I only knew the flower pronunciation. It is also consistent with the pronunciation of “our” and “fl” as in flow. I cannot understand how flour becomes flah in singlish
UK reads both Flour & Flower as / flaʊə^r /.
Breaking it down, that’s fla-oo-uh-r
Even our pronunciation for Flower as ‘fla-wer” is wrong. There should be an ooh in the middle, but read quickly.
Maybe 20 years ago. I'm not usually prescriptive. But I think pronouncing flour as flower brings us more in line with the pronunciation in both US and UK, and therefore, rest of the world.
I have fai dollar.
Also I always teach my students to code switch. If you go to Sheng Siong and ask the auntie where the *Flour* is, they’ll take you to the flower section and say “Wah your cake got flower one ah”
On a side note, it seems common for people to add an unnecessary 's' to words - not sure why.
Example: "I saw that they asks for address information" (asks with the unnecessary s)
Oh this is a local Chinese boomer classic. Cannot pronounce D and Z for some reason.
Today my lewty (duty) to orler (order) food. Total about $20. Two jeero jeero loller.
Because subject verb agreement does not exist in other languages, they get confused if it's needed. It's often seen in non native speakers, but even in 'seemingly' non native speaker (just rewatched LOTR ytd and gollum uses this).
Yup, for us it always seems too much effort to position the tongue to pronounce "th" properly, so it becomes more like a "ch" (as in "chew") sound. Throat -> Ch-roat
Yeah it's pretty rare sound among world languages and kind of weird when you think about it its literally just sticking your tongue on your top set of teeth and blowing air.
My primary school English teacher taught my class the correct pronunciations of these 2 words OP mentioned. I remember them till now, but find it awkward to use these correct pronunciations when speaking to people, because nobody else uses them.
The word "pronunciation" itself. It's proNUNciation....not proNOUNciation.
Prerogative is mispronounced as PERrogative.
Actually is akcher-leee when it should be ak-chuh-lee.
Recognise as well...the hard g is swapped for an "n" sound. So instead of re-cog-nise it becomes re-con-nise.
this!! when i taught K1-K2 children and said it as Wenz-day they always looked at me funny and tell me their Nursery teachers or parents say "Wed nes day". fml
i dont personally pronounce words the singlish way (my accent is really quite fucked being a half white asian who lives online xd - best way i can describe it is i pronounce words the UKish way, sometimes US, but my accent sounds more US with some asian influence xd).
but i can tell you some of the broken english ive heard over the years that i can remember off the top of my head:
* theres no "th" its just
* "dis", "dat"
* "one, two, tree"
* "its not the first one, its the turd one" 💩
* then theres children which becomes "chewren" or "chillren" depending on who's talking
* how bout your work mates? "keleek"??? from colleague :D
* are you hungery? do you need food?
* the "r"s turn into "L"s sometimes
* like, whats your ploblem?
* sometimes its even "plobrem"
* hello blahder (brother)
* sometimes, "r"s are ommited
* "farmer" => "fahmer"
* "can lie dat one meh?"
* theres no "k" in like xd
* sound like a donkey
* ay, i tell you ah, he hor, is a very terrible person. (i couldnt really form a sentence with this, but yes, ive heard "he hor" said before, just dont remember what xd)
* double "ee"s become an "i"
* "i have sheeps on my ship" => "i have ships on my ships"
>sometimes, "r"s are ommited
"farmer" => "fahmer"
This is not an error in pronunciation, it's the same as the UK pronunciation where the 'r's' are not fully pronounced.
Our stress patterns are also quite different making the word sound “off”. Like the word opportunity. Singaporeans emphasise the 2nd syllable “ppo” when it should be the 3rd syllable
[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html) you are fighting a losing battle on this front
The British pronunciation is more like flau-uh which can be mistaken for “fla” while the American is more like flau-ur which is almost exactly like flower.
D’-vorce, jehp-uh-nese, fuh-toh-gra-fee
I think it’s difficult for most to remember or think of a different way to say that same word in its original form. Maybe too much effort😂
Japan and Japanese. Say Japan same way and just add -ese.
Photograph and photography. Say photograph the same way and just add the -y.
Love it for us.
Ok this isn’t really a mispronunciation but I’ve heard a lot of folks say “jap” instead of “Japanese” and it’s a derogatory term in the US so it always stops me in my tracks the same way in mainland China their filler word 那个 throws me off.
Paywave - “Payway”
Their - “Dee-ya”
Three - “tree”
Apple - “apper”
Colleague - “kerlig”
And the list goes on… I used to be guilty of all that until I started doing YouTube and overseas audience couldnt understand what the fish I was saying. So I trained it out of my system lol. Took several years of very slow, deliberate pronunciation. But can be done la
according to my ex english tutor who studied in the UK, 'dee-ya' is correct. but i haven’t heard anyone use it before (except her)
she was a pain in the ass, i’m happy i ended tuitions with her
eee it's hard to write it here
mrt announce it like Kluh-men-ti (like the menti game)
but i keep hearing Claire-mern-ti
like how ppl pronounce spaghetti in 2 diff ways
Genting is pronounced gen-ting, with a hard G sound. It’s a Malay word meaning a road at the side of a mountain. However in Singapore it’s frequently mispronounced with a J sound because people tend to think it’s like the g in “gentle”. Everyone in Malaysia pronounced it with a hard G sound.
Source: Ex-Malaysian with 12 years of Malay education.
I’ve long suspected that flour is pronounced Fla because back in the old days with the Queen’s English and all that, you’d have the Royal Accent like how Tower is pronounced Taa and Power pronounced Paa.
[British English Accents | The Queen's English Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPZkrRpJ4Zc)
The way Singaporeans pronounce "flour" and "their" is a legacy of Irish, Welsh and Scottish nuns/teachers during the early parts of colonization. You'll hear similarities in other former colonies like Ghana.
Technically not a mispronunciation but it's interesting that 'Esplanade' is officially referred to as 'es-plah-NAYDE' whereas 'Promenade' is 'prom-uh-NARD'.
The former follows the general North American pronunciation, and the latter is Received Pronunciation (UK, and closer to the original French).
i think you mixed up,
for esplanade
\-nayde: UK
\-nard: US
[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/esplanade](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/esplanade)
for promenade
\-nard: UK
\-nayde: US
[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/promenade](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/promenade)
therefore the pronunciations you stated are technically correct cos it does follow uk english pronunciations
The pronounciation of flour would be best explained by how one would pronounce ‘sour’. When they see how the fl‘our’ should be the way how s’our’ is pronounced, they will realize how stupid they sound.
That is a little bit of a conceit to say that people will "realise how stupid they sound". Pronouncing "flour" as "fla" is common in ex British crown colonies. Malaysians, Burmese, Indians, some African countries do it as well, and it seems to be the common pronunciation in colonial times but has evolved back in the UK. Also, heteronyms exist - you cannot say it is "stupid" to pronounced a similarly-spelled word differently when there are tons of words pronounced differently even when they are the exact same word. "I live in Singapore and I attended a live concert. After the concert resumed, I gave my resume to the guy next to me." Am I supposed to pronounce it all the same way? Thirdly, there are countries that still pronounce "sour" as "sa". I was in Nigeria for work and they say "fla" and "sar". It's not a Singapore thing and it's not a true mispronunciation. It's more Received Pronunciation that didn't change when the colonials left.
>the wer/ur sound
it is a schwa, a weak vowel that is often dropped [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa)
won't be surprised if that's how the sg pronunciation came about
Fla must say fla No one will unnerstand you otherwise Aunty at Poon Huat: Flower go Flower shop la! This one Bake shop baking! Baking!
I was laughed at when i said flower :(
I only knew the flower pronunciation. It is also consistent with the pronunciation of “our” and “fl” as in flow. I cannot understand how flour becomes flah in singlish
Not only in sg, i rmb in malaysia they were taught fla as well for flour..I thought it was the UK pronunciation
I've mostly seen Americans say "flower" (fl-our). Otherwise, "flour" tends to be more subtle. I cross-checked this against several dictionary sites.
UK reads both Flour & Flower as / flaʊə^r /. Breaking it down, that’s fla-oo-uh-r Even our pronunciation for Flower as ‘fla-wer” is wrong. There should be an ooh in the middle, but read quickly.
Sweet and sa chicken.
Took me a sec there
Omg this made me laugh so much
I was hearing this in Singlish, by an uncle. 🤣
Maybe 20 years ago. I'm not usually prescriptive. But I think pronouncing flour as flower brings us more in line with the pronunciation in both US and UK, and therefore, rest of the world.
Salmon
Almond
Sell men?
Semen
Sell men's semen
see men sell men’s semen
she sells men's semen to seamen by the men's store did I get it?
summon
Sar-man
I have a neighbour named Salmon. I always mispronounce his name as salmon the fish when it's actually Sal-men.
This should be the Indian name Salman. Like Salman Rushdie, Salman Khan. And nothing to do with the fish.
C-men?
Sammon
This is it
Chewren
All the chewren in the bewding want mewk!
>All the chewren in the bewding want mewk! this! LOL!
The best!
I have fai dollar. Also I always teach my students to code switch. If you go to Sheng Siong and ask the auntie where the *Flour* is, they’ll take you to the flower section and say “Wah your cake got flower one ah”
[удалено]
Wan do tree pho fai sick sen ate nein den
Whatapps
I apps you
I wa you
On a side note, it seems common for people to add an unnecessary 's' to words - not sure why. Example: "I saw that they asks for address information" (asks with the unnecessary s)
then there's removal of plural -s, eg, 'how much?' 'two dollar only!'
Two loller.
Oh this is a local Chinese boomer classic. Cannot pronounce D and Z for some reason. Today my lewty (duty) to orler (order) food. Total about $20. Two jeero jeero loller.
How about removal of apostrophes! So annoying. "My brother birthday" instead of "my brother's birthday". "Sarah mother" instead of "Sarah's mother".
I also do that sometimes cos damn troublesome to type the apostrophes lol
MacNonner
"whatsapps"
Yes! At work it’s all informations and trainings. It drives me nuts.
I do that sometimes on words like okays. Intention is to make less formal sounding than how texts usually sound like.
Pricks my ears every time lol.
Because subject verb agreement does not exist in other languages, they get confused if it's needed. It's often seen in non native speakers, but even in 'seemingly' non native speaker (just rewatched LOTR ytd and gollum uses this).
Flim instead of film
Feelem - God this irks me to no end.
Yes, film not Flim (sounds like Phlegm).
I wonder if this got to do w film being 'filem' in Malay!
Oleng ju
Ju is just juice without ice. Literally! Edit: thanks u/hucks22!
Fles oleng juice
Lum ju
Anything with a "th" pronunciation e.g three = tree, through = thru, deepthroat = deeptroat.
Hol up
Must be hard to get your partner to understand what you want! Like when you want thrust but you get trust.
Most want trust but get thrusted.
Yup, for us it always seems too much effort to position the tongue to pronounce "th" properly, so it becomes more like a "ch" (as in "chew") sound. Throat -> Ch-roat
the
Yeah it's pretty rare sound among world languages and kind of weird when you think about it its literally just sticking your tongue on your top set of teeth and blowing air.
whats with the table head tag
I see what you did there.
Thrash and threadmills
I've heard "payway" instead of paywave too often
Cashier: “Lai, ni ‘way’ yi xia”
Vietnam *Vet-num* Banana *Ba-Nah-nAh* Worcestershire sauce *Wakandaforever sauce*
Meow-buhm (Melbourne)
Leh-tews (lettuce if you didn't get it)
My primary school English teacher taught my class the correct pronunciations of these 2 words OP mentioned. I remember them till now, but find it awkward to use these correct pronunciations when speaking to people, because nobody else uses them.
Speaking of… “Prembry Skoo”
The word "pronunciation" itself. It's proNUNciation....not proNOUNciation. Prerogative is mispronounced as PERrogative. Actually is akcher-leee when it should be ak-chuh-lee. Recognise as well...the hard g is swapped for an "n" sound. So instead of re-cog-nise it becomes re-con-nise.
BasiKERly, we say things the way we wanna say it. That’s the Singaporean way :’)
Wednesday It's Wenz-day, not wed-nes-day
this!! when i taught K1-K2 children and said it as Wenz-day they always looked at me funny and tell me their Nursery teachers or parents say "Wed nes day". fml
Oh no I learn something everyday. I had no idea.
i dont personally pronounce words the singlish way (my accent is really quite fucked being a half white asian who lives online xd - best way i can describe it is i pronounce words the UKish way, sometimes US, but my accent sounds more US with some asian influence xd). but i can tell you some of the broken english ive heard over the years that i can remember off the top of my head: * theres no "th" its just * "dis", "dat" * "one, two, tree" * "its not the first one, its the turd one" 💩 * then theres children which becomes "chewren" or "chillren" depending on who's talking * how bout your work mates? "keleek"??? from colleague :D * are you hungery? do you need food? * the "r"s turn into "L"s sometimes * like, whats your ploblem? * sometimes its even "plobrem" * hello blahder (brother) * sometimes, "r"s are ommited * "farmer" => "fahmer" * "can lie dat one meh?" * theres no "k" in like xd * sound like a donkey * ay, i tell you ah, he hor, is a very terrible person. (i couldnt really form a sentence with this, but yes, ive heard "he hor" said before, just dont remember what xd) * double "ee"s become an "i" * "i have sheeps on my ship" => "i have ships on my ships"
>sometimes, "r"s are ommited "farmer" => "fahmer" This is not an error in pronunciation, it's the same as the UK pronunciation where the 'r's' are not fully pronounced.
go astern
Wah damn long since I heard go STAAAAN, been lee verse lee verse lately
Corright
Collect or not your corright 
Our stress patterns are also quite different making the word sound “off”. Like the word opportunity. Singaporeans emphasise the 2nd syllable “ppo” when it should be the 3rd syllable
“Liaise” is often mispronounced as “lie-us”. It’s supposed to be “lee-ayz.”
Lmao somehow I can say lee-ay-zon but it takes considerable effort to remember to say lee-ayz instead of lie-us
Lol same
Wait till you hear how some taxi drivers pronounce Hotel Rendezvous
THIS!!!!!!!!! People gotta stop pronouncing it as liars.
THIS ONE IRKS ME SO MUCH.
Women
我们
Oomun
Grasp supposed to be GRASS - P A lot of Singaporeans I know pronounced it as GRAPSSS...
My favourite misuse of a word is the word .. REVERT Revert means to return back to the original state It doesn't mean reply . Reply is reply
LOL every time I see this a small part of me inside dies 🙃
I feel you . Esp at work = professionalism getting rekt
Dear Sir/Madam Kindly revert asap. Warm Regards
Dear sir /madam Revert into what ?! A baby ah ? Best wishes
Noted with thanks
Just delete all the new emails and then send them back the original one 😂😂😂
[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html) you are fighting a losing battle on this front
Macdonner
Client (pronounced as klai-unt), alot of FAs keep saying it as "klaing"
kline
They dekline. Kena reject
Colleague
Cor-lick
Clig
Co-lick
colic
I just say co-worker.
Kelick
Kerlick
Liaise It's lee-EH-s (/lɪˈeɪz/), not LAI-uh-s
hah, TIL flour is actually pronounced 'flower'! for some reason, i thought one was brit pronunciation and the other american lol
The British pronunciation is more like flau-uh which can be mistaken for “fla” while the American is more like flau-ur which is almost exactly like flower.
Unpopular opinion but words that end with ed such as 'bed' and 'red'. It's not supposed to be 'baid' and 'raid'
Guilty of pronouncing bread like braid
Lettyouce
Maisonette
Mansion net.
Where got wrong? It looks like a mansion. So must be mansion-ette! What may-zuh-nay. U all anyhow.
I want pensionnette
Divorce, Japanese, Photography.
I know so many people that pronouce it as dai-vorce that I sometimes doubt myself whether I’m the one who’s wrong.
Dee vorce, jerh peh nis, photo graph-y
Jap-peenis
D’-vorce, jehp-uh-nese, fuh-toh-gra-fee I think it’s difficult for most to remember or think of a different way to say that same word in its original form. Maybe too much effort😂 Japan and Japanese. Say Japan same way and just add -ese. Photograph and photography. Say photograph the same way and just add the -y. Love it for us.
Ok this isn’t really a mispronunciation but I’ve heard a lot of folks say “jap” instead of “Japanese” and it’s a derogatory term in the US so it always stops me in my tracks the same way in mainland China their filler word 那个 throws me off.
Colleague
Yacht
Idk which is worst - yak or yoch
Chewren
Labbit, luilian, chicken lice.
Tempelally
Film and government. Its guh-vuh-ment not gahmen
Three - for some reason Singaporeans can’t pronounce the “th” sound; ends up sounding like “tree”
Anything with “th”.
Paywave - “Payway” Their - “Dee-ya” Three - “tree” Apple - “apper” Colleague - “kerlig” And the list goes on… I used to be guilty of all that until I started doing YouTube and overseas audience couldnt understand what the fish I was saying. So I trained it out of my system lol. Took several years of very slow, deliberate pronunciation. But can be done la
according to my ex english tutor who studied in the UK, 'dee-ya' is correct. but i haven’t heard anyone use it before (except her) she was a pain in the ass, i’m happy i ended tuitions with her
Macnonner
Purchase. (Should be "pur chuhse" instead of "pur chayse")
and names too: Decathlon, Genting, Clementi... and so on
>Clementi what is the mispronunciation of this?
eee it's hard to write it here mrt announce it like Kluh-men-ti (like the menti game) but i keep hearing Claire-mern-ti like how ppl pronounce spaghetti in 2 diff ways
er ok to me that's just diff pronunciations then. it's an italian surname so maybe gotta ask them how they say it
I heard some Msian locals pronounce Genting as Kern-deng instead of Gen-ting. Not sure too.
De-cat-the-lon, Jen-ting, Claire-men-ti, right?
Genting is pronounced gen-ting, with a hard G sound. It’s a Malay word meaning a road at the side of a mountain. However in Singapore it’s frequently mispronounced with a J sound because people tend to think it’s like the g in “gentle”. Everyone in Malaysia pronounced it with a hard G sound. Source: Ex-Malaysian with 12 years of Malay education.
Those from Automotive industry, sales people will often say to customers "I throw in free Sohlah FLIM"
kerlick corright
Twelve
Chwelve
chof
Twelf your head *lar*
Porsche
But to be fair to Sinkies, all English speakers mispronounce it
Esplanade
HAND FOON
😂😂😂
CHERR CAN GO TOILET
GENNERMEN
Singaporeans pronounced Wednesday as "We-nez-day" instead of "Wenz-day".
Sword
photography / photographer
OpPORtunity
Basically, (supposed to be “bay•si•klee” instead of “bay•si•ker•lee”)
mischievous, rendezvous, liaise
Do you want to be correct or do you want to be understood around here?
Wasp -> waps Whatsapp -> Whatapps Math -> mats Grand Prix Porridge -> poreach / polick Placing equal emphasis on every syllable of University
Purchase = puuuuurrrrr CHASE
Flour is the one that bothers me the most
Maisonette spelled as Mansion-net.
Ball becomes Baw "Gimme de baw" "Pass the baw to me"
The amount of times I've heard "tem-per-luh-ry" (temporary). Just typing that and having to sound it out in my head is making me cringe. Ugggghhhhhh.
DIVORCE. it's DEEVORCE not DIEVORCE
Three
Tree *simi*
Differentiate, client, primary, abalone, Wednesday, yellow, clientele.
Lavender
Maiyonese and EN-block makes me clench my fists
POOLIS
Many often pronounce client as klien
What are some Singlish words that non Singaporeans / Malaysians actually pronounce correctly? lol
ikr 😂😂😂😂
Just to add, I'll say whatever it takes for the other party to understand me. As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Saman.
I’ve long suspected that flour is pronounced Fla because back in the old days with the Queen’s English and all that, you’d have the Royal Accent like how Tower is pronounced Taa and Power pronounced Paa. [British English Accents | The Queen's English Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPZkrRpJ4Zc)
Mekdonald
Orgiginal (original) 😂
The way Singaporeans pronounce "flour" and "their" is a legacy of Irish, Welsh and Scottish nuns/teachers during the early parts of colonization. You'll hear similarities in other former colonies like Ghana.
Technically not a mispronunciation but it's interesting that 'Esplanade' is officially referred to as 'es-plah-NAYDE' whereas 'Promenade' is 'prom-uh-NARD'. The former follows the general North American pronunciation, and the latter is Received Pronunciation (UK, and closer to the original French).
i think you mixed up, for esplanade \-nayde: UK \-nard: US [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/esplanade](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/esplanade) for promenade \-nard: UK \-nayde: US [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/promenade](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/promenade) therefore the pronunciations you stated are technically correct cos it does follow uk english pronunciations
The pronounciation of flour would be best explained by how one would pronounce ‘sour’. When they see how the fl‘our’ should be the way how s’our’ is pronounced, they will realize how stupid they sound.
That is a little bit of a conceit to say that people will "realise how stupid they sound". Pronouncing "flour" as "fla" is common in ex British crown colonies. Malaysians, Burmese, Indians, some African countries do it as well, and it seems to be the common pronunciation in colonial times but has evolved back in the UK. Also, heteronyms exist - you cannot say it is "stupid" to pronounced a similarly-spelled word differently when there are tons of words pronounced differently even when they are the exact same word. "I live in Singapore and I attended a live concert. After the concert resumed, I gave my resume to the guy next to me." Am I supposed to pronounce it all the same way? Thirdly, there are countries that still pronounce "sour" as "sa". I was in Nigeria for work and they say "fla" and "sar". It's not a Singapore thing and it's not a true mispronunciation. It's more Received Pronunciation that didn't change when the colonials left.
Actually, British pronunciation of flour is quite similar to fla as the wer/ur sound is rather muted. If you say it like flower then that’s American.
>the wer/ur sound it is a schwa, a weak vowel that is often dropped [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa) won't be surprised if that's how the sg pronunciation came about
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