heest'.

Atheist: 

We were taught some complex pronunciation rules and their depiction in the written word in our college. I never understood it. But the teacher that taught us was so confident that those were the only rules to live by in order to learn pronunciation properly. During those days, I had newly learnt that 'atheist' is not read as 'uh-thee-st' but as 'a-thee-ust'. So, I thought of testing her and asked her how it is pronounced. She got it wrong. 

I concluded, "Earning bread and butter makes you do even those things that you don't follow by heart." (Too judgemental, no?)

Pardon me for really abusing pronunciation rules and lack of almost greek letters used for symbolising those rules.

Additively, this transition from UK inclination (in which we learnt the standard rules of English being a commonwealth country) to the popularity of the American version of English is only creating more perplexity. 

So much that dictionaries have to state the different spellings and pronunciations separately for each version. 

There is an unending list of such words, some of which are:

• Colour is nowadays spelt color. 

• Unless you correct organise to organize in MS word (US-based) it keeps on highlighting it as a misspelt word. 

• Spelt vs spelled, 

• Focussed vs focused, 

• Judgement vs Judgment (this one embarrassed me in the middle of a conversation with a friend once, as I argued it is judgment only),

•Despatch vs Dispatch,

•Centre vs Center,

• Licence vs license (this one is a real dilemma and has made me look up in dictionary many a time).

To give some air of clarity, the words on the left side are written in the British way and on the right in American.

PS Pardon me for the long length of the post but whilst writing this post, I realised that there are more instances of British-American differences than I had known before writing this post. I mean I had totally imbibed some of the American versions thinking that the (British) version that I had known earlier was incorrect. 

PPS The next time someone interrupts me saying you are pronouncing the word wrong, I would simply say this is how it is called in the American version (or the British version).