What words that people mis-pronounce that drive you nuts? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

I didn't think the British pronounced the "H" on anything.

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain! In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire... Hurricanes hardly happen.

 

[TonyD]

Drives me nuts when I hear someone say frunitchure instead of furniture .

 

[fxrh]

I don't think I agree with any of these.  Oxymoron:  I believe the emphasis is on the third syllable. Often:  Either way is acceptable.  It has been cyclical throughout time and both ("t" or no "t") are accepted now. Err:  I don't believe either "her" or "air" is right.  I've always heard it pronounced like the first syllable of error. ehr Forte:  Common pronunciation is FOR-tay.  While historically it began life as a one-syllable word, common usage has changed what is accepted as standard. 

I've spent some time checking online pronunciations just now. I stand corrected on oxymoron. You are right that the emphasis is on the third syllable. On the others, however, what I said is supported, especially on "err": it should not be pronounced as the first syllable of error. Granted, it can be argued that there's a "traditional" pronunciation that some purists would support more than recent variations, so there is certainly room for disagreement. An example would be the pronunciation of "dour": the traditional pronunciation would sound like "doer" rather than "dowr" but both are considered acceptable now. Serves me right for being the son of an English teacher!

 

[Greg_S_H]

I say the T in "often" (as does Maxine Nightingale in "Lead Me On") and Webster's has it as acceptable. They also have "err" sounding like "heir." That's the way the audio clip has it, though like in "her" is the alternative. The second King's Quest game was punningly named, "To Heir Is Human." Without bothering to look it up, I always understood that forte in Italian for music was "fortay," while forte as in someone's strong suit was "fort." But, when using the latter, people think you're dumb if you say it correctly. The link above says that Dr. Seuss rhymes with voice, but a look at wikipedia shows that he gave in and went by Seuss rhymes with goose. Finally, Canadians say say sorry as "sore-ree," while Americans say "saw-ree." It doesn't drive me nuts, though. Likey.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by fxrh
I've spent some time checking online pronunciations just now.
I stand corrected on oxymoron. You are right that the emphasis is on the third syllable.
On the others, however, what I said is supported, especially on "err": it should not be pronounced as the first syllable of error.
Granted, it can be argued that there's a "traditional" pronunciation that some purists would support more than recent variations, so there is certainly room for disagreement. An example would be the pronunciation of "dour": the traditional pronunciation would sound like "doer" rather than "dowr" but both are considered acceptable now.
Serves me right for being the son of an English teacher!

Re: err.
My family mocks me endlessly as I will draw distinctions with how to pronounce similar sounding names. For example, I have a son-in-law Aaron. I pronounce Aaron "Air-in." But the name Erin I pronounce "ehr-in." I state my case...they have me repeat my pronunciations three different times. They claim to hear no difference. They have a good laugh and walk away from a frustrated me.
I also believe the two names Shawn and Sean are pronounced differently: "shawn" and "shahn." They get a deep belly-laugh from that one.

 

[Sam Posten]

Also, I may have mentioned this earlier in the thread, dunno, but if you've ever wanted to know how to pronounce my town's name, it's NAY VEH SINK not NAH VA SINK. The bennies and carpetbaggers who all moved here from NY wanna call it by the latter. Worse is we have the Fireworks on the Navesink most 4th of July's and the idiots on the radio call it that.

 

[JohnS]

Haven't joined this thread yet but here are mine tomorrow- "DA"morrow asked- axed I know there's more that I run into. Especially with the far range of public I have to encounter at my job.

 

[Paul D G]

Originally Posted by JohnS
tomorrow- "DA"morrow

What really drives me nuts is when people spell it like this -- tamarrow. Every single job I've ever had has had someone who spelled it this way. I also see 'fallow' for 'follow' on a regular basis.

 

[Stan]

Worked with a woman for about ten years who always used "mute" instead of "moot". As in "the point is moot", she would always say "mute". Also had a supervisor who spoke normally, but absolutely couldn't pronounce the word "portrait", he always said it "poi twit" (terrible representation, but just imagine Kripke from The Big Bang Theory trying to say portrait, pretty much the same). The word came up a lot because we did loads of company reports that had to be either landscape or portrait, but I just let it go. I've never truly known if it's rude to tell people they're wrong with things like this, so just tolerated it and let them embarass themselves in company meetings, etc. Nobody in the meetings ever said anything, so we were either all to embarassed or if anybody did ever speak to them privately, they never got it. I suppose we've all got our little quirks. I took several human anatomy classes and there are many different pronunciations of body parts, even medications, so I think we all probably mispronounce words unknowingly. I also think some of us are much more sensitive to sounds, kind of like how some people have perfect pitch. We once had a guy from "Toastmasters", which helps people with public speaking. There were probably 100 of us attending yet only myself and one other woman noticed the lisp the speaker had. He was very good and had overcome it for the most part, but the two of us noticed just this slight issue with his voice, the other 98 thought he was fine and had no clue what we were talking about. Maybe like "supertasters" there are "superhearers" (doubtful that's a word, but I think you get my point). There are many other reasons for people pronouncing words differently, but I'd like to stay within the rules regarding this forum.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Tinnitus is apparently pronounced TIN-uh-tis, but most people say tin-EYE-tis. The nurse on Blue Bloods said it that way last week. When a guy on Jeopardy said it the former way, Alex thanked him.

 

[bujaki]

The words electoral, pastoral, mayoral should NOT have the emphasis on the syllable containing the or sound. Should be elec'toral; pas'toral; may'oral. And clitoris does NOT rhyme with Dolores, in spite of Seinfeld. Emphasis on first syllable. I know, it kills the joke. Sorry.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

"Often" should always be said with the T silent.

 

[TonyD]

I've never heard anyone say tin-uh-tis or Off-ten

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Kevin Hewell
"Often" should always be said with the T silent.

That's just not true. Both forms have come into acceptance.

 

[Ockeghem]

You prolly won't believe this, but irregardless, I think that this thread has gone nucular! I have something that is somewhat related to the topic of the thread, although it is not an issue of pronunciation. I still can't believe I see the following in writing most every day at the university, in the papers of students, or in Emails, texting, etc. It used to be that I would only hear it in conversation, but now it has become more common for me to see it in writing. (The noun in the following is not the important element. I just happened to choose cars and trucks as examples.) "Where's the cars?" Without the contraction, this probably would not be said or written incorrectly. When I hear this from any of my colleagues, I usually fire back with "I don't know. Where are the truck?"

 

[Sam Posten]

Warshington!

 

[Stan]

Warshington!

Living in "Washington", you'd be amazed at how many people living here actually say "Warshington". Not to be rude, most of them are from the midwest and east side of the US, particularly Pennsylvania. At the same time, there are probably plenty of us "Westerners" who mispronouce words from other areas of the country. Reminded me of another, maybe mentioned earlier. "Pitcher" when the real word is "picture". Maybe it has become acceptable, but it's annoying.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Stan
Living in "Washington", you'd be amazed at how many people living here actually say "Warshington". Not to be rude, most of them are from the midwest and east side of the US, particularly Pennsylvania. At the same time, there are probably plenty of us "Westerners" who mispronouce words from other areas of the country.
Reminded me of another, maybe mentioned earlier. "Pitcher" when the real word is "picture". Maybe it has become acceptable, but it's annoying.

I think some of this is falling into dialects and not actual miss-pronunciations. For instance, my hoser Canadian accent (that I'm told I have though I believe I speak the queens english thank you very much!) has my saying "duty" reportedly sounding like "doody", much to the delight of my friends in the UK. Of course, their accents, proper as they may be, have completely replaced the "r" sound with an "ah" sounds so "cars" sounds like "cahs" and the above "Pictures" sounds like "pictchahs". They didn't believe me when I told them this though, and things got quite heated. Especially when I told them they were wrong, potato chips are sold in bags, they're serving fries with fish, crisps aren't an actual thing but a description of chips and they're liable to burn their houses down if they insist on waving torches around. Thankfully I eventually replied "It's my duty to insist on this" and they all went "Doody!" and a rousing laugh was had by all. (Lots of cider flowing in England...)
ooof!

 

[TonyD]

Us Phillelfians have plenty of odd mispronunciations. Supermarket Acme pronounced Ack-me is usually said as Ack-A-Me. Phill-elfia iggles. My dad says Picsh-ture for picture. Drives me nuts.

 

[fxrh]

I've never truly known if it's rude to tell people they're wrong with things like this, so just tolerated it and let them embarass themselves in company meetings, etc.

I don't know if it's rude either -- so I'll risk being rude and embarrass you!