Photo and text by Gabrielle.
Since the time little June first began to talk, she’s said the word ‘smarshmellows’ instead of ‘marshmallows’. It’s a pretty darn adorable mispronunciation. Knowing she is my youngest, and wanting to cherish every little bit of her childhood, I’ve never had the heart to correct her. : )
But a couple days ago, she asked for “a cup of hot cocoa with 4 smarshmellows, I mean marshmallows.” And I had to stop myself from going into the other room to weep because I could hardly bear how fast she’s growing up.
How about you? Any sweet mispronunciations that your little ones are holding on to? Or any that are gone now, but that you remember with a little flutter in your heart? I posted this on Facebook and Instagram and I LOVE reading everybody’s reports. I’d love to hear yours too!
P.S. — The kids went to gymnastics yesterday, and I realized June still has a mispronunciation! She calls it joo-nastics.
My sister said, Psgetti for spaghetti for as long as we could keep her saying it. It was a big shock for her when she realized it. We were all so sad because she had us saying it that way too. It was just so cute and natural. It just became the norm in our household.
This will be your next book!
My nephew (3 now) has always been obsessed with anything that plugged into an outlet. Having been taught that he wasn’t allowed to touch the outlets, or plug anything in…he would beg anyone who would listen “pug it out? Pug it out?” Meaning, plug it in and then immediately unplug it for him. It was endless!!
Another is my nephew (7) and niece (5) refered to under dogs when swinging as “under ducks”. “Another under duck Auntie Joy!!!” They would yell…and I would just chuckle, hoping they would never figure out that the rest of the world calls them under dogs.
My son used to call hot dogs…hot gods. It was so cute I didn’t correct him. He’s in 7th grade now and thinks I’m teasing him when I ask him if he wants a hot god!
Our son’s name is Skyler Jefferson Lemke. We usually just call him Sky. When he was in kindergarten, he thought his name was Sky Jefferson Lerlemke. He never understood that his first name was Skyler. His teacher tried correcting him, and he got so upset that he couldn’t convince his teacher of what he believed to be his real name.
My daughter who is 5 next week says “bine myself” instead of “by myself”. It’s adorable and I never correct her.
My eldest (now nine) said ‘instrenting’ in place of ‘interesting’ until he was about six. And my seven-year-old still says ‘mumpths’ instead of ‘months’. About a year ago I caught the older one trying to correct him and stopped him in a hurry – ‘mumpths’ feels like the last vestige of babyhood!
My youngest pronounces “sw” as “shw” so sweet is shweet and sweater is shweater. She knows the correct way but continues to say it the cute way because I love it.
Yes to “glubs” — and also “ear mupps” to go with the glubs when it’s really cold. The funniest thing my then-4-year-old said, when I caught her staring at her tongue in the bathroom mirror, was “I’m trying to see my taste bugs.”
Yes I LOVE cute mispronunciations too, and never want to correct them! My favorites are “blaterries” (batteries), “rugly” (rugby), and “nexterday” (hybrid word that means tomorrow!)
Two of my favorites: asbubs for raspberries and dad’n for daddy.
Oppi-Meal for oatmeal & AvoBAcado … my youngest said and neither I – nor her big sisters – ever even wanted to correct her!
My son (3-1/2 years old) says ‘harshmallows’ instead of marshmallows and ‘mews-ki’ (if that makes any sense!) instead of music. Love them both dearly :)
My eight year old still refers to hand sanitizer as ” hanitizer.” She is my youngest
and the rest of us just quietly giggle when ever she says ” hanitizer.” Hee Hee!!
Aw, I loved that you shared this! My oldest used to say…’how become?’ Instead of ‘how come?’ and nope, could never correct her…til of course one day, she corrected it herself…:(
Our babysitter’s daughter says hanitizer too!! It’s so cute and makes total sense so we all now say it!
Oops, meant to reply to the one above…mom brain!
I love reading all of these!! My favorites from my now 11-year old daughter were pillalilla (caterpillar) lalalade (lemonade) and brefixt (breakfast). My 7-year old son used to always say pinyano (piano) and add an ‘l’ to anything that ended in ‘aw’ like drawl (draw) and strawl (straw). My 2-year daughter has just now started to correct some of her mispronunciations! :( She used to say haffles (waffles), which we all now say, and Salsa and Nana (Elsa and Anna from Frozen). She also still says, “It tickles!” anytime she gets hurt.
These are so cute! And bring back so many memories.
My now 14-year-old daughter used to say layo (yellow), rhicino (rhinoceros), redemote (remote – we still say this), and reversatile (reversible, which I think is actually sort of genius).
She used to call the microwave the timer because we used the timer feature so often. Instead of ‘once upon a time’ she said ‘once upon of time’ and instead of ‘happily ever after’ it was ‘happily ever all.’
Aww, I miss that little girl. :)
My little boy (now 3.5) used to say
Vontingtons – wellingtons
I wanta carry you – pick me up please
Fire salmon – fireman Sam
My little girl twins (now 2) say
Phar pharm – fireman Sam
Rein de deers – reindeer
Llappy – nappy
My now 7 year old girl used to say “morantic” for romantic and “cacuzzi” for jacuzzi. She’d see me and my husband kiss, and she’d say, “You guys are so morantic!”
When I was little I couldn’t hear the difference between “f” and “th”, so even in grade 4 I had arguments all the way to school with my best friend, telling her that they were “thingers” and I was older, so I should know!
My godson called popsicles “bus-mans” because they come from the man in the icecream truck (or bus?), so sad when he stopped!
Loved hearing my daughter talk about dappodils instead of daffodils, and remember my little sister asking for a big kiss instead of a biscuit
My son said Donkey Donuts instead of Dunkin Donuts. It made us laugh so much… that’s what my husband and I still call it.
My little bear says snawich instead of sandwich. He also says garshaman truck for garbage truck, insectable for unacceptable, and pashaget for package. He’s 3 and I hope he goes to college saying each and every one of them like this! :):) This is probably one of my favorite set of comments to read ever, and is it bad that I want to teach mine to say all these things listed incorrectly?! :)
My middle says rainbrella instead of umbrella (which actually makes more sense). My oldest called the elevator and elegator. I just don’t have the heart to correct them.
Love this! We made a sentence to remember our two children’s most commonly misused words. The kahiki (khaki) chi-hoo-a-hoo-a (chihuaua) was updownside in the fighter fighter’s packaback. Our son hung onto updownside for years, and I was so sad when he stopped saying it.
My son used to have trouble saying words with “er” sounds. One morning he woke up very early and I asked him why he was up so early, he said, the “buds” woke me up. It took me a while to understand what he was saying and when I realized that he was saying “birds”, it made my day.
My little brother used to say “chocolate squirrel” when asked his preferred ice cream. I don’t think it was ever again called chocolate swirl in our house!
My little one is looking for her missing coat in the “lostin fountian” today. My favorite.