Annie Mac’s pronunciation of ‘kneading’ could rival Nigella Lawson's 'microwave'

Watch: People are fascinated by Annie Mac's pronunciation of 'kneading' on 'Celebrity Bake Off'

Annie Mac is giving Nigella Lawson some competition in the pronunciation stakes after revealing the unique way she says the word 'kneading' on last night's The Great Celebrity Bake Off.

The former radio 1 DJ was among stars including Ed Gamble, Example and Matt Lucas competing in the Stand Up To Cancer charity special.

During the technical challenge, when contestants were tasked with making raspberry doughnuts, Mac was talking viewers through her dough preparation when she said: “Maybe I should do a bit more 'nedding'. You’re trying to get more air into it, so it’s less dense. The only way you do that is by 'nedding' it.”

Presenter Noel Fielding then asked the DJ and podcaster about her pronunciation of the word, saying: “Word on the street is that instead of kneading dough you keep saying ‘nedding’ dough.”

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Mac jokingly responded: “Just because I don’t know the baking lingo.”

Fielding then said he was in favour of the pronunciation and that “in my opinion, it’s an upgrade”.

“Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise,” he added.

Of course, social media quickly lit up with comments from viewers who were fascinated with the unusual pronunciation.

"Wait, Annie Mac pronounces 'kneading' 'nedding'?", one user posed.

Many also drew comparison's between Mac's pronunciation of 'kneading' to that of the unique way Nigella Lawson says 'microwave'.

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One viewer wrote: “Move over mee-cro-wav-ay. Here is how Annie Mac pronounces the word ‘kneading’.”

In case you missed it, back in 2020 Nigella Lawson sparked a social media meltdown after revealing her very own special way of pronouncing the word microwave.

The 62-year-old celebrity chef revealed her unique term for the electromagnetic oven on her BBC show Cook, Eat, Repeat as she demonstrated how she makes mashed potato.

As she added warm milk Lawson said: “I still need a bit of milk – full fat – which I've warmed in the ‘mee-cro-wav-ay’.”

Of course Twitter lit up following Lawson's unusual pronunciation.

“I didn’t think I could love Nigella more but then she pronounced microwave as meecro-wah-vey, an icon,” one user tweeted.

“Right well a microwave will never be called a microwave again, it’s a meecro-wavay forevermore, thank you @Nigella_Lawson.”

They aren't the only high profile celebrities who have caused a stir with the way they pronounce certain words.

Back in 2018, people were amazed by how the then US President, Donald Trump, pronounced the word 'anonymous' at a rally in Montana.

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And Benedict Cumberbatch was once called out by Graham Norton while appearing on his talkshow for his attempt at the word 'penguins' which he referred to as 'pengwings'.

Why are we so fascinated with pronunciation?

"Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to, pot-ay-to, pot-ah-to 'Let's call the whole thing off'" the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong song says, offering an indication about how seriously people seem to take pronunciation.

A recent survey of 2,000 adults in the UK identified the top ten “mispronunciations” people find annoying and 'probly' (instead of 'probably'), 'expresso' ('espresso') and 'Artick' ('Arctic') all made the cut.

Researchers from London-based insights agency Perspectus Global polled 2,000 British adults about the mispronounced phrases that bug them most.

The most maddening mispronunciation, they found, was when people say 'pacifically' instead of specifically, which enraged 35% of respondents.

Despite 61% of Brits finding it annoying when others say words wrong, as many as 65% would be too embarrassed to correct them.

Yet 35% said they can’t resist correcting their friends and family.

So why do people pronounce words differently, why does pronunciation change, and why does so-called mispronunciation prove so fascinating to people?

"Like vocabulary and grammar, we pronounce by noticing and understanding rules and patterns which lie beneath the surface of speech," explains James Gregg, linguistics expert at Ling App.

According to Gregg, Mac's recent mispronunciation of the word 'kneading' could partly be attributed to her Irish roots.

"If we use our first language sounds, rhythms and tones when we speak the words of another language, this causes “accent” which has led the pronunciation of 'kneading' to come across to native English speakers differently," he explains.

The language experts at Babbel agree that it is common for mispronounced words to have foreign origins, or be a name in another language, however, we must also consider that the UK has more regional accents and dialects than many other English speaking countries.

This, they say, leads to a wide variety of pronunciation preferences with certain words and phrases, often influenced by regional dialects and slang.

"There is really no right or wrong way to say certain words, though it can often lead to confusion, or even a funny moment, when something is completely away from the accepted standard," Babbel adds.

When mispronunciations are at their most unusual or inexplicable they can subvert language in a way that comes across as comedic, and this could partly explain why people find it so fascinating.

"Think of Nigella’s famous pronunciation of microwave as ‘mee-cro-wah-vay’," the Babbel experts continue. "The sound was so unexpected in Nigella’s usual RP (received pronunciation) accent that it quickly became a meme, trending on social media.

"Similarly, Benedict Cumberbatch’s pronunciation of penguin as ‘pengwing’ while narrating a nature documentary sent fans into a frenzy.

"In this case, the conflation of a word related to the animal (wing) with the word itself made the mispronunciation seem quaint, which fuelled jokes about the mispronunciation online."

Meanwhile Babbel predicts Mac's ‘nedding’ looks set to enter the same category of special pronunciations, particularly if Noel Fielding’s reaction alone is anything to go by.