(no subject)

[kalquessa]

My fourteen-year-old sister-in-law, Ernie, shares my love of words, but can't always get her tongue around the bigger ones. An example, last night, with most of the giggling removed for your convenience:

Ernie: We need to corrabrate the story!

green_tea_lady: We need to what the story?

Ernie: Corrabrate. Corrablate? Corrabalate!

green_tea_lady: Is the child trying to communicate with me?

Me: Yes, her new favorite word is "corroborate" but she can never remember how to say it.

Ernie: Colloborate!

Me: Cor-rob-or-ate.

Ernie: Corroborate.

Me: Yes.

Mother-in-law: It's kind of like "cooperate" and "collaborate". They sound the same and they sort of mean similar things, too.

Ernie: Co-obolate!

Me: See, now you've confused her again!

Ernie: Co-oberate?

green_tea_lady: [nemo] It's like she's trying to speak to me, I know it! Kid, you're really cute! But I don't understand what you're saying! [/nemo]

Me: Corroborate. Just imagine you're a robber. And you have a side-kick. He's your co-robber. You co-robberate!

Ernie: Hee! Corroborate!

Mother-in-law: Leave it to you to think that up.

green_tea_lady: Just don't use that to figure out the spelling.