Which words are most commonly confused by lip-readers?

Priscilla9

The words "I love you" can easily be mistaken as: olive juice elephant shoes. Try it out! Oct 18 05, 6:54 PM

JoshCaleb12

As a lipreader myself, I have to laugh at Priscilla's example... it's probably true! But, I must say that a large part of lipreading for me is based on context. I doubt I'm going to mistake lipreading my mom's "I love you" as "elephant shoes" in the context of hugs and kisses! LOL! Oct 18 05, 9:42 PM

lanfranco

I had always understood that words beginning with "b" and "p" were often difficult to distinguish. This site seems to confirm it: http://www.acoustics.org/press/139th/mattys.htm The wikipedia site on lipreading uses "island view" as a phrase that can be misunderstood as "I love you." I suppose that problem could conceivably arise on a lipreader's tropical honeymoon ... Oct 19 05, 11:40 AM

JoshCaleb12

If I'm paying VERY close attention, I can distinguish between "B" and "P" by the way the lips press together... a "B" is more likely to have the lips folded between the teeth... and a "P" is more likely to be "kissy" shaped... Of course, I'm assuming that the person I'm lipreading is a careful ennunciator... LOL! Oct 19 05, 6:04 PM

yowzayowza

According to the Seinfeld episode 'The Low Talker', the words would be 'sweep' and 'sleep'. Oct 19 05, 7:03 PM

gmackematix

I suppose there must be a few phonetic families of letters that are tricky to distinguish. What about "t" and "d", "f" and "v", "s" and "z", "k" and "g" or "ch", "j" and "sh"? Oct 19 05, 7:19 PM

gmackematix

Wasn't there an episode of "Inspector Morse" that involved a mistake made by a lip-reader? Oct 19 05, 7:20 PM