When discussing celebrities in the news, it's important to get the pronunciation of their names right. And in 2017, there were two major names that had newsreaders, linguists, and even just the general public a bit confused. So much so that those names ended up among the most mispronounced words throughout all of 2017. Those names were that of Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, and controversial producer Harvey Weinstein's surname.
In the case of Gal Gadot, her last name is what is frequently the problem for some to pronounce, as the popular pronunciation was similar to that of the titular character in Waiting For Gadot, which is pronounced as "Ga-dough." However, the proper way to pronounce the actor's last name is exactly as it's spelled, as "Ga-dot," serving as one of those cases where the simplest solution is the one that's correct.
Meanwhile, Babbel has reported that the common mispronunciation of Harvey Weinstein's last name has some arguing that his name should sound just like famed physicist Albert Einstein's. But, common usage comes to the table once again, with the pronunciation of "Wine-steen" being the one that's attached to the name of the man who was once one of Hollywood's most influential producers. Obviously, this is a bit of a hot topic, as both Gadot and Weinstein have been pretty big figures when it came to discussing the world of moviemaking in 2017.
On the more positive end of the spectrum, Gal Gadot rose to meteoric fame this year with the jubilant reaction fans had to her performance in DC's Wonder Woman film. Currently sitting as the ninth highest grossing film worldwide and third highest grossing film domestically in 2017, the Warner Bros. film became the highest grossing superhero origin story, blazing a trail for female directors and female led comic films to take up the baton and start conquering the typically male dominated market. Weinstein, on the other hand, gained notoriety for a slew of allegations involving various acts of sexual misconduct, coming from numerous women who worked with him or were present with him at some point through his decades long career.
As for some of the other words that were mispronounced in 2017, they didn't all have to do Hollywood. Reports indicate that ice hockey star Mark Scheifele also made the Canadian version of the list, as did baseball player Justin Smoak. Outside of the celebrity spectrum, people in the States still have trouble pronouncing words like "nuclear" and "dotard," the latter of which I didn't even know was still in common use. We'll be back in 2018 for more celebrity mispronunciations.
With both notable figures in the news quite a bit in 2017, that's a lot of mispronunciations and permutations of both Gal Gadot and Harvey Weinstein's names that have occurred within the calendar year. Hopefully, this means that in the end, both of their names will be better pronounced in 2018, seeing as the world has had tons of practice with both. Though now the question seems to be who will make the list next? Only time will tell.
