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I had no idea that draught is pronounced draft. I always thought that whatever I heard was always "draft", and that draught was some word that I only came across in written english.


I have a shockingly large "read-only" English vocabulary, at least relative to my age (42) and native language (American English). I still get caught out from time to time -- "quay" was a particularly humiliating bête noire.


Apparently in American English it can either be pronounced 'key', 'kay' or 'kway'.


My favorite was at a party where the (verbal) quiz question was what a "yamikah" is. I had absolutely no idea. Then they told me what it was, and I said - as if the quiz question had gotten it wrong - "Ohhhhh! You mean a YAR-MULK."


Something similar happened to me: a friend of mine kept telling me he worked for a security company called Semantic, and much later I realized he meant Symantec (pronounced like "semantic").


Me neither. I would have thought draught and drought were homophones. Interesting, my EN-US spellchecker here in Firefox is also insisting that draught is misspelled, and is most likely "fraught" (with drought next). I guess I've never had to read that word aloud in front of anyone who would laugh at me....




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