Things you have never understood!

[remote_goddess]

MamaC - is your husband from down south? I know you say NYC now, but is a born and bred southerner?

ETA: Nevermind - I just reread your post and you say he is native to the area... sorry!!

Because his version is pretty much the accepted pronunciation of all those words around here. Except orange is more like ore-unge instead of -inge, and ki-ote has a little more drag on the -ote part... more like ki-yohhht.

And yes, most people say q-pon around here. Even me. And I know (and have known for a while) that it isn't right, but it's just how my old granny said it, and that's what stuck...

[prhoshay]

I'm with you. I think the 'coupon' pronunciation has to do with what you probably heard it called in your house when you were growing up. Even if you decide that you are going to change your pronunciation, it's easy to slip back into pronunciation habits from "back in the day".

I have a friend who is from Appalachia (but hasn't lived there since he was a teenager, and he's in his 50s now), and bless his heart, unless he is really thinking about it, he pronounces "our" as "ay-yer". It actually cracks me up, but is rather endearing and unique to him, since he is the only person from Appalachia that I know. He always threatened to invite me to dinner when his family came to town, but there was no way I was going because I knew I would be out of control!

[Lucy]

Prhoshay, there are several of us here from Appalachia. I've moved a few hours away now, but still get asked about my accent, which is especially pronounced after I've had a few drinks. Even sober, though, I get teased about saying things like "might could" instead of "could."

There's a whole thread on regional dialects elsewhere in this forum.

[SuperBrat]

the pronounciation of "coupon" reminds me of something. I so do not understand why some people pronounce "wolf" as "wuff". I want to be, like, "no.. wuff is a sound a wolf makes... not a wolf."

And seriously... I dont understand my mother. This morning I woke up and was getting ready for school, this was the conversation:
mom: "Julie!"
me: "yes?"
mom: "are you awake?"
me: "i'm answering you, arent I?"

[ScoutMom]

The one that gets me is when people pronounce crayon like "crown"! Where on earth did that come from?

[queenb]

I've never understood why cream cheese qualifies as a dairy product (sold in that section of grocery stores). It does not contain calcium. Odd.

Are you sure you're reading the label correctly? Mine (Philadelphia Cream Cheese, not light or fat free) shows 8 grams of calcium per serving.

[MRD]

I have never understood the primary elections and conventions and the electoral college. As a lot of that has been recent news in the last 7 years, I still don't understand how it works. The primary/convention system especially confuses me. And I consider myself to be pretty astute when politics are concerned. But this one just confounds me.

That and dividing decimals and fractions. I can add, subtract and multiply them, but not divide. I must have slept during that lesson.
However, I do understand greater than and less than.

I also don't understand how an 18 pound dog can suddenly weight 300 pounds when laying on top of the covers in bed. The dog I can pick up, cannot be moved once he is laying in my bed. Must be some weird gravity thing that only affects my bed.

[Belfastgirl]

That and dividing decimals and fractions. I can add, subtract and multiply them, but not divide. I must have slept during that lesson.

Myrosiedog................ that's what calculators are for!

[prhoshay]

I've never understood why, if a person sniffs something that really stinks, they generally say, "Smell this!" What is with that?? Why, if you've told me that something stinks, do you think that I want to share your experience? That is just dumb!

[MRD]

I've never understood why, if a person sniffs something that really stinks, they generally say, "Smell this!" What is with that?? Why, if you've told me that something stinks, do you think that I want to share your experience? That is just dumb!

I never understood that either. My daughter will tell me she thinks the milk is sour and could I smell it. NO, I'd rather not.

That and dividing decimals and fractions. I can add, subtract and multiply them, but not divide. I must have slept during that lesson.

Myrosiedog................ that's what calculators are for!

Yes, exactly! But I have used them for so long, I can't do it by hand anymore. I had to take an appitude test last year for a job and we couldn't use calculators and this was all on the test. I failed miserably and it didn't reflect well on me and let's say I didn't get the job. I did ask if we would be doing this manually or using calculators. I don't think they appreciated the question. But no one does it manually anymore and testing for it was dumb in my opinion.
Oh, I am a whiz when using the calculator and I was trained in using touch on the calculator, so I can go pretty fast in using it to do a lot of math. I guess if the electricity went out, we'd have to do it by hand, but still I didn't get the job as I could not remember how to divide decimals and fractions.