Hands up if you're guilty of mispronouncing certain words. Hands up, too, if the people around you have been too polite to correct you. Or you've been too polite to correct someone else.

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My hands are raised on all counts.

New fad foods trip me up regularly. Until corrected I pronounced quinoa as it was spelt: kwin-oh-a. And I was grateful when a friend told me it was actually pronounced keen-wa. Likewise acai, which came out of my mouth as ack-eye, when it should have been ass-eye. It was only after being corrected I noticed the cedilla sometimes placed under the c, denoting the correct pronunciation.

Years ago, I was too polite to correct a flatmate who pronounced awry as or-ree rather than a-rye. It's with shame I now wonder how much embarrassment I could have saved him.

These are minor infractions compared to mispronouncing place names. A TV producer once told me of the dreadful moment early in his career when he announced on his first day on regional radio a story from boo-lah-de-lah when he should have said Bulahdelah. The switchboard lit up immediately with angry calls from listeners correcting the ignorant blow-in.

I felt a similar anger during the black summer fires when place names on the NSW South Coast were mangled - always innocently and often understandably. One would imagine Burrill Lake is pronounced as it looks. Not so. It's boo-rill.

But then there's Jervis Bay, which locals know should be pronounced as it's spelt but for some reason - Canberra people, I'm looking at you - comes out as jar-vis.

A helpful email arrived in my inbox which pointed out Australia's most mispronounced words. Gaelic names were right at the top and with good reason - the way they're spelt bears no resemblance to the way they should be pronounced.

Take Niamh. Go on, say it out loud. Bet you were wrong. It's pronounced neev. Or Aoifi. Wrong again - it's eeh-fuh.

Then there are the words you're probably pronouncing correctly which others - surprisingly aren't. Croissant? Kwa-son. Schedule? Shed-yool. Don't be surprised if a Qatari looks at you blankly when you ask about kat-ah. Ask them about kuh-tar and they'll know what you're talking about.

The email was promoting research by unscramblerer.com, which looked at Google requests for correct........

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