VOA新闻杂志2022 Do you know about the Ohtani rule?

Do you know about the Ohtani rule?

Have you seen a movie with actor Domhnall Gleeson?

If you are a fan of Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani or Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson, you likely know how to say their names.

Both men were in the news in 2022. Ohtani got attention in the spring because America's professional baseball league introduced a rule change that many call the "Ohtani rule." They call it that because of his special skills. And in October, Domhnall Gleeson jokingly called out television show host Stephen Colbert for saying his first name wrong. (The right way to say it is DOH-null.)

In fact, their names are among the most mispronounced names of 2022. That information comes from The Captioning¹ Group. The company puts real-time words under live news stories in the U.S. and Canada.

The group has released a "most mispronounced" list every year since 2016.

This year's list includes names like the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia and Negroni sbagliato, an Italian alcoholic² drink.

Zaporizhzhia is the city that is home to the world's largest nuclear power plant. Serious fighting between Russia and Ukraine took place in the area earlier this year. Russian soldiers took control of the power center. It was shut down in the autumn to avoid a major accident.

People often worry about mispronouncing a foreign name. But one expert, Esteban Touma, says it is a good thing that we live in a world where we hear and see new names and sounds.

Touma is a producer and teacher for the language learning company Babbel. He said seeing all the difficult names in the news "really shows the ways we interact³ with other languages and really gives a good grasp of what's going on in the world and how we connect with people abroad."

Even people who have help sometimes make mistakes, including U.S. President Joe Biden. He had trouble saying the name of Great Britain's new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. Biden said "Rasheed Sanook."

Another famous person, the singer Adele, recently said her fans have been saying her name incorrectly for many years. She said her name should sound like "uh-Dale." Of course, many fans said that is just how people with a British accent pronounce it.

Other mispronounced names in the news include athletes Tua Tagovailoa, the American football player, and tennis star Novak Djokovic. Tagovailoa was talked about because of a serious head injury he suffered during a game. Djokovic was in the news early in 2022 because he arrived in Australia to play in a competition but was not permitted to play because he was not vaccinated⁴ against COVID-19.

In the world of science, many people talked about a large crater⁵ in the Gulf⁶ of Mexico. It is called Chicxulub. Some say the crater was caused by an asteroid⁷ that led to the disappearance⁸ of dinosaurs⁹.

And many people learned the correct way to say the capital city of Scotland during televised memorial services for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Many people say "ed-in-bor-o." But locals say "ed-in-BRUH."

Words in This Story

live–adj. happening in the moment, not recorded

interact –v. to come together and have an effect on each other – such as during a conversation or meeting

grasp –v. to understand something that is difficult

accent –n. a way of pronouncing words that only occurs among the people in a specific area

crater –n. a large round hole in the ground caused when something crashes into land

1 captioning   

v.给（图片、照片等）加说明文字( caption的现在分词 )

参考例句：

2 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

3 interact   

vi.相互作用，相互影响，互通信息

参考例句：

• All things are interrelated and interact on each other.一切事物互相联系并相互作用。
• The policeman advised the criminal to interact with the police.警察劝罪犯与警方合作。

4 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

5 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

8 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

9 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》