Pronunciation Issue Quotes

'Particularly' is particularly difficult because the 'L' and the 'R' are totally different, like totally different letters. I would spend hours in front of the mirror with my dialect coach to observe my tongue. You don't think, when you speak, about all the things that happen in your jaw and your mouth, how everything reacts, so you have to watch all those things and realise we have a totally different use of our tongue and jaws.

President Bush has been silent on Schwarzenegger. Of course, he can't pronounce Schwarzenegger.

You say 'erbs, and we say Herbs because there's a f*****g H in it!

Physicist is both to my mouth and ears so awkward that I think I shall never use it. The equivalent of three separate sounds of "I" in one word is too much.

Dutch is not so much a language as an ailment of the throat.

In Buenos Aires, I have a very close friend who speaks very good English, and she taught me. It was quite difficult because the muscles of your mouth are used to your language, and then when you want to speak another language, they don't go to the place they need to go to make the sound.

I still do get all these letters from people saying they are not pronouncing my name correctly!

If you can't pronounce a word correctly, just don't use it.

Most people have trouble pronouncing my name, so they just call me 'Mayor Pete.'

I get a different pronunciation at least every week. I think the worst one, or the funniest one I got, somebody called me, 'Oh-gooz-man.'

My father always wanted to be 'Col-bear.' He lived in the same town as his father, and his father didn't like the idea of the name with the French pronunciation. So my father said to us, 'Do what you want. You're not going to offend anybody.' And he was dead long before I made my decision.

For me, Malayalam is a difficult language. It has got a lot of tongue-twisting words.

I knew I didn't have the right name for a singer. Having a name that nobody could pronounce was hardly an asset.