Primer Magazine

Justin, thank you for a very useful article. I hope that you’re pacific examples of grammatical errors help men to write more better than they did before. ;D

I must interject for just a moment and point out how audacious it is to claim that “snuck” and “irregardless” are not words. What may seem a bastardization is just the natural evolution of language. Language grows, expands, and changes with time. Both of those examples are now accepted as part of the American lexicon and should be respected as such. If anything is to be addressed, it should be the misuse of irregardless in place of regardless.

Beyond that, I enjoyed this article. I found myself questioning my own pronunciations while reading this and, with the exception of sherbet, I seem to be in the clear.

Ok, I have one for you.

Nougat. The constant murder of this word drives me insane, so much so, that when there was a particularly annoying Yahoo radio advert in which the word is mangled roughly 5-6 times in 30 seconds, every time I heard the ad start, I would turn the sound off on my computer. I was sick of screaming at the radio, ‘Noo-garrr… it’s friggin’ Noo-garrr!’

Americans pronounce it with a hard T at the end of it.. Noo – gaT, when in fact, it’s pronounced… Noo – garrr.

While I know its unfair to pick on an accent, something people have little control over, I found the combination of the ‘average’ over enthusiastic American voice over combined with the pronounciation was quite possibly the most revolting sound I’ve ever encountered.

So much so, that I was forced to send an email to the company pleading with them to take it off the air.

I must differ with you on one of these, although your narrative is interesting reading. Often is also “legally” pronounced “off-ten”. Look it up, just about anywhere. Either pronunciation is acceptable.

I’d also like to add one that drives my wife crazy: “jewelry” pronounced “joo-ler-y”. It should be pronounced exactly as it sounds.

And another: “Irregardless” used when the word should be “regardless”. Irregardless is not a word.

Great article on mispronouncing words, Jason. Keep up the good work.

@Katie, the dictionary lists “snuck” as informal, meaning it’s slang, meaning it’s not correct.

Spell check can’t be used as a source to whether a word is proper or not. It allows snuck because Microsoft knows some people will want to type it when speaking colloquially. So Word is correct when it tells you “snuck” is SPELLED right, but that doesn’t mean it’s correct.

I’m guessing the “noo-garr” pronunciation you recommend only includes pronunciation of the R sound when it is followed by a word beginning with a vowel. This is known as an intrusive R–something common in many British accents–but particularly the “Estuary accent,” which was long considered to be working-class and incorrect.

You have no reason to be bragging about it.

With the ongoing wars raging across the Mid East and Asia, I keep hearing about a weapons “cache”, pronounced ka shay. Drives me nuts, it’s pronounced kash

I’m seeing a movement to create a mispronunciation as a way to to sound “important.” When discussing spreadsheets, a woman at work says “col-yumes” for columns.

My biggest pet peeve…..PREVENTATIVE is not a word. The word is PREVENTIVE. This is butchered all of the time in speech and written word.

You people are so amusing. I’d like to thank everyone who responded to my post because you gave me something to laugh about. It is so diverting that people actually make posts on a regular basis to challenge each other about pronunciation. Does anyone have a life? I simply made a post because I’m in Lit. class, bored to death. So I laugh. Ha. Now go back to your humdrum lives and really consider the activities you are taking part in on a daily basis. Why not go for a walk? Visit an old person… Sneak into a movie… devote your life to philanthropy…you obviously have enough time on your hands.

I won’t take sides. But I will opine that the “get a life” defense in a comment thread is about as fresh and effective as “I’m rubber, you’re glue.” I’m saying this broadly because it really gets my goat when I see a pretty amazing feat on YouTube (guy playing two guitars at one time!?!?!?) and all people can say is “get a life,” as if patronizing YouTube is any more life affirming than being featured on it for honing a craft to inhuman excellence.

On another note:
http://www.zyra.org.uk/getgoat.htm

Wait, I thought English was still a living language?

All this discussion about pronunciation is just a mute point…

I agree completely with the post about the image chosen for this article – well done! As a visual artist, I value how a picture is worth a thousand words (grammatically correct or otherwise!).

I agree that English is indeed a living language – we should not lose sight of this fact. But language is also about communication. If our means of communication become vague and sloppy, doesn’t our communication follow? But being articulate should be a means to more clearly express your thoughts, not to impress or condescend.

Living language or not, ignorance and sheer stupidity should not be reasons for a language to “evolve.” Just another example of mediocrity becoming the MO for the average American.

Perhaps if our schools actually TAUGHT English, rather than High School 101: Beating the No Child Left Behind Test…

No wonder the Brits hate us for what we did to their language.

Amphitheatre – the ‘ph’ is an F – all ph’s are F’s
I go crazy at the DJ’s on the Toronto radio stations that refer to the concert venue as the Ampi-theatre – there will be amps but really…
nice article – I think we can expand it to the top 100 easily
then can you write an article on top 10 grammar mistakes
top pet peeves in that area are:
gone/went i.e. I should have went…
good/well i.e. He did really good

Is anyone else equally irritated by:

“Supposably” (Supposedly)

Can’t stand it!
.-= Drew´s last blog ..drewpeneton: READING: 10 Words You Mispronounce That Make People Think You’re an Idiot http://bit.ly/Vtlr What other words belong on this list? =-.

Coming from Down Under where we bag both Poms and Yank language alike, the one word that is starting to get my goat is “disorientated” instead of “disoriented”… Even the newsreaders are starting to say this…

I can’t decide who to ask to marry me – Bob or Nate – for their brilliant comments.

Chomping at (or on) the bit, instead of champing at the bit almost sends me into a seizure.

Confession: I mispronounced automaton for DECADES
.
And though not spoken, “air quotes” could be the cause of my demise when, after seeing one too many, I jump out of the window.

alright, i was kind of upset at how uppity this “justin brown” character sounded, what with his flowery vocabulary and zeal for ego-bashing…but then i noticed the name of his blog was “esteban was eaten!”, which can only be a reference to life aquatic, my favorite film of all time.

so, justin, i admit that you have a pretty good grasp on the english language. i’m keeping my ‘often’, though.

I am impressed by your graciousness, Justin. No one wins or loses here — the article was exceptionally entertaining as well as informative (oh, the shame — I was, before reading, a great purveyor of “ofTen.”) The joy of it all lies in the analysis! I always appreciate getting caught making a mistake, as long as the redirection occurs not in the heat of an argument

Because I, too, am occasionally guilty of bombastic pomp, I have cached these little treasures away for a rainy day: magniloquence and fustian. The irony therein is nothing less than sublime!

@ tjgoldstein:

I am PRIH-TEE SHURE that your NOO-gurr is waaaaay too close to “N*gger” than most politically-inclined Americans are comfortable with pronouncing. Sorry.

Language is a living creation, which means that it mutates and evolves all the time. What people mispronounce today could very well be considered high English in the coming decades.

Moral: get off your high horse, the lot of ya

P.S. Dear “PLG”, it is people like you who are responsible for the bastardization of our lovely language. For the love of language, get back on your high horse and act like you got an education!

One thing that drives me crazy- and this is very common on the internet.

People who write “Wallah” instead of “Voila”, because they’re idiots.

You’ll see recipies on various cooking sites (good ones, too), with instructions like “Fold the egg mixture into the flour mixture, add to a silicone cake pan and bake for one hour or until sets. Wallah! Your very own devils food cake!”

And it makes me want to slit my wrists.

Other than that, I agree that english is a living language. And the OED is not the be all and end all of what constitutes proper english- there is no “Academie Anglaise” officially approving words and phraseology. Sure, go to the OED for guidance, or look to Mirriam Webster for a more American perspective. In all honesty, if I want to know how a word is used I’ll most likely check urbandictionary.com first. (With a large grain of salt, of course. But it’s surprisingly useful.)

I have noticed that several of my co-workers when trying to explain their consternation with certain parts of the job process use the term frustration, but forget it contains the letter r. I am subsequently aurally assaulted with fustrated, and fustration. Irony at work.

Hmmm nope I dont make any of those mistakes.

Mind you I do live on the other side of the pond to you so…

I am a teacher, so it irks me when people mispronounce words, but also when they use words incorrectly. “Dad borrowed me a few bucks last week.” What??? I am also annoyed when people in television broadcasting mispronounce words. Why do they assume their grammar is correct before putting it out there for all to hear? A phrase that has popped up in the last few years is “they went missing.” It sounds like the person went to a specific place themselves. How many of you “warsh” your hands, or listen to the “warshington” news correspondent?

Justin, the following is a great line:

“Flippped over the Buffet Table of Reason at the Banquet for Intellectual Hope”

and I’ve committed it to memory and will forward it to all my friends!

Absolutely great line!

Good article, I often notice when people make these mistakes but rarely point it out to them!

I noticed that someone already mentioned fustrated. It has 2 R’s for a reason. Both are meant to be pronounced.

The other big pet peeve I have is unthaw. As in “I’m going to take the meat out to unthaw it for dinner”. Unless you plan to eat frozen meat, I’d recommend thawing it or defrosting it or even unfreezing it (which is slightly better that unthaw).

I know this is a couple months old, but @Justin, /p/ and /t/ are both unvoiced plosives. The voiced counterpart of /t/ is /d/. The assimilation here with utmost and upmost would be of the dental plosive /t/ to the labial nasal /m/, resulting in the labial plosive /p/ before /m/. But I think the author’s theory is more correct, people have it in their heads that it should be ‘up” because they think of the “the top” in the idea they are trying to get across.

Kevin, I certainly agree language evolves, but to suggest we shouldn’t correct our pronunciations because some words have evolved from being mispronounced doesn’t make a lot of sense. The point here is the same as spelling words incorrectly: we should strive to do it correctly, regardless of whether those spellings will change due to error at the macro level.

This is a very funny post. I will have to confess, I am guilty of about 50% of the incorrect pronunciation. Now I know why people are looking a me funny.

thanks for the great post, very entertaining.

This list strikes me as rather pretentious and ignorant about dialects. Yes, most Americans don’t speak an official version of English, but instead a slang filled one. However neither do most British who have their own slang, and for that matter so do the French, Germans, Dutch Etc. . No native speakers learns their language by a textbook, but instead listening to real people talk. The idea that a language must be spoken in one way in all of its domains is ridiculous. I live in southern Georgia in the US. I personally don’t have a strong accent and use mostly proper grammar. However, I still pronounce words differently than the “Queen’s English”, and no one thinks me an idiot for it.

Sherbert – turns out it’s really a word, complete with two letters ‘r’.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sherbert?qsrc=2446
.-= Michael´s last blog ..Walking Test 1 =-.

Mark,

Well, at the least, vegetable has three syllables. You broke “vedge-table” into two parts but it still has three syllables (I know we all gloss over the break between “ta” and “ble” but it’s a two-parter). As for how you’re supposed to pronounce it, most dictionaries agree that there’s more than once acceptable way. “Vedge-tuh-bull” is fine as “vege” could be read as monosyllabic but if you want to emphasize the second E as in “vegetation” or “vegetarian”, that’s also fine.

My favorite often mispronounced word is the first on the list, athlete. What’s so bad here is that men who are professional athletes cannot correctly pronounce it.

My biggest peeve at the moment is “I will try and get there on time”. When did we stop trying TO get there? Why is it easier to say “and” then “to”?

If I hear one more of these “language is a living creation” and “you are narrow-minded” comments, I shall vomit. Yes, it changes, but it has changed little since mankind began to create dictionaries. Finally, we got the language under control, then self-described “liberals” decided that excellence was anathema (pronounced “uh-NA-thuh-muh,” not “AN-uh-THEE-muh”). Standards in language may be arbitrary, but they must be consistent. By the way, dictionaries made after about 1960 need to be checked against older authorities. It was during this era that editors decided to become descriptive. Yes, there is good language, and there is substandard language. We must continue to love excellence, and must stop prostituting English and all other languages to anyone who can passably speak them.

Got another one for you…Cavalry (not Calvary).

Cavalry (Cav-ull-ree) is a mounted military unit. It is not, nor has it ever been, Calvary, the hill on which Jesus was crucified (Cal-vuh-ree).

This commonly mispronounced word has led many to believe the words are one and the same. Imagine my horror when, after road construction, the military base on which I live replaced their previously abbreviated roadsign with one that said “1st Calvary Division Road.” I wondered whether the Chaplains were getting their own division now?

what about “effect” and “affect” – people always miss use that

also, You’re and Your – that just irritates me to no end.

The most irritating and most often mispronounced in my world is Height as Hi-th.

UGH! It makes me crazy!

I really don’t need to mispronounce words to prove I’m am idiot, I do it very well on my own, Thank you.

The one word that I think is mispronounced far too often is “ask”. I don’t axe you a question I ASK one. And, I am not sure if it considered a mispronunciation, but rather a misuse of a word… But I cannot stand the misuse of the word “death” in describing a person that cannot hear. Here is another word: “Alzheimer’s”… I find it hilarious when people say. “My grandmother has “old timers” disease.” LOL!!

mmediate instead of immediate

my big peeve is “disrespect” used improperly. She disrespected me instead of she treated me with a lack of respect.

Oh and the use of orientation a lovely word now bastardized into
orientated “I have been orientated to the rules.” makes me cringe!

For all intensive purposes, this list actually contains more than 10 words.

Whenever I hear somebody on TV say the word “pitcher” for “picture” I instantly turn the channel.

RE: often.

It comes from the Middle English word “oft,” which had a voiced T at the end. It remained more common than “often” in usage even after the shift to Modern English. Often became the more common of the two in the 16th century, and orthoepists throughout the 16th and 17th centuries were split on the question of voicing the T in often. Queen Elizabeth apparently pronounced it with a silent T; Shakespeare voiced the T. In the 20th century, it became considered a hypercorrection to voice the T, but the OED, and many dictionaries list both pronunciations as valid. The bottom line is that both pronunciations have been considered proper by language experts for as long as the word has existed.

What a “Foyer”? This one drives me NUTS!!

Height

[ hahyt ] NOT [ hahyth ]

Great post! One of my favorites is pronounced ‘mischeeevious’ rather than the correct ‘mischievous’. Someone near and dear to me does this all the time, causing me to implode.

“Supposably”
My wife says this all the time, and I finally worked up the nerve to correct her (it’s “supposedly”), and we got into a huge fight over it…

-P-

The opening sentence of your article, “It’s been said, though we’re not sure by who, that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”, uses the word “who” instead of the correct word “whom”.

Supposably means that one would suppose it to be the case. Supposedly means the same thing with an inflection that it is improbable… Supposably is definitely a word. It’s just used wrong. “Supposably, he enjoys dancing because he keeps going.” “Supposedly he took out the trash but I see it sitting there by the fridge.”

Oh, and Justin… the partner to [t] is [d]… the partner to [p]is is [b]. You really do need to learn your IPA better.

I think i’ll either jump off a building or slap the next person that says “reel-it-tur” instead of “ree-ul-tur”. how the hell do you get reel-it-tur from realtor? redneck home schoolin’?

The one that got me was “often.” I didn’t know the t was silent! I will also be more cautious when I speak. Thanks!

You know, these so-called “mispronunciations” are simply deviations from Standard English — the language of power, an individual dialect within the realm of spoken English. Those whose dialects differ from that of Standard English are individuals that do not have positions of power (non-white and/or working class citizens). Therefore, according to this article, those who do not speak the language of power are equivalent to idiots.

It seems that discrimination is still prevalent (and accepted) whenever it comes to discriminating against an individual’s language.

Please — I beg of you, Justin Brown, study language acquisition, sociolinguistics, et cetera (yes, I can pronounce it like a “non-idiot” [your words, not mine] because I have been educated by people in positions of power), before you make such a scathing judgment of individual accents.

Library, Poem, Larynx, Hawaii, Valentine, A Lot.

Perhaps this would fall under the proverbial “splitting of hairs” but your inclusion of the word “often” fails to account for etymography. Originally the “t” was actually pronounced. In the 17th Century, the pronunciation of the consonant in question began falling out of favor, but at no point has been solidly incorrect.

How about particular? My mother annihilates this word and derivatives with a passion, pronouncing it like pet-tick-u-lerr.

I find when turtle neck sweater wearers say, ‘Jackwad’ or ‘Poocus’ without any inflection, that seems really more stupid than any mispronunciation.

You are incorrect about “often.” Both pronunciations, including the one you list as being wrong, are correct – hard “T” or silent “T”.

To the person who thinks it’s correct to pronounce “nuclear” as “nuke-u-lar”: that pronunciation is NOT correct and will never be acceptable. Just because the former President of the United States mispronounced it that way and gave uneducated idiots the idea that it’s okay to mispronounce the word that way does NOT mean that the mispronunciation is now acceptable. Sorry. Incorrect is still incorrect – even if everybody is doing it that way.

I have several linguistic pet peeves… “Real-uh-tor” instead of “real-tor”. Drives me nuts! And what about “on accident” instead of “by accident?” Also, “anyways” instead of “anyway.”

Add to this list “all the sudden” instead of “all of a sudden.”

My pet peeves are the ‘orientate’ that someone mentioned before, ‘carmel’ for ‘caramel’ (one is a city in California, the other is a candy) pronouncing what used to be the silent ‘l’ in palm, calm, almond, psalm, etc. (Crystal Gayle’s “Meet Hal-f the way” was the topper on this) the change in stress on the ‘fluent’ words: a-flu-ent, rather than aff-lu-ent, in-flu’ence rather than in’-flu-ence or similarly pre-fer-a-ble as opposed to pref-er-a-ble. When I was young, per’-mit was a printed license and per-mit’ was being allowed to do something. Yes, the language evolves–but it isn’t always comfortable!

clearly justin was beat up a lot when he was a kid.

JK, very interesting stuff! My knowledge of correct grammar is admittedly limited to the few classes in high school that were devoted to the more advanced aspects of it. Though it’s probably a bit above an article about the correct pronunciation of “sherbet”.

From the next to last paragraph:
” …a conjunction to turn “I am” into a single word…”

I remember being taught conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or) link words and phrases. Contractions combine two words into one (e.g., I’m = I am; don’t = do not, etc.).
____
Yes! Good catch, I’ve corrected it. – Andrew

If “irregardless” is a word, what does it mean? I assume that “regardless” means “without regard”. Does “irregardless” mean “without without regard”, thus “with regard”? Please explain. Regardless, I shall not use “irregardless”.

One that so many people say is:
Realator instead of Realtor. I find it funny when a realtor mispronounce it

(And, yes, I know instead has an s in it…sorry, I wish there were an edit function!)

My top three:

Quay

Geographical

Scientifical

Great list! Don’t forget Alzheimer’s. That’s my pet peeve.

I recently heard someone say
“handy-down” when she meant “hand-me-down”.
Hilarious!

one of my pet peeves; a whole nother (ie. a whole nother story, instead of a whole other story)

Wow, how do you pronounce douche?

Poincettia! I never hear it correctly pronounced.

Many of the pronunciations mentioned are regional & are used only in some areas. A few (“aw-ree” — really??) I have NEVER heard before.

Let me add some that are popular in Chicago, where people seem to have an aversion to diphthongs. “Tyota” “Lyola” “Hock” (for hawk) “Wok” (for walk) “Tock” (for talk) “Cahm” (for calm) etc “Ahroar” (for Aurora) and IMHO the nadir: neither “Jewelry,” “Jewlry,” nor “Jewlehry,” but “Jewry!” (which of course is where Bethl’em is) — I hear it from EVERYONE. “Jewry store.” AARGH

ps The quickest way to reveal that you understand nothing about grammar or logic is to say “to he and I.” This error is made by those who are terrified of starting a sentence with “him and me” (as subject) so they wrongly replace it where it belongs (as object), thereby demonstrating that they still haven’t learned the difference between actors and those acted upon.

Then there’s the new trend of using “substitute” backwards …

OFTEN from wiki
“USAGE When pronouncing often, some speakers sound the : t, saying ‘off-ten’; for others, it is silent, as in : soften,: fasten,: listen. Either pronunciation is acceptable, although ‘off-en’ is more common.”

The one that makes me nuts is “masonry” mas-on-ry, not “masonary”.

You left out “vunnerable” for “vulnerable.”

This was wonderful!

Will you please write an article that lists words that are commonly misUSE that make you look like an idiot?

eg: then vs. than, would of vs. would have, accept vs. except, and my favorite, adding “en” onto a word to express the act of doing it vs. adding “in’” or “ing” (chillen, eaten, writen, etc.).

While I very much appreciate the tone and message of this piece, I think it is worth mentioning the regional differences in American English. While I am the first person to laugh when I hear Bush speak, we are taught to hear certain accents ( such as Southern) as uneducated. Some of the things mentioned are mispronunciations, but others are just regionalisms.

How about the word ‘coupon’ It drives me crazy when people pronounce it ‘cue-pon.’

Very simple folks…We are American, so screw the British pronunciation.

But as an English teacher, I agree with the No Child Left Behind comment. It is forcing us as teachers to abandon true teaching for teaching to the test. But blame politicians not teachers. They are currently running education in the US. And the Republicans that thought of it are also getting rid of collective bargaining, so a teacher like me can’t even buck the system anymore without fear of losing my job. So after five years of teaching REAL English and grammar, I will now be a drone and “teach to the test” because I have two small kids and need my job!

One that bugs me the most, especially on radio or TV is “accredidation” instead of “accreditation.” But most of the mispronounced words posted here drive me over the edge. I don’t agree with the living language excuse. It’s just lazy or ignorant usage.

supposably = supposedly

prolly = probably

An interesting article, but I have to disagree with your analysis of often.

The word is derived from the older “oft”, which is still sometimes used though decidedly less common now. It most certainly has a hard T, as does its offspring, the maligned “often”. The softening of the T is a colloquialism that has become so widespread that it is accepted as correct.

Which would make both correct.

But if you feel inclined to accept only one, why have you chosen the colloquial?

You must also remember that the function of language is to convey a clear message to the listener, and that language is fluid and dynamic. A classic example is “nauseous”, which so many people believe means that one is sick to their stomach, that it now means that. Even doctors will ask if you feel “nauseous”.

Originally, the term for that is “nauseated”, and something that is “nauseous” makes others feel “nauseated”. The fact is, that may have been the case, but the way we communicate has embraced what was wrong as correct.

Michael, thank you for bringing up the very common mispronunciation of Re-al-tor. In fact, I’ve heard many Realtors call themselves Re-la-tors!

And Eric, preventative is one of my biggest pet peeves as well! Why do people (even health professionals) feel the need to add an extra syllable to preventive?

What about “ornery”? And “arctic”?

You forgot “weapontry”. Yes, I’ve known people (in small towns) who add a mysterious “t” to the word “weaponry”. Maybe it’s just a very local dialect, but it really grates on the ears.

Mind you, on the Internet, horrible spelling is the problem, not horrible pronounciations. For example, “per say”, or mixing up “there” and “their” and “they’re”, among a host of other egregious yet commonplace offenses against English.

In New Zealand there are a number of muppets who slam a g into the word onion so it’s pronounced – unG-yin. Seriously, annoying.

I would like to ask where the word ‘gotten’ came from? Got is already the past tense of get, why does it need a past tense of its own? You may as well say ‘getted’ or ‘forgottened’.

Supposubly speeling am be making u seam dum to!

My biggest pet peeves (some have been mentioned already):

Supposably
Valentimes
Axe/aks
Nucular
Pasketti
Pronounciation
Enounciation
Skrimp

I heard a woman once say she had a consistency plan if the picnic was rained out. I literally bit my tongue to keep from correcting her. I always feel like a douche correcting people’s misuse or mispronunciation of words, but I would want someone to correct me if I sounded like a moron.

And on the subject of err, I’ve never heard it was supposed to be ‘urr’. It makes perfect sense to me to pronounce it ‘air’ since error is ‘air-ur’ or ‘urr-ur’.

To everyone who is trying to make this an argument about regional differences in pronunciation, you’re entirely missing the point! If someone pronounces ter-na-ment instead of tor-na-ment, that’s a matter of cultural difference. Just like we don’t harp on Canadians for saying a-boot, since that’s simply how they pronounce the ‘ou’. It’s the adding, subtracting, and complete rearranging of letters we are talking about here. When you are saying a word that doesn’t exist, you’re incorrect. Just like using then for than, or your for you’re, supposably for supposedly is WRONG. If it IS a class thing, that only means we need to better educate those classes, not that we need to accept (not except) their ignorant bastardization of the English language to make them feel better. Lowering the bar isn’t helping anyone, so quit your whining. Holding people up to a higher standard isn’t racism or classism, it’s the opposite. Allowing certain races to be wrong because you assume they can’t learn better IS racism.

Other peeves:
Breath/breathe
Accept/except
Affect/effect
There/they’re/their
Your/you’re
Then/than
That/who

Etc

The two that annoy me are ‘mischievous’ (often mispronounced ‘mischeevee-ous’ rather than ‘mischivous’) and ‘electoral’ (usually mispronounced ‘electorial’).

Please include “mischievous” next time. And note that there is no “i” after the “v.”
Thanks

Current pet peeves:

Realtor mispronounced real-a-tor.

The expression “I couldn’t care less” misstated as “I could care less.”

I enjoyed this article about correct pronunciation of these oft mispronounced words. However, your grammatical errors are glaring. For example, you may wish to review the difference between adjectives and adverbs, as well as when to use which.

Worst:

“REE-SEE” cups.

Or “REE SEE PEE SEES.”

Well, some of these are true and funny. But lots of words that started off not being “real words” ultimately became real and are now proud placeholders in Webster’s Dictionary so that doesn’t mean much really. You forgot my #1 and #2 cringers – FEETS (meaning both of them), and POH-LEECES (meaning multiple police officers).

Sigh.

You forgot one very common one… Realtor. It’s a two syllable word and does not have an “a” in the middle to make it a three syllable word. I have noticed that many people say “real-a-tor”.

If there is a grammatical error that makes me laugh, it is prostate in place of prostrate. This gives the old hymn that says “let angels prostrate fall” a WHOLE different meaning. LOL!!!

This thread is hilarious. Grammar is good, clean fun.

Eric and Stacey, I submit the following:

Preventive is an adjective, as in “Perform preventive maintenance routinely and your car will treat you right.”

Preventative is a noun, as in “An aspirin a day is a good preventative to guard against heart attacks.”

The word “preventative“ is often used incorrectly in place of “preventive.”

dint….in stead of didn’t

Counseltation instead of consultation

Your attempt to justify your favoured spelling and pronunciation over others is adorable. Now please grow up and recognise that English is a global language over which you have no control and no right to same.

Often was pronounced with a t -sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the  [t] Show IPA came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the  [t] for many speakers, and today  [aw-fuhn] and  [awf-tuhn] [or  [of-uhn] and  [of-tuhn]] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, often with a [t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.

KindERgarten, not kindYgarDen

I’ve oft said, that those who chose in the 17th century to make the t in often silent were mistaken(and probably Norman sympathizers j/k). The correction of middle English to make the T silent does not make it more right than the people who keep oft a valid word in a valid language. The T sound should prevail.

This one REALLY grates on me: JEWELRY! People say JEW-LERY…a place to buy Jews? It’s JOO-well-ree!

Do you have a similar list for misspellings? My pet peeves are “alright” (thank you for spelling it correctly above) and “yeah” or “yea” for “yay” (synonymous with “hooray”).

I’ve noticed more people dropping the “ly” from their adverbs. “I play aggressive” “I think different”. Unless you’re making a point in a multi-billion dollar Apple campaign, you need the “ly” to not sound like an idiot.

Curiousity question for the Brits out there:

Where’s the “F” in “lieutenant”?

So many people say PRO-VOLE-LONEE instead of PRO-VO-LONE

Also my mother says GETTIS-BURG instead of GETTEES-BURG. I must confess, however, that I’m not sure which is correct.

Others I find annoying:
BOOOFAY for Buffet
WARSH for Wash including DISHWARSHER and WARSHING machine.
BATH-ED for Bathed

Also, I had a family member argue that the Meguiars brand of car detailing products was pronounded MEG-U-LARS.

Finally, someone please tell me the correct pronunciation of Worchesteshire. I’ve heard every syllable pronounced such as “WAR-CHEST-EH-SHIRE” and also”WARCHESTER” and “WOOSTER”.

I’ve noticed meteorologists on the weather channel say WOOSTER when referring to the town. But what about the sauce!? How is it pronounced?

pronunciations are conventional, not true or false, right or wrong. Our goal is to communicate, and how to do that best depends upon the listener. That said, vehicle
wrong ve hic le
right ve hi cul

Geez…anybody who took Latin knows that the “correct” way listed in this article is ALSO wrong: there are no soft C’s in Latin, ergo the proper pronunciation of “et cetera” should be “ett – ket – err – uh.”

My boss is a f**king moron…not an idiot. These are words that when you mispronounce, people think you’re a f**king moron:

“ask” — why do some people insist on saying “aks”?
“district” ends in a “t,” not a “k.”
“reiterate”, not “reillerate”
“responsibility,” not “responsibililly.”

Oh…and I work for an education company.

I will refer the author to the dictionary or dictionary.com:
snuck -> past participle of ‘sneak’ It is word. Do you homework before you (like your article said) open your mouth and look like an idiot.

This is going back quite far, but in OSWALD’S posting on 9-3-08, he asserts that “irregardless” is in fact a word. Assuming we use “word” as to mean a word used properly, I have to disagree. While I am no linguistic expert (by far), I do agree with the explanation offered in the following excerpt from a commentary on “irregardless” (entire piece found via link provided.

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/irregardless.aspx

(excerpt begins)
Irregardless Versus Regardless

First, let’s talk about irregardless. Some people mistakenly use irregardless when they mean “regardless.” Regardless means “regard less,” “without regard,” or despite something. For example, Squiggly will eat chocolate regardless of the consequences.

The prefix ir- (i-r) is a negative prefix, so if you add the prefix ir to a word that’s already negative like regardless, you’re making a double-negative word that literally means “without without regard.”

Language experts speculate that irregardless comes from a combination of the words regardless and irrespective and that another reason people might say “irregardless” is that they are following the pattern of words like irregular and irreplaceable. But regardless already has the -less suffix on the end, so it’s not like those other words.
(end)

Enjoy.

As long as no work is getting done here at the office – here’s one more; now and then, this one rears it’s ugly head:

sample scenario: a friend, Charlie, comes over to help with a wiring project – it will be necessary to run cable up one wall, across the room at ceiling level, and down the opposing wall; here’s what “Charlie” (no offense) will say:

“…yeah, all we have to do is run the cable up this wall, pull it ACROSSED the ceiling, and down the other side…”

You get the idea. Where the heck did “ACROSSED” come from?

Thanks for the article. Thankfully no one is thinking I’m an idiot, at least about my pronunciation of things anyway LOL
I have two that annoy me. Congradulations for Congratulations and
onrey for ornery

Webster prefers “sneaked”. “Snuck” is a relatively recent development. Webster adds words to the dictionary that have become common in their usage, even when they are wrong, which truly has its’ downsides. Bad pronunciation and slang usage today becomes sanctioned tomorrow under this practise and worse still is they have been reducing the total number of words contained in the dictionary. It’s such a shame, really.

We moved to North Louisiana several years ago, and I hear “ideal” for “idea” here too. Apparently it is somewhat common in Arkansas as well. To me that’s worse than “idear.” “Idear” is a mispronunciation, but “ideal” is a completely different word.

Stimulating article and comments — thank you, all.

English is at a point now where Latin likely was just before it split into multiple tongues. I’ve an English degree and an education degree for teaching it, but understanding my Brit or Irish friends can be a struggle. It reminds me of when my family moved from Michigan to Georgia and my grades dropped because I couldn’t understand my teachers — for about six months. Different vocabulary, different syntax, and very different pronunciation.

As to this gross generalization called “American English”… visualize two natives of, say, Hawaii and Alabama… at a cafe, trying to chat. They must quickly find some common ground, if either has the patience. Skip the island, try mainland: same with Minnesota vs. Texas. I highly recommend the documentaries “Do You Speak American” and “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus” for more insight on this.

Each region or country where people learn English will spawn new dialects. I live in Czech Republic, where there are about five distinct dialects of Czech. This means that there are probably also five dialects of Czenglish. Cambridge/Oxford retain hold on initial learning in Europe… but exposure to American films and music makes for a hybrid tongue. My oldest daughter has constant exposure to British vocabulary and syntax, while her daddy speaks “American” obtained from three regions of the USA (Midwest, South, and West Coast). What will you call what she speaks?

My point is, like it or not, English is splitting into the ‘French’, ‘Spanish’, ‘Italian’, and ‘Portuguese’ of its time — but, in this case, globally. Eventually, this thing called “proper English” will be as ‘dead’ as Latin.

Please don’t forget to add VALENTIMES DAY to the list…. i so very much hate when people think there is an M in that Holiday! (if you can even call it a holiday!) Just recently i got into it with a person who said it with an M and i corrected her, so she thought to me smart and asked three other idiots who all said it had an M in it… i one upped them with a calendar and a trip to the dictionary. dumbasses.

Thank you for the article. I feel compelled to share one of my own pet peeves. It is using the word ‘that’ in reference to a person. I hear even professional newscasters say this, and read it in the paper often. Here are examples.

The fireman that pulled the kitten out of the tree…

The gunman that robbed the bank…

The singer that I like best…

The word ‘that’ should instead be ‘who’ or ‘whom.’ It makes me crazy. My son tells me to let go of this one because people are never going to get it right. He’s probably correct. I hold out hope though. Thank you to anyone who spreads the word about this.

> My father has my entire life got on to my sister and I…

Hello, Jessica. With respect, the word ‘I’ should be ‘me’ in the above. Your father is the subject of the sentence. This is a common mistake. Here’s a tip for avoiding it. People most often make this mistake when the object of the sentence is plural. Test it out in your head with a singular object. In this case that means removing your sister from the discussion. Which of these sounds better?

My father has got on I…
My father has got on me…

Hopefully that makes it easier to see that ‘me’ should be used. I hope this helps.

Bill

Mine to add that I encounter in urban Detroit semi-regularly:

I’ll have two bacons

…..BACONS!

I think you’re fighting a losing battle with “prerogative.”

Words with Friends: It is, indeed, “Wooster,” like the town.

Now let’s branch off into “words which are sung in Engtalian instead of English”. “Angel” does not rhyme with “bell”, and “comfort” does not rhyme with “sort” unless your language is limited to five vowel sounds. English is not such a language.

Don’t forget aluminum. I have to laugh when an otherwise intelligent person pronounces it al-u-min-i-um! (Rhymes with condiminium!) And to Bob…fort doesn’t mean strong, it means a place of military defense!

I agree with almost everything in your wonderful article. I say frequently that if you use “in lieu of” and “in light of” interchangeably, people like me have been judging you harshly.

I feel I must point out, though, from Meriam-Webster’s online dictionary:

SNUCK
past and past participle of sneak

Dylan

Now everyone says “She went missing” instead of “She is missing”. You can’t “go” missing, but you can be missing.

Just a point of reference:

“Et cetera” is not an actual English phrase nor of English origin. Therefore, it should be pronounced in Latin as “eht keterah” or “eht seterah” (depending on Roman or Liturgical Latin). Latin has no neutral shwa sound (uh).

And the dictionary has changed to reflect nukyaluhr as an acceptable (if frowned upon) pronunciation of the word nuclear. Sad.

Pet peeves:

LAXadaisical

MisconSCRUE

Bag-gel.

Realtor isn’t even a natural word, it’s a trademark. The correct term is real estate agent.

@Horseymomj: Aluminium is the correct pronunciation (and spelling) of the word in British English. The British version is generally preferred by international organizations (as British English is usually preferred internationally, even in places where English became common due to American influence, largely due to England’s imperialist past being more distant than America’s). Humphry Davy himself originally coined “alumium” for the element but changed it to “aluminum” later and never used “aluminium,” but reviewers of his work adopted the extra ‘i’ based on the pattern developed with helium, calcium, strontium, etc. However, there are elements with ‘-um’ endings instead of ‘-ium,’ such as platinum and molybdenum, so the change was unnecessary.

I got attacked about “coupon” by someone who says that because the dictionary authorized the pronunciation. Sometimes dictionaries acknowledge massive mispronunciations because at some point when massive numbers of people mispronounce something, it becomes a legitimate pronunciation according to the dictionary, while still being wrong and encouraging illiteracy.. Can you give me any other word in which an “ou” sound is pronounced “yew?” I can’t think of any. There are rules of pronunciation and “coupon” is covered right there in the spelling. Some dictionaries also acknowledge the massive mispronunciation of Halley’s Comet, even while acknowledging that it’s named for Edmund Halley and there’s only one way to pronounce his name.

Same for caramel. Someone said “for centuries it was pronounced “carmel.” That is laughable to me. Linguistic law tells that people gloss over more difficult parts, not add them in. I saw an excellent comparison with the new mispronunciation of terrorist as Terrist. Like tempeture and Present Obama.

One that annoys me is “prolly” or “probly” for “probably”, and my students spell it that way too. Ack!

Great list. The first of these to grab my attention, over 35 years ago, was “nuclear”; Frizzy (12/27/2011) beat me to the punch about President Carter’s use of “nucular”. But what irritated me 35 years ago about Carter’s use of “nucular” was that he came out of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear program!

I just wanted to point out that some of the words mentioned above are deliberately “mispronounced”. It’s been the trend for quite some time particularly within the entertainment industry. Even a highly educated person will deliberately speak this way because it’s part of the culture….it’s “cool”. Doesn’t mean someone is an idiot. I agree that proper English is a necessity in areas of life such as work, but going back and reading some of these nasty, stuffy, and arrogant comments only

I just passed through Worcestershire (wuus-tər-sheer) here in the UK. That’s the city. And the town is Worcester (wuus-tər).
And then depending on the label of the sauce, that is how you would say it. They are mostly labeled Worcestershire but few labels actually do say Worcester.
Justin, I did see you mentioned this in 2010…

I didn’t realize until last week that they say sheer for shire here at the end of a city. Luckily I haven’t been here too long, so haven’t embarrassed myself too much.

And… some of my and my sister’s pet peeves are – most are repeats:
my “heighth” is
“supposubly”
when someone needs to have their “prostrate” checked
and my friend says I crossed the “medium” in the street (it makes sense to me, in some way)

Doing the “warsh” and going to the “libury” is very common in Michigan
and of course “idear” in NYC.

I love this thread!

BAH! Ethnocentrism i detest you!

Ethnocentrism- judging other cultures by your own cultural values; assuming that your way of using language, behavior, dress etc is best.

Though millions speak English in this country… we dont all speak the same English. Geographical differences as well as different cultural backgrounds and differing levels of education often informs the way a person pronounces English.

This article assumes that the accent of an educated, white, middle class, and certainly not southern person has the “standard” for how English should be pronounced. I think thats ethnocentric at best and racist, classist, and geographically biased at worst.

I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of Hell for this … but I am an American and I happen to feel that I pronounce my language very well. I do, in fact, use the words “whom” and “nor”, two words which have seemingly fallen off the face of the Earth.

With that being said … I am so sick of hearing this anti-American shit. I watch plenty of BBC, whether it be their reality shows, news program(me)s or scripted television, and I hear *so* many mistakes in grammar. It actually (not ack-shah-lee) made me feel better about being American because I realized we aren’t as bad as they make us out to be, or rather, they are just as bad. I rarely hear Brits use the word “whom” when it is proper. So shut up with this whole ‘Americans are stupid’ bit. It’s tired.

NOW! I hate when people say “carmel”. There’s a freakin’ A in the word, use it!

“…no, none of those are real words”

…no, none of those…IS a real word.

You’re welcome.

The one word I mispronounced the most, but only in my head, for years was infrared which I pronounced in-frared. I was reading along silently when I heard someone else pronounce it correctly (in-fra–red) aloud and nearly corrected them before I realized I was the one who had it wrong. It never occurred to me before that moment that infrared wasn’t two words.

Hey TJ Goldstein, take a bite of this interesting little “Nougat ,”

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nougat

Not only is the American pronunciation gloriously placed as the proper primary one, but the secondary pronunciation (which sounds ridiculous incidentally) is Nou-gah, not even your wretchedly ill-sounding “Nou-Garr”. It seems the vacant interstice betwixt your ears is a microcosmic realm of invented and delusional misinformation.

One bit more. In Albanian, the letter e is either unvoiced or barely voiced. Just so, words with a consonant-r, e, r pattern are often pronounced with barely an e sound. They are more like the German ü or like the double r in purr. With the unvoiced e, prerogative is pronounced prrogative, although it sounds like purr-ogative. Imagine being an immigrant struggling to learn English in a loud, steam-driven, Chicago factory (like my Polish great grandfather). I think sounds got pretty blurred.

The “words” that make me cringe are conversate, irregardless, and my favorite liberry instead of library.

PLEASE add “realtor” It is “reel-tor” NOT “real a tor”

#11: Arctic = Arc-tic, not Ar-tic

Beh-room for bedroom is another one…why can’t the “d” be pronounced?

i get annoyed at people when they respond. I’m “aksing” you a question instead of “asking” you a question

My my employer constantly says “suh-pose-ub-lee” (supposedly).

I’d like to add “supposedly” to the list as I hear people pronounce it “supposubly” all the damn time. Annoying as hell.

I have studied the evolution of various Germanic/non-Germanic linguistics and yes, slang/misprounciations are eactly how languages evolve, from Latin, Greek etc….! My pet prevent is one word, I just don’t get the problem…what about the word “height”…how often have i heard it pronounced “heigTH”! Now that is simply idiotic!

@TGoldstein All this talk about Americans destroying language is completely ridiculous. It’s called the evolution of a language and it’s going to happen whether you like it or not. If someone from one hundred years ago heard people speaking English in Britain today, they’d probably also claim that the language had been destroyed. Children mimic their parents and slight changes naturally occur in the language. If languages weren’t periodically “destroyed” we’d all be speaking Old English.

You’re aware pronunciation is all opinion right? There are no laws of language. Just widely accepted guidelines. There aren’t even set definitions really. Even those are just widely accepted guidelines. Based on what context the majority uses a word in. Or how the majority pronounces it in this case. Names are a great example of this.

One “word” that often confounds me is “orientate”. As far as I know, that *still* is not a word. One attends orientation; one does not get orientated.

I thing you have missed the word that most aggravates me, Library.
Incorrect: Li-berry
correct: Li-brary

Nothing makes me cringe more then when someone mispronounces this word, i literally have to stop people in mid-sentence and correct them.

I’m certainly not giving up my “snuck”! The etymology of sneak is so unclear there’s no reason to force it to be weak.

Oxford English:
(http://www.oed.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/view/Entry/183107)
sneak, v.
Forms: … pa. tense and pple. also (orig. and chiefly U.S.) snuck.

Websters Third Unabridged:
(http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:ilcs-us&rft_id=xri:ilcs:ft:websters:Z201075466:2)

sneak vb sneaked or chiefly dial snuck

@ Audrey – in British English, it’s spelt ‘aluminium’ so we’re justified there.

Also, I’d add whenever people say a ‘k’ at the end of ‘something’ or ‘anything’. Drives me nuts..

Con-ver-sate. “Jim and me were gonna set awhile and conversate on the porch”

This drives me batty. Con-VERSE. You will converse. Not conversate. *head desk*

Also, one cannot compare British vs. American. We would be going into the Eddie Izzard diatribe regarding “herbs” with a silent “h” and “herbs” with an audible “h”, “A-LU-mi-num” vs “Alu-MIN-yum” and half the time, Brits don’t pronounce the “r”. The word “properly” for example: “Prah-puh-ly” as opposed to the American “Prop-err-ly”. The dialects vary greatly. I am originally from PA and nobody butchers a language quite like coal country folk. “Yous gonna buddy me up town?” Let’s not forget the ever popular “heyna” which derives from “Hain’t it” which came from “ain’t it” which came from “isn’t it”. *sigh*

This should be in the “10 Blogs You Write that Make People think You Have too Much Time on Your Hands.”

Unfortunately irregardless has been accepted by Websters. It drives me nuts when people say it! The fact is.. If it is ir-regard-less then it is regarded! The double negative!

Actually, the mispronunciation of “nuclear” began with Jimmy Carter…not Bush.

REALLY? Often doesn’t have a “t” sound? I’ve never heard that before, but irregardless.. (HEHEHE)

Kindygarden bugs me!

I didn’t see anyone mention that ASK is NOT pronounced “AXE”!

Hell, if I pronounce them right, I’ll never be able to spell them. Damn language needs to keep the rules simple, and stick to them.

Pacific for specific.

I love language. I love accurate pronunciation both in English and in foreign languages. I like to make sure I use words correctly and I do my best to use grammar correctly. I have this hunch that I’m not using it correctly here, but again… I do my best.

What astounds me about the article and the posts that follow is the attitude that folks have about this subject. Who are ANY of us to look down on someone simply because he or she mispronounces a word (or several)?! Simply because I pronounce words more accurately does NOT mean the other person is an idiot.

As an example, my grandfather mispronounced words. English was a second language in his home when he was growing up. My grandfather was also an incredibly intelligent man and far from an idiot.

And NO, I don’t think we should always roll over when something is inaccurate, BUT I do believe we should treat each other with respect. Perhaps, if we all accepted each other a little more and overlooked some of our quirks, the world would be a nicer and better place.

I have to take issue with the inclusion of “often”. M-W has BOTH pronounciations. I usually say it the “right” way, but the other is acceptable. In fact, it is the earlier pronouciation.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/often

How about “AX” instead of “ASK”?

I must say the since the English language is a living and evolving language where spellings and grammar change over time that this article is pointless! Old is no longer spelled “Olde” nor do we still use the word “ye”. In my humble opinion this the least important problem in our society.

Something I often see in my office: messages stating “Do to…” rather than “Due to…” Makes me think all hope for education in the U.S. Is lost.

The one that bugs me is “mischievous” pronounced as “mischeevious”. Once, when I was a middle school teacher, I had to sit through a parent-teacher conference in which the parent kept telling me how “flustrated” she was with her daughter. Yikes!

“Ath-a-leet” is strictly Philadelphia.

I really have to disagree with you on one of these. The popular pronunciation of “often” includes the “t” sound in both American and British English. However, pronouncing “often” without the “t” is also accepted.

And spelling ! I go crazy when I see people write “should of” or “could of” etc. when they should have (should’ve) been using ‘ve’ …

I had an IB English teacher in high school whose secret personal goal was to be a flamingo dancer……LOVE that! I don’t know if she ever achieved that, but I do know that 10 years after I graduated she was still teaching.
Lax a daisical drives me nuts, but so do pretty much all the others. And don’t even get me started on the way people butcher grammar and punctuation! A very funny book about that is called ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ (yes I know it should be underlined but I can’t do that on the iPad.).

In my honor and without prejudice, real wombmen and men not native to English should be excused from this. All foreign to English meaning they’re not a native English speaker/professional/expert can certainly apply the same principles of this article to the ones (and any others supporting it) putting the article forth.

Coupon is NOT pronounced with a Q. There is clearly no Q in coupon. UGH!!

My husband says hearthstone – like h+earth instead of like heart+h. Drives me nuts – but his friends say he’s right! Should be “harth” not “herth”.

As a the proud owner of a beautiful rottweiler, the correct pronuciation is:

ROTT-weil-er

Not

ROCK-weil-er.

Please say it correctly.

I am so grateful to finally understand that dropping “to be” is a Midwest thing. My husband and his family will say:

“The grass needs mowed.”
“The dishes need warshed.”
“My hair needs cut.”

I’ve almost broken his habit, but as a teacher, literally makes me want to scream!

Wow! This article really opened my eyes to another word I’m mispronouncing! I used to think pedantic was pronounced ‘puh-DAN-tic’, but now I know its pronounced ‘Justin Brown’!!!

Regarding “often”:

Meriam-Webster’s allows for both pronunciations of the word (with or without a hard T); however, I read a compelling argument for the stance that without the T sound was the original and more correct form of the word. The argument is along the lines that in words throughout the English language ending in T and suffixed with EN the T becomes silent. Some examples are list -> listen; moist -> moisten; fast -> fasten. So, in our case, oft becomes often and the T becomes silent. The non-silent version has been used so often in modern language that it is now considered an accepted form.

@Gene – in the UK (and other non-US English speaking countries) the word is jewellery, not jewelry, and is more correctly pronounced joo-ler-y (see OED online).

This is a phrase, too, but I can’t help it.

I could care less.
instead of
I couldn’t care less.
THINK ABOUT IT. Could you really care less (which means you do care about it at some level)? Or do you not care at all? People always say the first one, but mean the second one.

Apparently that quote is often misattributed to Mark Twain. Including almost yet another time in this post.

Also, while I agree with you about most of these (and incorrect pronunciation bugs the crap out of me), you’re wrong about prerogative: both pronunciations are acceptable. Whether that’s Bobby Brown’s fault or someone else’s is anyone’s guess, but “puh-ROG-uh-tiv” has been acceptable at least since the 80′s.

I forgot about breakfastes for the plural of breakfast. It should be pronounced without an extra syllable between the ‘t’ and the ‘s’, just like any other plural word.

The one that drives me crazy is the mispronunciation of “R E A L T O R”
it should be pronounced Reel Ter
NOT Re Luh Ter

What about subtle?

As already expressed, both this article and comments have been most entertaining….but the aspect of every blog, article etc….that I think is most hilarious are those people who get heated and even down right nasty. Really people? Think about it. In the big scheme of things and amidst a global economical breakdown I can think of far more important issues to which your angst could be directed toward and possibly even useful. So for the sake of your own physical AND emotional well being, you might want to “collar that dog” before you bust a major blood vessel (artery).

PS….However in relation to the content of this article…one word that I don’t believe was mentioned and that literally makes my skin crawl when used is the word ‘conversate’. Even though you will find it in some dictionaries, the proper word to use is ‘converse’ =)

Ok, ready, set….go for it, tear me a new one!

Have a good day all <3

I can understand the awry problem. I had never heard it said, ever, but had been reading it all my life.

Dude. Anyone who has even taken a linguistics 101 class could tell you the pronunciation of words change over time and from culture to culture within a language community.

But you really lost me when you declared that the dictionary was wrong because it disagreed with your personal opinion on the “correct” pronunciation.

See… THAT will make people think you’re an idiot.

Shannon, thank you for bringing up the “could care less” phrase! That one makes me crazy too!

You say that “Candidate” should be pronounced like “candy date” and yet you spell it out like “canda dett”. So which is it?

The pronunciation is supposed to be “can- di(as in dim)- date” exactly like it’s spelled.

However, I agree with many other commenters, individuals have accents and words develop over time and according to society. I mean heck, I live in Kentucky where Versailles is Vurr-sails, and Louisvilles is Lou-uh-vul.
I realize when I go elsewhere it’s the same. I don’t have a very pronounced southern accent, but I don’t refer to those cities as Ver-sai and Louis-ville because they’re not.

So most often, if someone around me uses a word incorrectly or says something in an accent, I just assume that’s what they’ve used all their life and I don’t deem it necessary to correct every little thing. My mom says turist instead of tourist and my grandmother always said warsh instead of wash. Who cares.

The only mispronunciation that really bothers me is that of the word “crayon” I’ve heard crane, I’ve heard crown. It’s simple really… the word is Cray-on. Spelled out quite simply.

also, “Meantime” is not a stand-alone word.

the correct phrase is “In the meantime”

I once commented to a guy on FB, “touche,” to which he responded, “No, I just hate the Vikings.”

My sister says “all the sudden” instead of “all of a sudden”. Drives me crazy! lol

One correction. Awry, as pronounced aw-ree (accent on 1st syllable), is in fact correct. There is a yummy bakery here in the Detroit area that has been an institution since before I was a kid. And that’s how you say it Not nitpicking, just sayin’ . . .

I agree with jewelry above, drives me crazy. And a friend still says Circus Olay. Go figure.

Some of you really need to consult a dictionary yourselves before you attempt to “correct” people. For example, err – both “air” and “urr” are correct. The genius who thinks nougat is pronounced “nou-garr”, which I can only assume is a bastardized English-accented version of the actual French pronunciation – “noo-gut” and “noo-gah” are both correct. The person who thinks fillet is “fill-it” – either that OR “fill-ay” are correct. “Fort” and “fort-ay” are both correct. The person who thinks “care-a-mel” is incorrect…no. Just because your preferred pronunciation is one or the other does not mean everyone else is wrong. Perhaps you should check ALL the pronunciations before you claim one is “the” correct one.

And also, the article is about mispronunciations, not the misuse of words or phrases, so your complaints about “all of the sudden” or “could care less”, while correct, are irrelevant to this article.

And the people who are commenting asking how some word is properly pronounced – you’re already on the internet, look it up.

I love this article and resulting comments!

If only the loquacious could be persuaded of the obnoxiousness of talkativeness, verbose conversationalists would probably become extinct. In promulgating your esoteric cogitations, beware of platitudinous ponderosities. Let your conversational communications possess a clarified conciseness, a concatenated cogency, and a coalescent consistency!

That’s all I have to say!

I absolutely loathe “impornant.” I don’t know if it’s ignorance, custom or adenoids, but I hear it all the time, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

I say this without any ire toward our British friends. You have no place insulting our accent. You drop “h” on a pretty regular basis, and slip in “r” where it has no business. My personal pet peeve? “Idear” That is not a word. My second pet peeve? Noo-gar!

Most annoying to me?

Acrost…

People.. It’s ACROSS there is no T.

Suh-pose-uh-bly! Its supposedly! Thank you.

On the term kindergarten, pronouncing it in English as garden isn’t all that incorrect. Garden is the English translation of the German word garten. Living in Germany as an English speaker it was quite common for people to refer to it as ‘kiddie garden’ which is surprisingly accurate.

my pet peeve is hearing people say ‘grandpa has oldtimers”, i suppose i will forget that small irritation;)

The FT rule with ‘often’ I think has more to do with accents/regional dialects than mispronunciations. Otherwise everyone from Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina pronounce all words wrong.

Nice work, Justin.

When people say ‘samwich’ or ‘samwidge’, it drives me crazy! Even the Tim Horton’s ads on the tv and radio here don’t use the correct pronunciation of saNDwich.

Gyro (the Greek sandwich): it’s YEE-row, not GHEE-row, and certainly not GUY-row, or my favorite ear bleeder: JAI-row, which sound similar gyrate. No food should do that!

Conversate: not a misprounciation, just not even a word! You may converse, or have a conversation, but you may not conversate. I don’t care how many hip-hop songs you hear, it’s not a word.

Frustrated – not flusterated. You can be flustered, or frustrated. Choose one.

Don’t feel bad about “Sal-min”. I have customers pronounce it “Salm-won”.

My biggest pet peeve is misuse of the apostrophe. Every time you type things like “I love puppy’s!!” a bus full of them cascades off of a cliff. Adding an apostrophe to a word either makes it possessive or contracts “[noun] is”, so saying “Soup’s of the day” doesn’t make a damn bit of sense…we have a sign at work that says “Fresh home style Pie’s”. Pie is? I don’t know what fresh home style pie is means…

First off I loved the article, but like I always say, “Webster ain’t the only authorized word maker.” Every country’s dialec changes with time. Case in point is that we do not speak or sound like the British or Pilgrims or any of the other countries that came here since whom ever landed here first. The issue is what are you willing to accept socially within a conversation?

Love that you addressed often and nuclear. Both drive me nuts when mispronounced. But even more so, Jaguar pronounced as Jag-wire. Grrrr!!!!!

OK – the one I haven’t seen anywhere in this thread is “predominately.” I hear it said by broadcasters, and I see it spelled in the newspaper and elsewhere. Please, folks, it’s “predominantly.”

This is a potpourri inspired by many of the foregoing posts:

I wish I knew why the pronunciation of ‘often’ is such a problem. No one argues about the silent ‘t’ in ‘soften’, ‘fasten’, ‘hasten’, ‘listen’, ‘glisten’, ‘moisten’, ‘christen’, … . They all acquired the silent ‘t’ the same way ‘often’ did.

‘Upmost’ is a perfectly good word. It means “uppermost or topmost”. However, most folks using it do mean ‘utmost’ (outermost, greatest extent or maximum), which, of course, has nary a ‘p’ anywhere in sight.

‘Supposably’ is another perfectly good word that means “can be conjectured or guessed”. Of course, nearly everyone using it intends ‘supposedly’ (presumed to be true).

‘Awry’ is an adverb formed by adding a prepositional form ‘a’, which usually means “on, at or to”, to the adjective ‘wry’ (pronounced as ‘rye’), which in this case means “twisted, wrong or perverse”. The pronunciation of ‘awry’ has never been anything else but ‘uh-RYE’ to anyone knowing its meaning. Similarly formed adverbs are all pronounced similarly: ‘alee’, ‘asea’, ‘ashore’, ‘amiss’, ‘afar’, ‘anear’, ‘atop’, ‘atilt’, ‘ablaze’, ‘afire’, ‘away’, ‘aweigh’, ‘aloof’, ‘aloud’, ‘anon’, … .

Finally, there is ‘deluge’. I learned it years ago at my father’s knee as ‘DELL-yewdj’. It is the preferred pronunciation in all the dictionaries I have ever consulted and, understandably, the one I prefer. Though I usually cringe upon hearing them, alternate, acceptable pronunciations are ‘DAY-loodj’ and ‘duh-LOODJ’.

I have rather enjoyed this excercise. Cheers, Everyone!

Your and idiot.

Pet peeve – Herb. It has an h at the beginning
.

GREAT article even if I am late to discover it.
I was guilty of Perogative and Decathalon…
One word for me to add to the list of pet peeves: “addicting”
I fear it will be added to the dictionary as acceptible due to its widespread use. Just because people say it, does not make it correct!!

Often can be pronounced with or without the ‘t’ sound; both are listed in every dictionary I have checked.

While I too am sometimes annoyed by people not pronouncing words in the standard fashion, really the whole enterprise of prescribing the proper way to pronounce a word makes no sense. That would imply that every word has a point in history at which its meaning and pronunciation are “correct” and then apart from that all other meanings and pronunciations are “incorrect.” But language is constantly evolving. The word “often,” for instance, didn’t even exist until c. 1300, before which the word was simply “oft.” So as soon as “often” came into the lexicon, it too was an “incorrect” pronunciation of a previously existing word “oft.” We could then argue that truly “often” should not exist in the English language, that “oft” is the “correct” form, and that the whole discussion about how best to pronounce “often” is worthless. But obviously, “often” is used today and so we can talk about it. But the point is that in a couple of hundred years, the word “often” may have changed, perhaps into “ovten” or “obten,” and speakers of English then will likely still be arguing about what is the “correct” way to pronounce the word, but the argument will no longer resemble either of the pronunciations of the word discussed in this post. Almost every word in the English language was pronounced differently in the past, and they will be pronounced differently in the future. Who’s to say that our current pronunciation is “correct” or not? As long as the speaker is understood, the pronunciation is “correct.”

I’ve noticed a few people mention this before though I didn’t read every single post in this thread, instead skimming through a lot of it.

I would just like to point out that what sounds incorrect to you could be entirely correct and understandable to an entirely different group of people. For example I’m from Hawaii, a melting pot of several pacific, asian and other cultures and the local slang combined with the heavy accents can create an very difficult to understand dialect.

Is it totally “incorrect” in terms of the Queens English? Quite a bit! However they can understand each other just fine and converse as well as any the most uptight of linguists.

So yes, are people being uptight? Yeah quite a bit and I think they should understand just because you dont speak it that way doesnt make you “right”.

Excellent list, but when it comes to “often” both are correct.

Check your Oxford dictionary, for example, it states that both ofTen and “offen” are acceptable pronunciations. Just because offen is more common in the US it doesn’t make often incorrect. In fact, I hear ofTen a lot more when I’m in England or from those who learned British English.

I have been a stickler for correct grammar, punctuation and spelling for years……an anal retentive Virgo you might say. lol There are definitely a few that make me cringe more than others:

Flustrated…..NO! Flustered or frustrated but there is no such word or condition as “flustrated”!

Sale……i.e. I’m going to sale my car. Eeeeeeek!

Pronouncing the “G” in words like Gnome and Gnoll.

Now for the one that drives me most insane…the one I’ve heard countless television personalities use (particularly on cooking shows)…the one that makes me want to reach through the screen and smack them silly!
Waalaa! OMG people…it’s French and the correct word is VOILA, pronounced VWAH LAH.

And with that, I end my own personal tyrade! Loved this article as well as all the input everyone’s given

I’m confussed on the past tense of plead…..is it pled or pleaded.

» Incorrect pronunciation: haitch
» Correct pronunciation: aitch
What’s next — will people start saying Wubbleyou?

» Incorrect pronunciation: Asterix
» Correct pronunciation: Asterisk

» Incorrect pronunciation: Axe
» Correct pronunciation: Ask

Some of the words you use actually aren’t words at all: over-exaggerated

And some things just make no sense:
Can I have a lend of your pencil?
Are you joking me?

You missed all the good regional mispronunciations too. On any Philadelphia radio station, you will learn that the U.S. currency is DOWERS, and that the weather is forecast by a MEATOROWIST.

FYI for Justin Brown: the quote “it is better to be silent…” is from the bible in proverbs

I hear a lot of learned people say “conscious” when they mean “conscience,” which funks with my mojo.

I also hear “off-ten” instead of “of-fen.”

I tell my students that there are certain secrets, such as the silent “t” in often, that when you know them and use them, you will sound educated.

My students have still not yet learned and internalized how to use articles, such as a/an and the/thee, which also irks me. It is uh banana not ay banana, and it is thee apple not thuh apple.

And it is fewer calories not less. That one really gets my crinkle because advertisers make that mistake all the time.

But as mad as we might get, we ultimately have to surrender a bit to the common vernacular, as that act of surrender is what brings us all closer together.

I got all correct except for “often.” I am aghast! How long have I been living in error? Thank you…!

Can you pronounce pretentious prick for us

Justin: Regardless of what you may have heard, irregardless is INDEED a word. Redundant, yes, but a word no less.

Regarding “ph” solely as the “f” sound in English. Apparently, she has never heard of an uPHeaval. I’m sure she is not suggesting it’s pronounce you-fee-val. Or uphold/held… uphill… and of course upholstery (and their cognates).

One word that I hear mispronounced is “supposedly”… I hear many people say “suh-pose-u-bly. That “b” sound at the end really goes up my spine!

My favorites from my fiance:

F: “What are they giving on TV?” (not “playing” or “showing”)
Me: “Giving to who?”

F: “We need to take him a bath.”
Me: “After we take him a bath, should we give him a bath, too?”

F: “Did you put the dishes up? (instead of “away”)
Me: “Up where?”

You forgot to include ‘Favre’

Vinaigrette is NOT Vineegerette

Thank you! I enjoyed reading the original post and the comments. My pet peeve is hearing “seen” when I should be hearing “saw” or “have seen”. I also cringe at “pellow” rather than “pillow”, “melk” for “milk” and “kelour” for “colour” Have a wonderful day!

“As long as the speaker is understood, the pronunciation is “correct.” And therein lies the rub. Yes, your mispronunciations or malapropisms will suit within your own city, town, state, or clique, but should you want to interact with any other English language speaking people, you may be misunderstood, or considered uneducated.
Many of the examples above can be traced to popular music, where it’s often fun to add or change words to suit lyrical purposes. Other errors are attributable to misheard remarks by parents or elders. Still others were originally attempts by the lower class to appear upper class; my favorite has always been ‘gen u whine’ for genuine (gen u in.) Barkers in the early 1900’s coined that beauty.
Sadly, a great many mispronunciations come from a lower standard of education. With less respect given to teachers and the correction of spelling in an effort to push children along from one grade to the next, it’s not uncommon for students graduating from high school to need yet another year of schooling simply to bring their spelling and grammar up to university level standards.
So, the short answer is – yes, mispronunciations will make you look like an idiot. Or, at least, one of the uneducated or lower classes.

I may have missed it if already mentioned, but my pet peeve is when people say “I could care less” when they actually mean “I couldn’t care less”. If they would just listen to what they are saying it would be obvious that they want to say COULDN’T if the implication is that they don’t care at all about the subject. I could care less means you have some amount of caring that could be diminished.

When I was young, not seeing the written word and only hearing the pronunciation, I thought the discussion was about “youth in Asia” when the topic was euthanasia (mercy killing).

Good article. Entertaining comments. My two cents: there’s accurate and inaccurate use of language and then there’s acceptable and unnaceptable. I personally prefer the standard form of English (as opposed to slang and other forms that have become acceptable).

I do recognise however, that language evolves and Americans will be the first to tell you that what others may call “American” language is now standard. Many of the dictionaries referenced here are American published and support the American additions so we can debate this for another year and still be at loggerheads over it.

Language is in trouble when we can no longer understand each other. My suggestion is that we should therefore respect each other and seek to better communicate. This means that Americans shouldn’t change language just for the sake of it or because it just suits them and non-Americans should be more tolerant of the evolution as we seek to continue to communicate with each other.

The one we hear all the time now is Chi-pole-tee instead of Chi-pote-lay for Chipotle.

Another that drives me batty is “boughten” particularly used like this: “I could have make cookies at home but I decided to bring store-boughten ones instead. ” GAAAH!

How about inccorect use of the word “I?” News people are the biggest offenders, but people I work with do it too. They use I instead of me in every case, regardless of which is correct in the sentence.

Why has our culture collectively decided to make the “v” in “voila” silent! It’s not!

“Often” is wrong. I found this on dictionary.com:

Pronunciation note
Often was pronounced with a t -sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the  [t] Show IPA came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the  [t] for many speakers, and today  [aw-fuhn] and  [awf-tuhn] [or  [of-uhn] and  [of-tuhn]] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, often with a [t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.

Two things make my ears cringe while hearing them: Menstruation being pronounced “menustration” and also Respect being pronounced “respec” with a silent “t”. Ugh the irony!

The two mispronounced words that drive me crazy:

mischievous pronounced “mis-cheev-ee-ous”. Why the extra syllable?

flaccid prounounced “flassid”. Don’t know how to pronounce two c’s? How about success or accident?

I bothered to read every single post. Most people got all worked up over “often” and offered some drivel they copy/pasted from their ad hoc dictionary-of-choice, so save yourself some time and ire and spend it not on mispronouncing words, but rather poor or nonexistent grammar.

My huge peeve, and I mean H-U-G-E is this: “I like ______ better than _______”. What should be said instead is: “I like _______ MORE than _______”.

What you MEAN in either case is that the quantity of your enjoyment is greater from the thing you like MORE. This is a matter of the AMOUNT of pleasure you receive.

One cannot QUALIFY “like”. You either like it or you don’t. If you want to say how much more you like this over that, there you go; you like it MORE, not BETTER.

*steps down from soapbox*

“Halloween” is not “Holloween!” The root word is “hallow” (rhymes with shallow) or “hallowed” meaning to make holy, or to respect or honor greatly. The root word is NOT “hollow” as in nothing in the middle. One of my students told me that she thought it was “Holloween” because we hollow out pumpkins. These people reproduce! Please, PLEASE say it right – “HALLOWEEN!”

I just thought it needed to be said…

…that this is the longest thread i have ever read.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the word in your last sentence that is often (no t) confused: flout and flaunt. Personal pet peeve.
And as for the dictionaries: know the difference between “prescriptive” dictionaries that state the rules for standard language, and “descriptive” dictionaries that describe what people say. A popular pronunciation may still sideways glances from standard-language speakers.

I cringe when I see or hear the word “reoccur.” The word is “recur.”

They should have ‘axed’ you first.

I listen to conversations and watch people as a sport and as entertainment.

Raised in the south, there are lots of words that are destroyed. Luckily I moved to CA for 20 years and just moved back. Now they are more outstanding in conversations. Grammar is even worse.
The first is my personal pet peeve:
Interesting:

Wrong: Enter-stin’
Correct: Intrest-ing

ICE:
Wrong: Eyeee-ce
Correct: AHYS

PRONUNCIATION:
Wrong: pro-nounce-e-a-shun
Right: pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn

Dictionary.com allows people to enter a word, it will give the written pronunciation as well as an icon to listen to it – correctly.

WIth spell check and this feature, emails and grammar should not be an issue.

ERIC:

Sorry but preventative is a word.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preventative

they even pronounce it.

Bathroom. TH, not FF. Makes me nuts when people say baffrooom.

What about the word, ASK?

Let me solve the mystery of “whom” said “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” In short, God said it. It’s a proverb from the Bible. It’s paraphrasing Proverbs 17:28. It would have taken you two seconds on Google to accurately quote that.

Any idea why the “t” is silent in “often,” but the first “d” is not in “candidate”?

Also, is it possible that the first “d” is just really soft? I’ve been sitting here, trying to say it both ways, and it is clumsy for the mouth to say both “d”s. But it may just be my Northeast Ohio accent getting in the way.

I would also be curious to hear your thoughts on English versions of foreign cities. Example: why do English speaking countries use “Vienna” instead of the original German “Wien”? Isn’t that a long-standing bastardization from Europe even before U.S. citizens started screwing up standard English?

@Holly. Et cetera actually comes from Latin, your pronunciation is correct in French. It can also be said in Italian as et- cheh-ter-ah. It doesn’t mean that we pronounce it that way in English.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives both pronunciations of ‘often’. I think that it is unreasonable to say that pronouncing it oft-en makes one sound like an idiot.

And please add these:

Realtor – pronounced real-tor not real-uh-tor
Jewelry – pronounced jewel-ry not jewel-uh-ry
Orientated vs oriented – arrgh, orientated is not a word even if you put a “dis” in front of it
Prospective vs perspective

And the one that drives me most crazy is the tendency to add a “y” to words ending in ence. For instance, everybody talks about our dependency on foregin oil when it’s actually our dependence on foreign oil or my personal dependence on chocolate, etc. Do we celebrate Independency Day in this country? NO!!

Dear Maygin,

As a Canadian I can assure you that I, or anyone that I know, associate with, or have interacted with throughout the years, do not say: “a-boot”. We say about (as in “out), just like you do. That is one of countless misconceptions many “Americans” have about us. And I have to laugh when I hear our supposedly Canadian accent in movies…

True we use “ou” in our spelling instead of “o” as in “colour”, “neighbour”, etc. as the English do, but we pronounce those words the same way you do.

“Americans” are in no position to comment on the correct pronunciation of the English language. So before casting stones on your neighbour to the north and biggest trading partner, consider cleaning up the countless English language atrocities committed by the various dialects within your own country.

Your “American” neighbours north of the border.

That’s right, we’re all “American”, aren’t we? You know, North America, Central America, South America… Oh that’s right, you might not. None of the maps on any of your news networks, classrooms, government offices, etc. ever show anything existing outside the US of A. So I can’t really blame you for your ignorance.

I didn’t read ALL the answers (gosh, who knew there were as many pedants like me out there!), but was glad to see “preventive” and “orient” vs. “preventative” and “orientate” on the list.

And, the EXPRESSION that makes me crazy is: “I could care less,” vs. “I couldn’t care less.”

All those three things are not really mispronunciations, though. To be totally pedantic, they are incorrect words.

But then, I’m the kind of person who likes to hear songs sung with the correct lyrics, too, which I admit is a bit of a character flaw……

Here’s hoping you can straighten folks out about the recently gone viral use and concommittant mispronunciation of the word “homage”. While used correctly (meaning giving honor to as in paying homage) of French derivation, the word is correctly pronounced “ah-mij” while misguided folks, in copying others — rather than consulting a dictionary — use a sort of affectation in pronouncing it “oh-maahj” as though they’re trying to sound erudite.

snuck is the past participle of sneak. it’s definitely a word.
also, candidate is pronounced can-dih-dett, not can-da-dett.
justin brown’s correct pronunciation and correct pronunciation mean two different things apparently.

Conversate instead of conversed. Beyonce actually used it in one of her songs.

Thank you! So few people seem to care these days whether they sound (or act) ignorant! Here’s another one:

Realtor is not ree-lit-er. It is RE-ull-ter. This should be easy to remember because a realtor sells real (RE-ull) estate.

And when did news anchors become ignorant of the difference between a noun and a verb? People proTEST in a gathering known as a PROtest, and troops enter into COMbat in order to comBAT the enemy. There’s a long list of of examples but these are the two that I hear misused almost daily on news broadcasts.

How about adding “ask” to this list?! It’s “ask”…not “ax”

What about the word Comfortable =
COM-FORT-ABLE not COMFTURBLE

Often was pronounced with a t -sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the  [t] Show IPA came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the  [t] for many speakers, and today  [aw-fuhn] and  [awf-tuhn] [or  [of-uhn] and  [of-tuhn]] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, often with a [t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again

Holly–”et cetera” is Latin, not French, so it wouldn’t follow French rules. It translates to “and other things.”

Wrong: “Ree-lah-tor”
Right: “Ree-ahl-tor”
[Realtor]

No, I’m not a realtor, just a strong crusader for the preservation of the English language!

To Hater, calling someone @$$hole is not a sign of good manners. You have misinterpreted the intent of this article. It is not demeaning; it is instructive. As an English teacher in a two year college, I recognize instruction when I see it. So dial back your defensiveness and realize that we can all still be taught things that will improve the quality of our lives.

To the bloke who thinks that “snuck” for sneaked and
‘irregardless” with its extraneous prefix are now acceptable use in standard American English, you need to examine the efficacy of your source. Is it, perhaps, Wikipedia? Or perhaps it is Webster’s wihich is not to be trusted because it is a descriptive dictionary rather than a prescriptive dictionary.

We should not underestimate the value of standard usage in both the market place of ideasand the market place. The consequences of the devolution of our language is the inability to communicate, and as we can see from the example in the halls of power, the inability to communicate has disastrous consequences.

Hard to believe this comment ‘thread’ is still going after more than 3 years, or that I’m about to contribute. I’m sure Justin Brown no longer bothers to read it…but why should any of this stop me from keeping it going?

(I admit I skipped from 2008 to 2012 in the comments, so apologies to anyone who has read the entire thread, if this repeats.)

@JOSEPH – I imagine that those people remember losing points so many times in elementary school for “forgetting the apostrophe,” that they now are subconsciously compelled to ‘correct’ their own grammar by adding the apostrophe before someone else corrects them. This is called hypercorrection…

…also a pet peeve of mine. Especially when the news anchors do it on the national prime time news (Katie Couric did). Specifically, using “I” (a subject pronoun) instead of “me” (an object pronoun) in a sentence where an object pronoun is required. Most often: “between you and I” instead of “between you and me.” ‘ME’ is correct because it is an object of the preposition ‘between’. I think I hear that used INcorrectly more OFTEN than correctly!

Speaking of ‘often’… No ‘t’ for me, but I don’t mind if you do. I DO mind ‘acrosst’, though…didn’t see that one mentioned before.

What kill me is when they say “aleven” for the #11… it ELEVEN!!

Accents are only a small part of pronunciations…but an excerpt of an interview with Michael York might help to refocus the “proper pronunciation” question:

YORK: From the moment I came here in the late 60s, I was aware of this strange conception in America. Americans thought that we Brits had a lock on Shakespeare because of the way we sounded. I was always at pains to remind them that – as Samantha pointed out – that the accent of Shakespeare’s day with the Devon “rrrr” crossed over with the settlers and it took root in America. So if you want to hear – and the key word is hear – (the Elizabethans said “That we shall hear a play” not see one), if you want to hear an “authentic” performance, see it here in America! Don’t go see it in Britain, where our accents have gone through this lunatic sound change with our German kings and our whatever. See it here in America, where you have preserved purity!

I knew someone who could say script, but always said prestription
scrawberry
setsy = sexy
shaushish = sausage
poat = port
corch = coach
diplooma
what’s the big idear?
ehthirrul = ethereal
mealee = melee

i feel like all of you must take a anthropological linguistics class. then youll realize that there are so many dialects of english, in the US alone, that this article’s argument is moot.

*typos will also make you appear stupid……

Great list but it doesn’t include cache (cash versus cashay, cashay being wrong) or forte (fort versus fortay, where fortay is wrong). What idiots those people sound like when they do it… “we discovered a cashay of weapons” should be “we discovered a cash of weapons” — The one you’re thinking about is cachet, methinks? Also, forte == fort and not fortay or fortë. Sigh.

Now, I didn’t read all of the comments, so maybe I’m repeating what someone may have already pointed out. I apologize in advance for my possible redundancy.
Snuck- This word is a real word. It is the past tense of sneak. Now, someone said that it is an informal or slang word, and that sneaked is correct. If we all spoke the Queen’s English, I’d agree, but we don’t. This is America, and like everything else, we have made the language our own. This does not invalidate the reality of the word.(Note: The entire idea of questioning whether a word is “real” or not sets up a whole series of questions in the philosophy department. If can use it and be understood, I’d say it’s a word.) The fact that most people can barely spell is far more offensive to me, as pronunciation varies wildly depending on dialect and accent.
If someone wishes to debate the whole “American English v. English English” or the ever popular “Americans are destroying the English language debate”, I would counter with a discussion of British slang.
A diaper is a diaper, not a “nappy” or a “nappie”…and that’s just the first word that popped into my head…Oh, how exactly does one “take the piss out of someone”?

Snuck is totally word. Common misconception.

I always stand clear when somebody wants to “axe a question”

I’m tolerant and nice until someone says “conversate”. If I ever die a mysterious death, it will probably be my soul having an allergic reaction to someone trying to *conversate* with me. Ugh!

Foliage

I started looking at 2009, because pronunciation is an interesting subject for me. I was educated abroad, and am delighted to say I have pronounced every word correctly. I did not read much beyond 2009. I skipped to the end 2012.

Yes recently I heard Library pronounced lye berry.
Provelone is provelon eh not prove loan. Also bruschetta is pronounced brus ketta.

I’ve been mispronouncing ‘candidate’ for over forty years – I blame Simon and Garfunkel and “Mrs. Robinson”.

My pet peeves are written rather than spoken – the triplets, “to”, “too” and “two”, and “there”, “their” and “they’re”. Also people who drop the ‘r’ in “your”, and misspell “you’re”.

Is there a correct pronunciation (daa-ta or day-ta) for data, or is the difference international?

I must admit that I stopped reading comments halfway down but I thought I’d add just two of many grammatical errors. The first, said live on TV by many newscasters (and also written in newspapers, books, etc.), is the incorrect use of the past tense of sink, i.e., “The boat sunk!”. The other is the plural of incident. When did it become incidences?

You Brits and your extraneous apostrophes.
Hey, Mr. Brown, I think it’s “can-di-date.” There’s no third A in the middle.

As speech pathologists our pet peeve is when people pronounce ‘larynx’ as ‘larnyx’.

Nougat. Pronounced however the hell we want since 1776.

Orientated rather than oriented.
Sennence rather than sentence. Newscasters are now doing this all the time.

Both of these errors make me cringe.

Often can be pronounced both ways

Sherbet is mispronounced by so many I’m surprised its not in the dictionary, language is always evolving, things will not always be pronounced the same

I’ve only heard people say for all intensive purposes, so I do feel kind of stupid not knowing what the actual saying is, I feel that is worthy of being on the list, and someone would look uneducated saying it

turning s into x is a definite no-no, its just being lazy

This post needs to be shared with the world. Could we make reading it a prerequisite for graduation? Spot on, my friend!

I find this article and many of the comments pretentious. While I understand your concerns for incorrect pronunciation, I think you do not understand why correct pronunciation is important. Language is a means of communication. We do not speak in order to communicate with ourselves, but with others. Thus, using correct pronunciation makes it easier for a listener to understand what one is saying without worrying if the speaker said, “the scientific findings affected his world view” (meaning, the scientific findings influenced his world view) or “the scientific findings effected his world view” (meaning, the scientific findings brought about his world view, and far less likely to be the intended meaning). By using correct pronunciation we are being polite by intending to prevent misunderstandings or more thought than is needed on the listener’s part.

This brings me to why I find this article and these posts pretentious. While you criticize others who do not use the correct pronunciation– calling them ignorant, or stating that their use of the language is irritating–your writing is not without grammatical errors. We have grammatical rules for the same reason that we have pronunciation rules. So if you are going to criticize someone’s pronunciation, at least do so with correct grammar. This is especially important for the author, whose tools of his trade are words and punctuation. A writer’s inability to use these tools properly (i.e., within the confines of Standard Written English) is akin to a carpenter’s inability to use a hammer properly. The introductory sentences in bold below the picture have within them a run-on sentence: there should be a comma before the “so,” as it is a coordinating conjunction connecting two independent clauses. Furthermore, ellipsis dots are not one of the four ways to separate two independent clauses. One can use a period, a colon, a semi-colon, or a comma directly preceding a coordinating conjunction. The grammar in the posts is even worse. Thus this seems more like a way for you to feign superior intellect by putting others down. While mispronunciation might be your pet-peeve, people demonstrating their intelligence at the expense of others is mine, and it is even worse when that demonstration displays one’s ignorance more than one’s superior education.

Oh man, I work with EFTPOS, and if theres one thing I can’t stand its old ladies screeching ‘EFF-POSST?’ down the phone at me

I’m going to agree with several other people here. Most of this article was pertinent, but some is just British snobbishness. Languages change, and your way is no more correct than the American deviations. Give the introduction to The Canterbury Tales a read for a good example of how modern English has deviated in just a few hundred years. For a more modern example of the proper English way not being right take a look at aluminum… no not the metal the word. The British way of saying it (Alu-min-ium) is a result of a misprint of a scientific text during the time period when the elements were being named. Don’t get me started about “rooters” vs “routers”.

Since the fact that “snuck” IS a word has been brought up, I’d like to remind everyone that “dove” as in “He dove into the lake” NOT dived and “lit” as in “Her smile lit up the room” NOT lighted, are also words. How they fell out of use has long been a mystery to me. Most of the words on this list I’ve long-suffered hearing the mis-pronunciation of. Also, it’s should HAVE, not should of. My ex-husband insisted “their” was pronounced “therr”, and that was how you could tell the difference between there and they’re, but he was a complete moron. My sister says “Sayerday” and we were raised in the same household (not a trailer park in Alabama). I lament the death of the English language more than most. I shudder (not shutter) to think what we will sound like 50 years from now. God help us all.

i would like to add “mischievous” to the list. why people think there is an extra “i” in the last syllable (directly after the “v”) forever will be a mystery to me. “miss-chee-ev-uss” not “miss-cheev-EEuss”

also, for the record, i distinctly remember being taught in grade school that “often” has two acceptable pronunciations.

crevasse- Is it pronounced “Crev-ese” “Crev-us” or “Cre-vas”?

I always thought it was “Crev-us” but within the last year I’ve noticed it being pronounced “Cre-vas” on TV.

Add the word “orientated” for “oriented”.

I was surprised to read a few comments and see people complaining about this article — that it was pretentious or pedantic or that some words were repeated more than once in the comments. First of all, if you mispronounce a word, you sound like an idiot. Get it. Got it? Good.

And, repetition, my darlings, is sometimes how we must learn if we can’t get it through our thick skulls how to do something correctly. That’s “core-ect-ly” not “cor-ek-ly” in case you weren’t aware. Now be good little students and practice your pronunciation and perhaps your enunciation as well and I’ll relax over here, drink an “ess-press-o” (not an “ex-press-o”) while quietly judging you…which is exactly what everyone else does when you mispronounce words and sound like an idiot.

A few words to work on:

Iraq: “eye-rack” is incorrect. correct is “ear-ock”
Iran: “eye-ran” is incorrect. correct is “ear-on”
Didn’t: “di-int” is incorrect. correct is “did-int”
Badminton: “badmitten” is incorrect. correct is “bad-mint-en”
Realtor: “real-et-er” is incorrect. correct is “real-ter”
Chianti: “kay-on-tay” is incorrect.”key-on-tee”
Niche: “nitch” is incorrect. “neesh”
Clique (sometimes also misspelled “Click”): “click” is incorrect. “kleek”

Okay, I’ve seen it in 2 comments, so I feel compelled to respond. PREVENTATIVE is a word, it’s a noun, as in “to take a preventative”. But it’s not an adjective, which is how it’s used almost universally. But I do love the article and the ensuing debates in the responses. Language is beautiful and amazing!

My favorite is when you need a signature and what the person should say is “Let me give you my John Hancock.” What they say is, “Let me give you my John Henry.” I think they are going to hit me with a hammer or something.

Oh, and what about Warsh/Wash?

A few more that bug me:

Orangutan is pronounced “o-RANG-uh-tan” and not “o-RANG-uh-tang”.

A fiancé (fee-ON-say) is a man engaged to be married and a fiancée (fee-on-SAY) is a woman engaged to be married.

It is “anyway”. There is never a time it is proper or doesn’t sound more uneducated to say “anyways”.

Oh, and “Uranus”. Enough with the jokes. It is not “your-anus” or even “urine-us”. It is “yoo-RA-nus”.

One of my favorites – During a deposition, people who have no clue how to speak will try to look smart and use words like “conversate”. Ex.: Him and I were conversating in the hallway”. Umm.. you mean conversing?

What about “applicable”??? I hear it pronounced (by some highly educated people) as “a PLICK able”. YIKES!!!!

I did not make it through the entire list, but agree wholeheartedly with the article and the postings I read, with the exception of those who criticize our desire for proper language.

We have had a movement in this country for many years seeking to recognize Ebonics as a form of English, which also seeks to halt correction for grammatical errors in schools in some parts of the country. Apparently teaching and correcting lowers the self-esteem of students who omit the “t” in the middle of words, use “ax” in place of “ask,” etc.

My only addition here is to point out that “disrespect” is not a verb.

Veterinarian was always pronounced ONLY “veh-ti-ri-nar-i-an” but when said fast it SOUNDED like one was saying “veh-tri…” Therefore both pronounciations are in the dictionary, but it was only by how it sounded pronounced fast (same as with “veteran”, “Katherine”, “aspirin”, etc.)

My pet hate is axe/aks in place of ask.

I would simply like to point out that in the old days, back when dinosaurs still roamed, the English language was spelled somewhat differently. In fact, in some cases, there were different correct spellings for certain words! (Anyone read Jane Austen? I’ll sometimes see the same word later on in the same book spelled a different way.)

That isn’t to say we shouldn’t strive to spell and pronounce our words correctly. However, we should also keep in mind that not even Brits get it so-called correct when you think of how the language has evolved. (Also, dropping the “a” at the end into an “er” sound is annoying and lazy. It’s “into”, not “inter”. And her name is “Anna” not “Anner”.)
And I hear more mistakes than even that when I watch BBC.

Am I guilty of mispronouncing words? Well, considering I’m HUMAN… Yes. Everyone is. Even you. Congratulations.

Fabulous column. Thank you. Here are my faves:

* Spayed (not spay-ded)
* Oriented (not orientated)
* He implied (not “he inferred.” YOU infer what HE implies. Or, he infers what you imply.)
* Succinct (it’s suck-sinkt, not suh-sinkt)
* Accessories (again: ack-sessories, not uh-sessories)
* Sneaked (not snuck — points to you for mentioning this)
* Hanged (not hung, when you’re talking about someone who died by hanging. He hung a picture on the wall, then hanged himself.)
* Niche (pronounced nish, not nitch)
* Jewelry (jewel-ry, not jullery)
* Realtor (real-tor, not real-a-tor)
* Veterinarian (just like it’s spelled — not vet-in-arian)

And everyone should know how to spell “definitely.” Two i’s, no a.

I’m a wedding officiant and a Shakespeare coach. The word “nuptial” is used in both jobs. It is usually mispronounced “nup-choo-ul.” You will see, if you look at it, that there is only one “u” in the word. “Nuptial” is pronounced “nup-shul.” I can’t tell you exactly how often I’ve corrected this, but it must be at least fifteen thousand times.

How about Both
Incorrect: Bowl – th
Correct: Bo – th

I have off-ten missed at least one of these. can you guess which?

I can’t believe people get these pronunciations wrong. Just seems so easy.
But then I have heard it

For me, my mother says warsh for wash, salamonella for salmonella (as in salamon the fish?), yes, I believe the L is pronounced in salmonella and is silent in salmon, but either way salamonella is not a word. My husband says ideal for idea, supposably for supposedly. I am currently working on the good/well problem. I find myself doing this as well……How are you? I’m good. And my number one pet peeve is – drum roll, please:at. Where are you at? Let’s find where it is at. I always say to this – sorry, there is no at, no at, no at…..no @!

The real question is when did the entire English-speaking world start pronouncing the word “for” as “fir”? And it”s not just Valley Girls; I even heard Gen. David Petarus say it that way.

I understood that it was Abraham Lincoln who said “It is better to be silent and thought a fool, then to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”, but he may not have been the first

As a teacher in adult education, 3 of my favorites are the numbers foe and fitty. (four and fifty) and supposebly. (supposedly) I also have students who want to AX about the next TESTESES, rather than ASKING about TESTS.

Here’s a couple that bother me…

Congradulations rather than Congratulations

Relator rather than Realtor

My only disagreement with your list would be in relation to the word “often”.

Thanks for this, though. It’s great!

My favorite: Albuquerque… though do proper nouns count?

Bennett, we are dumbing down not evolving in language; yes, I too err; but we need to act educated not otherwise. Justin is right in pointing out what is true. America keeps “downing” everything, we have lost almost all formality (even as an educator, I was glad to lose the tie but regret that the image of professionalism died with it!)