Mispronunciations that annoy you

[BillF]

Here's a treat for the grammarians and scourges of the grocer's apostrophe who have recently come out of the woodwork. Which words do you find people consistently get wrong? Plenty of scope too for those "divided by a common language". To get the ball rolling, here's Mr Moog on how you should say his name:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/23/robert-moog-mispronunciations

[JSngry]

It's not misprounciating that bothers me nearly as so much as it is misspeling.

[Tim McG]

In America, the mispronunciations which bother me the most are deliberate or just plain lazy drops in diphthongs.

As a Speech teacher, I battle this all the time with my students. To point this lazy speech out to my students, I give them a sheet of paper with several common words written to reflect the phonetic sound they make when spoken incorrectly. Here are a few:

Ruckerd when they mean record;

Melk when they mean milk;

Mel when they mean mail;

Butter when they mean better;

Auction when they mean action;

And so forth. Once they see the mispronounced words spelled phonetically, the words start to creep back into their speech patterns pronounced correctly.

Personally, there is one word which really irritates me when pronounced incorrectly: Temperature. More than a few people say tem-PAH-ture. Ugh. To me, it is as bad as hearing finger nails scraping down a chalkboard.

Edited May 23, 2012 by GoodSpeak

[Pete C]

Melk when they mean milk

Maybe they're Dutch!

Do bear in mind that a lot of "mispronunciations" are actually regional variations that wouldn't raise an eyebrow in their natural habitat. And there are many variants between standard Canadian and standard American pronunciation of the same words.

Two people I know from Oregon pronounce "lawyer" in a way that sounds to me like "liar" (though more specifically it's something like lah-yer). I pronounce it "loyer" but some fellow Brooklynites would say "loya."

Edited May 23, 2012 by Pete C

[Tim McG]

Melk when they mean milk

Maybe they're Dutch!

Do bear in mind that a lot of "mispronunciations" are actually regional variations that wouldn't raise an eyebrow in their natural habitat. And there are many variants between standard Canadian and standard American pronunciation of the same words.

Two people I know from Oregon pronounce "lawyer" in a way that sounds to me like "liar" (though more specifically it's something like lah-yer).

Same goes with the word: Orange. A lot of it depends on the prevailing accent in the place one lives. Hunnert for hundred is another.

Another irritant for me is adding "r" to words that do not have them.

Warsh when they mean wash. Man, that bugs me.

Edited May 23, 2012 by GoodSpeak

[Pete C]

Warsh when they mean wash. Man, that bugs me.

You probably don't need new reasons to dislike Newt Gingrich, but he says "Warshington."

[BeBop]

Nu-cle-ar.

[Pete C]

You would prefer Newkular?

[Tim McG]

Nu-cle-ar.

Yurp when they mean Europe.

Bush II was [in]famous for this one.

[Soulstation1]

Let me ax you something

[ejp626]

I realize these are variants and not true mispronunciations, but I sure don't like the UK (and often Canadian) pronouciation of:

schedule

aluminum

innovative

jaguar

Not only do I think they sound "off," but in many cases the Brits add in extra syllables making it a bit harder to say.

[A Lark Ascending]

Loo-tenant

[Dave James]

Don't know about you but every time Charles Barkley says "tarabul" a.k.a. "terrible", it cracks me up. Seriously though, the bastardization of the language is now so complete that, for all intents and purposes, any remaining rules are out the window. Anything goes. It's the Wild Wild West of words.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Dave James

[Pete C]

Loo-tenant

I'm one of those a couple of times a day, and I'm both a lefty and a leftist, but I've never been a left-tenant.

Do most Brits pronounce urinal with the stress on the second syllable?

[A Lark Ascending]

Good thing you're not a Lieutenant from Leominster (Leftenant from Lemmster).

[BillF]

Do most Brits pronounce urinal with the stress on the second syllable?

Yes.

[GA Russell]

My pet peeve is the mispronunciation of the word forte.

Forte in Italian means loud and is pronounced "for-tay".

Forte in French means strength and is pronounced "fort".

But it is common in this neck of the woods for people to say for-tay when they are referring to a strength and should be saying fort.

[BillF]

Of course, regional British pronunciations are an Aladdin's cave:

A student from East Yorkshire told me that where she came from "phone calls" is pronounced "fern curls". ('r' silent here in British English)

A man who bought sardines in Liverpool was asked, "Av yuz gorra cat?" (="Have you got a cat")

[jlhoots]

Not a pronunciation issue, but I'm driven crazy by people who say nauseous when they mean nauseated.

Edited May 23, 2012 by jlhoots

[Big Beat Steve]

My pet peeve is the mispronunciation of the word forte.

Forte in French means strength and is pronounced "fort".

Better still: It is even WRITTEN "fort" (and is proncounced "for").

As long as you are referring to a MALE person, of course.

"forte" as a word all by itself in French only exists in the sense of a MUSICAL "forte" (i.e. loudness too)

As for your pronunciation, never mind if it is "for-tay" or "for-tee", but if somebody would like to point out, for example, that "spelling is not my strong point", do you actually expect him to state something that sounds like "spelling is not my fortified 19th century Far West soldier outpost"?

C'mon ...

No, seriously, except in certain female variants of the word that means "strong" in all shadings (including a strong = loud voice) the French language has no such "forte" as you imply.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[Big Beat Steve]

Of course, regional British pronunciations are an Aladdin's cave:

A student from East Yorkshire told me that where she came from "phone calls" is pronounced "fern curls". ('r' silent here in British English)

A man who bought sardines in Liverpool was asked, "Av yuz gorra cat?" (="Have you got a cat")

Like a girl from Liverpool I once knew (fleetingly) to whom ugly things always were "ooglee".

Though I doubt other regions in Britain are any better once local colors set in.

The way the Londoners (or others from Southern England - not normally an area associated with exceedingly outlandish dialects, right? mess the vowels around (like making an "o" that supposedly in "standard" English is to be pronounced like some shading of "a" all of a sudden sound like "oo" or "ew", with "London" becoming "Lewndewn", etc. etc.) can really drive you nuts.

I guess I'll pull out my 1958 45 platter of "Hoots Mon" by Lord Rockinghams XI for some fun listening now:

"Hoots mon - There is a moose loose aboot this hoose!"

(and no, we are not talking about elks! )

Edited May 23, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[Ted O'Reilly]

There's always "mispronounciate" when they mean "mispronunciate".

[mikelz777]

It makes me think of the Seinfeld episode, "pa-pee-ay ma-shay".

Edited May 23, 2012 by mikelz777

[cih]

Having lived half my life in Essex and half in West Yorkshire pronunciation is a big thing - my kids have yorkshire accents of course but mine is still, after 20 years, what people round here think of as cockney - the true Essex accent has a nice country twang but mine is very much Saafend-On-Sea if I'm not careful... the advantage with the southern accent has always been that it's pretty to slip into RP if necessary, a near impossible feat for my Huddersfield colleagues

re. East Yorkshire - that 'err' sound I had trouble with as a student in Hull, phoning directory enquiries the lady was telling me the number - 'err.. err' until she got annoyed with my confusion and said firmly "ZE-RERR" (0)

[A Lark Ascending]

I went for years using enervated to mean excited. Until I was quietly corrected on a jazz board (in a polite private message).

The funny thing is, I was talking to a group of staff a few months back, including an excellent English teacher, and they thought it meant excited!