Least favorite mispronunciations?

[Bossy Monkey]

I'd do a poll, but a) nucular would win in a landslide, and b) I don't have 9 candidates yet. Here's some others:
furmiliar: This and another one that I can't remember at the moment are used by professional narrator types on documentaries and commercials, just to drive me straight up the wall.
comfterble: This doesn't bother me, since I do it too, but I figure I'd throw it in.
mischievious: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! How hard is this?! Just two I's!

and finally, the one that makes me proudest to be a Southerner: suite (in the furniture context) pronounced as suit. Even my one true love does this; I'm tellin' ya, sometimes love has to be deaf, too!

Gimme yours; please include a second choice too if your first one is nucular!:)

[XNASA]

1. Inporden......

As in, "I gotta remember to pay my mortgage. It's really inporden."

Drives me nuts.

[kmla]

2. New-ku-lurr.

... bugs the ever-livin hell outa me. Makes me wanna smack somebody or something.

Makes my brain sweat and my kidneys ache.:hurts:

[vajraroshana]

76. bugs the hell out of me too

And don't tell me it's a regional dialect. I'm from the South and am capable of pronouncing nu-cle-ar. Carter does it too, and that really bothers me.

[ironflange]

3. eck-cetera

Agh!

[Commendatori]

13. Good luck to Calgary

I hope Yzerman's injury deflates the team. I know it's off topic, but I'm seeing your signature for the first time.

[ironflange]

21. Thanks!

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. The people who put "r"s where they don't belong, and ignore the ones

that are there.

Let me "warsh" my "cah".

Went to school with a guy from Brooklyn who had a serious Brooklyn accent, nice guy, but he, like Bostonites and etc., coulodn't deal with the "r" thing. I told him one day that my family was from "Sparta" and he said "Spahtter?" and I said, "No, Sparta" and he said, "That's what I said, Spahtter" and I said, "No, you said Spahtter" and he said, "No, I said Spahtter. Like in Greece: S-P-A-R-T-A. Spahtter."

I still find this hilarious. He spelled it perfectly, but had no idea he was pronouncing it so wrongly.

Still, for the most part, this mix up of "r"s drives me crazy. It sounds very, I don't know, but it sounds bad.

[PartyPooper]

11. Do you ever go to the libary in Feberary?

:crazy:

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. and it's not a mispronunciation, but I hate "Can you borrow me a dollar?"

Borrow me a dollar? Borrow you? You mean lend, right?

ARGH!!

Lots of people of Old Wisconsin say that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

20. That's known as a "non-rhotic accent".

In a rhotic accent, "r" is pronounced in all positions; in a non-rhotic accent, "r" is pronounced only if it occcurs before a vowel. It's not so much a question of "correct pronunciation", really. Most English-speaking countries outside North America have predominantly non-rhotic speakers.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. Terra...

...you can just smell the AGENDA every time he says it.

[Blue-Jay]

6. Ideal or Idear when they mean "idea".

Ax instead of "ask".
Terra

and the absolute worst: "Supposably". That one nearly drives me into a murderous rage.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Ooh, yes - idear and ax

ax really annoys me.

Let me ax ya sumthin'.

I also don't like people (except for foreigners for whom this makes sense) who use "d" instead of "th" for both "th" sounds, like this and that, rendering them as dis and dat and de odder ding.

[Blue-Jay]

12. I went to grad school with a foreign guy.

He was from Hungary, and in our music theory classes, he pronounced "third" as "turd". Even after two years, it cracked me up every time when he started talking about "major turds" and "minor turds".

On the other hand, Zoltan was a friggin genius. He could play any song on the piano in the style of any famous composer. My favorites were when we requested Beatles songs in the style of Bach. Goddam, that guy was good.

[PartyPooper]

7. Bald-faced lie!

It's bold-faced lie.

:dunce:

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. Actually it's either/or...

http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/9403/techwhirl-9403-00154.html


quick peek at my American Heritage dictionary reveals the following:

bald-faced: Brash; barefaced.

barefaced: 3. Presumptuous and shameless: "a barefaced lie."

bold-faced: 1. Impudent; brazen.

So it would appear that one may tell either a bald-faced or a
bold-faced lie. As to which is the bastardization of the original,
your guess is as good as mine.


Most sites I went to say that it's bald faced lie...meaning no mask, or white face. :hi:

I have always said bald faced lie.

[CO Liberal]

8. "Heighth"

Drives me crazy.

:crazy:

[Warpy]

10. Gotta be "Joolery"

I gotta ax my momma what she done with her joolery in case a newkewlar bum goes off I don't want my sister to git it.

[SCDem]

15. libary

[TOhioLiberal]

58. I'll second that....

...one of the local TV station's 'news'people pronounces it like that. Every time I say, 'it's library, not libary you idiot!' too bad he can't hear me! :)

[politicat]

17. Sammidge

It's Sandwich. Damn it.

Dis for this, Dat for That, de for the.

Sadly, they all annoy me a little since it's not impossible to have a neutral accent and good pronunciation with the availability of Television in this country.

Pcat

[UrbScotty]

36. Or as I used to say...

"Samich."

[Mrs. Venation]

18. I Worked For Someone

who said "simular" instead of similar. It drove me nuts. He considered himself to be an exemplary user of the English language, too.

Another one that grates on me is "aluminium" or "alumium" instead of aluminum.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. well, aluminium is the accepted british pronunciation

just like they say "or-a-GAHN-o" instead of "o-REG-a-no"

:-)

But from a non-Britisher, who has no British background, aluminium sounds silly.

[Teddy_Salad]

38. Actually...

Another one that grates on me is "aluminium" or "alumium" instead of aluminum.

...it is pronounced and spelt "aluminium" in most of the world.
I think this may be the only country, if not one of the very few, where it is "aluminum"

I'd be interested to know what it is in Canada.
Canadian DUers?

[skippysmom]

22. "an historic"

As in "it was an historic event." This is such a pet peeve of mine. IT'S "A HISTORIC" EVENT!!! Since when do you put "an" in front of a word that begins with a consonant? And it's not even like the "h" is silent.

[Spider Jerusalem]

26. Actually...

"an historic" is not wrong. "An" is correct preceding words beginning with "h" in which the first syllable is unstressed. Although this is to be found more often in British English than American, it's still not incorrect.

[MissMillie]

23. Coupon

COOP-on



Not Que-pon

[Bossy Monkey]

29. American Heritage Dict. gives both, but your way comes first

http://www.bartleby.com/61/58/C0695800.html

[smirkymonkey]

24. "A Whole Nuther"

as in, that's a whole nuther issue, instead of that's another (whole) issue.

Nook-you-lar
Ax for ask
podado for potato

[Guaranteed]

39. Worst, trashiest phrase ever.

NEVER use this phrase, folks. Seriously.

[Drifter]

25. Fustrated

My wife pronounces Frustrated without the first "R" sound.

I never correct her because when she is saying this word, she usually is, and correcting her would create more.

Cheers
Drifter

[Bossy Monkey]

27. I had a teacher who said "flustrated"

which at least is colorful. Not an English teacher I'm glad to say.

[rbnyc]

28. ofTen (nt)

[gpandas]

46. agreed. like forehead instead of fored

[tsakshaug]

30. two

Stupit

and my last name. Just read the %$#*&*^ letters as they appear and don't add any sounds. Let's all try together now Sakshaug
easy wasn't it. There is no W or more than two s sounds.

[Bossy Monkey]

33. I feel your pain; mine's Dantzler

Seems straightforward, doesn't it? I guess folks are just intimidated when there are more than two consonants in a row.

[LynzM]

66. Try Morahn

My ex-bosses' favorite joke? It's so easy, any Morahn could do it. (Correctly pronounced like Moran...)

I work at a telemarketing place, you should hear the mutilation of names I hear. It's awful :P

[Bossy Monkey]

69. I take it you're ready to join my girlfriend & me in giving false names...

to restaurant hostesses. Her name is similar to mine (also German-Swiss); she generally just gives a curtailed version of hers to make it come out Anglo. I can't imagine what they would do with "Morahn, party of two," however.

I've been trying to persuade her to substitute other names (Donner Party always sort of leaps to mind) but so far without success.

[tsakshaug]

81. my wives

surprisingly took my last name. The ex went from Emerson to Sakshaug, and kept it after the divorce! The second went from Knox to Sakshaug. Why oh Why?

[no_hypocrisy]

31. Of-ten. Warshington. Edinberg. Luzyana. Wilkes-Berra.

Just to name a few . . .

[Bossy Monkey]

35. Luzyana is how people in Luzyana pronounce Luzyana

I guess they ought to know. Ditto for Wilkes-Barre, I believe, but I defer to Pennsylvanians of longer standing. (I lived there for, say, five-six years)

[Shrek]

32. "It's a mute point." n/t

[LynzM]

67. That drives me CRAZY!!! n/t

[Donkeyboy75]

34. "nip it in the butt"

no, it's bud. Not really a mispronunciation, but since I'm already ranting...if you "could care less" that means that you DO CARE, see? If you wish to convey apathy, for chrissakes use "I couldn't care less."

[Beaverhausen]

37. Draw

for Drawer.

And my Dad is from Ohio...what is up with those pronunciations?

Iron- "airn"

Push - "poosh"

eagle - "eggle"

[mtnester]

41. "Ohia" lingo for you...

crick
warsh
prolly
Ohia

But the one I hate the worst (not an exclusive Ohio misproununciation)...

Ax...I axed you a question

My spine snaps on that one

[newsguyatl]

62. i always say ax

with my friends just to be funny.

[July]

82. I have to be careful with "creek."

I use the common pronunciation most of the time, but I grew up saying "crick" and have to stop myself from saying it sometimes.

Same with Italian words (ricotta, manicotti, Madonna). I have to force myself to say them the way most Americans do, since I grew up using them the way my Italian grandmother did.

[VOX]

40. "Aster-ick," "An-art-ika," "You-ka-lay-le," "Nu-cu-lar"...

Just for starters.

[Bossy Monkey]

47. What's your alternate pronunciation for ukulele?

American Heritage gives both, leading with the Yoo- one: http://www.bartleby.com/61/65/U0006500.html
Also, leaving the first c in Arctic and Antarctic silent is standard in British English. I was tickled by a site discussing mispronunciations where they checked against various authorities. American dictionaries listed ARC-tic first; the OED only gave AR-tic. Hey, we call it English, don't we?

[VOX]

75. The correct Hawaiian is "oo-koo-LEH-leh."

http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/workshop.htm

'uku= flea + lele = jumping
Literally, "jumping flea"

Even the Mainland shorthand "uke" is taboo.
- - - - - - -
Admittedly, many of these so-called "mispronunciations" are actually regionalisms. (I won't even go near al-yoo-MINi-um!)

However, in my experience, those North Americans who "mispronounce" Anarctica are the same ones who have trouble with nuclear.

On edit: I should add that with the current resurgence in popularity of the ukulele, there is an effort afoot to align its pronunciation more in keeping with its historical/cultural origins.

[Mrs. Venation]

42. People Who Drop a Leading H

uman instead of human, for example. God, that sounds so freaking snobbish to me. There is a man on my favorite political talking heads program who does that. I yell at him darn near every week, "It's HUMAN, not uman, you moron!"

[arwalden]

43. Q-pon. Acrosst. Sireen. Skwirrell.

[Bossy Monkey]

52. Squirrel to rhyme with Shirelle? Can't see it otherwise

Far as I know, qu is always pronounced kw. Maybe I'm just misreading though.

[ScreamingMeemie]

44. Ja goo ar...even if it's correct, it sounds dumb. Jagwire is a much

cooler sounding name for the Jaguar. :hi:

[Bossy Monkey]

49. Funniest thing is that their ads only started using the British...

pronunciation after Ford bought the company. Go figger.

[ScreamingMeemie]

51. Heh. Classy.

:hi:

[nonconformist]

45. Mute instead of moot

As in "it's a mute point"

Okay, so it's mostly a grammar error, but I've heard it pronounced that way as well.

[chaska]

48. 'Cache' (cash) pronounced like 'cachet' (cashay). eom

[chaska]

50. Theater -- the-ATE-her, police -- PO- lease, especially -- ECK-specially.

[Duncan Grant]

53. Missouri (rhymes with key): Mih-zu-ree

not Mih-zu-rah. Where in the world do you get a 'rah' out of Missouri? :evilgrin:

[Bossy Monkey]

54. Whoops! Forgot "heenious" for "heinous" n/t

[Lars39]

55. Prostate, prostrate.

One way to remember the difference.....prostRate = Rest on the couch.

[Endangered Specie]

56. Some people can really butcher Luftwaffe...

I remember this from History presentations, the kid said it like 'Loved-whaf'.

Also...

Merrimack pronounced "murriak"

[LynzM]

68. And on the topic of mutilating anything foreign

Had a kid in french class in h.s. who pronounced Aux Champs Elysees as 'ox champs uh-lee-sayz' Ow. My ears.

Oh, and Deutsche Bank as Doosh Bank or Doich Bank or .... yeah. Ick.

[Bluebear]

57. "Laxadaisical"

[ComerPerro]

59. warsh

Its a nice day, I think I will go outside and warsh the car.

Is my diswarsher broken?



My entire family says it. I think its a northwest Missouri thing...

[Endangered Specie]

60. Why do they call nine Niner? also...

four is not fough, nor three, t'wee.

70. Niner is a military thing

you wouldn't understand ;)

71. dupe.

Dupe.

[frank frankly]

61. I say nuclear wrong

I found out a couple weeks ago and still can't get it right!

[Bossy Monkey]

63. Just say atomic n/t

[U of M Dem 07]

64. "acrossed"

You don't say "he ran acrossed the field," it's just "across." It drives me NUTS.

[Arugula Latte]

65. Or-e-GONE (Oregon)

It's supposed to be closer to: Or-uh-ghin.

Okay, I didn't know that until I was about to move here, and I spent most of my previous life in the adjacent state of California. Which shows how much attention Oregon gets if you live in a glam state like Cali.

[youngred]

72. suposably and fustrated

SupposeDly and fRustrated

73. Pacific instead of specific!

I hate that! For me, hearing that is like hearing nails on a chalkboard.

Oh, and people who say they are naseous when they mean they are nauseated?

Arrrrgggghhhh! Even MS Word thinks nauseous (causing sickness) means "sickened."

A moldy sandwich is nauseous. If I eat it, I'll be nauseated.

[ForrestGump]

74. Asterix

when it's s'posed to be 'asterisk.'

[VOX]

77. "Squash" being used in lieu of "quash" - am seeing this one often now...

As in "the dissent was squashed." Well, was it rolled over with a steamroller, or was it pelted with gourd-like vegetables? I do see that Merriam-Webster allows "squash" for putting down or suppressing, but this still grates on me.

Quash: to suppress or extinguish summarily and completely

Squash: 1 : to press or beat into a pulp or a flat mass : CRUSH
2 : PUT DOWN, SUPPRESS <squash a revolt>
intransitive senses
1 : to flatten out under pressure or impact
2 : to proceed with a splashing or squelching sound

[durutti]

78. Not a mispronunciation, but...

I hate when people misuse the word "ignorant".

[Delano]

79. Kirstie Alley used to do a joke about playboy bunnies/models

how they describe their pastimes (in bubbly bimbo tone) "I love runneen, talkeen, cuddleen, and loveen."

Yeah, I hate when people pronounce "ing" as "een". I can handle talkin', but not "talkeen".


I also hate when people say "anyways" instead of "anyway", or "All's I'm gonna do" instead of "All I'm gonna do."

[Guy_Montag]

80. People that pronounce

the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland as England. Call it "the UK" please.

Being Scottish it's a pet peeve.

[alarimer]

83. "sangwich"

A guy at work pronouces sandwich as "sangwich". Drives me nuts. He (and I have heard other people do this as well) instead of saying "tell-tale sign" says TALL-tale instead.

[drumwolf]

84. Saddam

I've heard it pronounced as if it rhymes with Adam, and I believe Bush Sr. actually did that. GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!

:grr:

BTW, it's not quite as irritating when they pronounce "Saddam" as "Sodom," only because many people who say it that way KNOW it's wrong and deliberately use it because of its negative connotation.

And for a personal anecdote. I was in high school in the '80s, when South Africa still had its apartheid regime. One of my classmates did an oral report in class one day and she kept pronouncing "apartheid" as APP-er-theed. AAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHH!!!!!

:argh:

(edited for spelling)

[Quahog]

85. Tales from RI

Rhode Island is the home of the oddest accent in the US. This is an actual exchange that happened at a Cub Scout parents' meeting between myself (transplanted from CA six years ago) and the locals, as we were discussing possible autumn events for the pack:

Parent 1: "Let's nah do the cohan maze this yeeah. Sumpin diffunt. How bout a hornet hayride?"

Me: "A hornet hayride?"

Parent 2: "Yeah, a hornet hayride. There's a wicket good one in Wess Wahwik."

Me: "A HORNET hayride?"

Parent 1: "Yeah."

(Long pause as I process this.)

Me: "Well that seems like it could be dangerous to me, I mean the kids could get stung."

(LOOOONG pause as locals look at each other and try to figure out what the hell I'm talking about.)

Parent 2: "No, we're tawkin abou a HORNET HAYRIDE. You know, wit spooks and monstiz."

Me: "Oohhhh, you mean a HAUNTED HAYRIDE!"

Parent 1: "Yeah, a hornet hayride."

Don't even get me started about the confusion between going to "Shores" (the supermarket Shaw's) and going to "the shaw" (the shore). You can get lobstiz and chowdah either place.