I was in the supermarket the other day and overhead a woman pronounce Warburtons as “war-burtons” with a distinct pause in the middle rather than the one word “warbuttons” everyone else uses. It felt a bit pretentious.

32 comments

  2. I have distinct childhood memories of my primary school music teacher saying ,”because” like “big-horrrse’, can’t remember the rest of his accent, just that one word.

  3. My ex, her name is pronounced Bon-ay, but its spelled bonnet.

    It actually is French, her dad was from a French colony.

    It really did annoy her, lol.

  5. If you hadn’t have said “in real life” I would have said this post

    literally never heard anyone pronounce it warbuttons instead of war-burtons

  6. i know it’s cliché but when posh uni student pronounce baccy like baurrkey “rahh pauuss me the baurrkey yarhh” actually grinds my gears.

  7. I was on the train opposite a mother and daughter. The mother had a fairly standard, but eloquent North Yorkshire accent. The daughter was putting on what she thought was a very posh accent and kept pronouncing bag as “BAAAHG”.

  8. There was a girl at school that used to punch people if they got her surname name wrong and years later I worked with her aunt and the first time I said her name she nearly pissed herself laughing because it was a bucket situation and the French spin the girl made us put on her name was rubbish (her first name was French so it didn’t occur to us she was being pretentious)

  9. When my mother in law looks after my daughter, she re-irons her clothes before she takes her to the park

  10. To be honest I suspect Hyacinth was based on my mother. She had that whole lower middle class aspirational snobbery.

  12. My best mate, against all advice, got himself a Range Rover. A few months later he had to sell it because- lo and behold, he couldn’t afford to run it. He got himself a lovely Citroen DS instead but he refused to put his private plates on the DS out of “shame”

  13. I’ve known an O’Nions, someone who changed their name from Hickinbottom to Hickens because they didn’t like having ‘bottom’ in their name, someone with the name Parrett who pronounced it ‘Puh-RETT’ and someone who used to decant all their cheap shopping into containers from more expensive shops.

  15. Partner always tell me to mind something while I’m driving, even if it’s a cyclist going the other way

  16. All the people who drank tap water their whole lives, and suddenly it’s no longer good enough for them and they can only drink shop-bought.

    Former SIL believed it showed class to not use napkins. We’d go out for a meal and she’d wave her pristine napkin at the end to show how daintily she’d eaten.

  17. My sister and I still occasionally joke about a Classic FM presenter from a couple of decades ago who used to pronounce the name Mozart (which is German, for those who aren’t aware) as if it were French by saying “Moh-zarr”.

  18. My Nan shares some similarities, she came from a working class household who were very poor and her only real aspiration was owning a nice, modest home and looking like she fitted in with suburban towny life. She also has a posh phone voice which she puts on without even knowing.

  22. I used to work with someone who insisted on pronouncing Pirelli as “Pie-relli”. We had a meeting with the Pirelli R&D team and he kept pronouncing it this way, even after the Pirelli employee corrected him ! He doubled down and kept saying “Pie-relli” 🤣

  23. I think my neighbour has always been a bit of Bucket, she didn’t talk to me for about twenty years for genuinely no real reason and it’s only only old age and loneliness that’s lead to her talking to us. But I was aware she’d host tea parties for their “friends” down the street. The husbands hated it, and it always ended with a show of her roses.

    At times the husband would stay in the car whilst his wife went in, which is funny.

    She’ll wander up the street to overlook her neighbours on her side when they’re not in, and then pretend she was just “exercising” when I happen to come home see her.

    She never had the whole pronunciation quirks, but everything else is spot on.

  24. Years ago my MIL was given a voucher for a spa day at Champneys. She insisted on pronouncing it ‘Chomp-knees’.

    I asked her if she would be drinking ‘Chompaign’ while she was there but she couldn’t get her head around what I was on about.

  27. People pronouncing my surname as Why-ling, instead of exactly how its written.. Willing. My mum can be a bit pretentious sometimes so we sometimes tease her with this pronunciation lol

  28. A “faux posh” colleague didn’t realise people were being slightly sarcastic calling Target “Tarjeay”So she called it Tarjeay every time she said she visited. A genuine bucket.

  29. I do it myself for shits and giggle all the time.

    ‘babe can you get me the lettuce out the fridge’

    ‘babe can you get the lettoo-chee out the fridge’

    ‘I’m here to check in my luggage’

    *french accent* ‘I am ere to check in my Loogar-Jay’

  30. People who say…

    Tuth, instead of tooth

    Ruhm, instead of room

    Isssss-sew, instead of issue

    Res-taw-raaaaawwwnnnn(t), instead of restaurant

  31. My grandma was every inch the hyacinth in real life.

    I remember a conversation with her and my mum once where she was pulling a face at us kids being taken to skegness for the weekend

    “Oh no.. I couldn’t *possibly* go somewhere like that. I don’t go to ‘kiss me quick’ places”.

    Happy enough with benidorm for her hols though.

  32. My mother in law changes the pronunciation of her surname, based on her perceived social ranking of whoever she’s talking to.

    So to me, lowly pleb, she would be Janet Smith . Jannit Smiff. But to the bank/solicitor/whatever, she’d introduce herself as Jan-ette Smythe. So, the Bucket/Bouquet of the real world. She did it when she was a witness signing the thingy at our wedding.. And we laughed .. And she was furious 😂

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