Word Pronunciation Pet Peeves

[Ladskater]

I hate it when people pronounce words wrong. My two top words on my list are:

imported when the person means important
Libary instead of Library (oh please!).

What are yours?

 

[PolymerBob]

Have you ever had somebody axe you a question?

 

[Tonichelle]

supposibly instead of supposedly
eXpecially instead of eSpecially

 

[dorispulaski]

chimenny or chimbley insteas of chimney

pissketti instead of spaghetti

 

[iluvtodd]

Feberary instead of February (my husband is guilty of that one), LOL!

 

[PolymerBob]

I work about a half hour west of Boston.

Paahk the caah.

 

[dorispulaski]

PolymerBob, how about (also Boston), Buy a pot for the caah instead of "part for the car"

 

[Dee4707]

chimenny

Doris, that's my midwest accent coming through.

I hate it when people say.....I'll check my puter....meaning computer. Sounds like a body part.

Or...I just had a hyster....meaning hysterectomy

Or how did your mamo results come out???.....meaning mammogram

Or....what did the Doc say.....meaning of course Doctor

Or.....I'm having taters for dinner....of course potatoes

 

[PolymerBob]

Much of my family lives in Pennsylvania. I have heard 3 contractions for "dare not".
I've heard "daren't", "daresen't" and "dassen't" .

PolymerBob, how about (also Boston), Buy a pot for the caah instead of "part for the car"

That sounds about right.

 

[Spun Silver]

My husband says "acrost" instead of "across." And is extremely attached to it.

 

[Tonichelle]

crick instead of creek

Amends instead of Almonds (I blame this one on Martha Stewart she taught my gma how to say it that way and it drives me batty)

warsh instead of wash

and some mispronunciations done by tourists and new transplants to Alaska
can-eye instead of Kenai (Keen-eye)
valdez (like dezi arnez) instead of Valdez (valdeez)
Sea-ward instead of Seward (Sew-ard)
Mt. McKinley instead of Mt. Denali (though there IS a charity group I support that uses McKinley and it was co founded by an Alaskan...)

 

[merrywidow]

When I lived in an eastern state it would drive me crazy to hear "filum" for "film".

 

[dorispulaski]

There are states where you can lose in the primaries for US Senate because of mispronunciations!

In VT, a fellow lost in the Republican primary when his opponent asked this series of questions in a debate:
http://www.newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/98october/fredtuttle.htm

The debate went sort of like this:

Fred Tuttle: How would you pronounce this names of towns in Vermont. Let's start with B A R R E
Opponent: Bar
Fred: Nup Barry. How about C A L A I S
Opponent: Callay
Fred: Nup Callus . How about C H A R L O T T E
Opponent: Sharlet
Fred: Nup Sha lott' Now tell me how many teats on a cow?
Opponent: 5
Fred: You mean to tell me that you can't pronounce the names of 3 of the largest towns in the state, and have no idea how many teats there are on a cow, and you think you're qualified to be a Senator from VT?

(If you're a Republican, you have to win the farm vote in VT)

 

[PolymerBob]

My husband says "acrost" instead of "across." And is extremely attached to it.

When she was living, my grandmother used to say "twiste" instead of "twice".

When I lived in an eastern state it would drive me crazy to hear "filum" for "film".

In Jamaica, I heard somebody say "flim".

 

[show 42]

Drives me nuts when I hear "betroom" for bedroom! 42

 

[Spun Silver]

This thread is hilarious. I love it!

Doris, your post is priceless (although I suspect we react differently to the politician in question). You have a great ear. That could just as well be North Carolina and Southerners of either party.

 

[iluvtodd]

I work about a half hour west of Boston.

Paahk the caah.

I love the way Bostonians (& New Englanders in general) speak. From our experience traveling there, it's impossible to paahk the caah in Hahvid Skwayah.

dishionery for dictionary ("kt," not "sh")

 

[Bennett]

My husband says "acrost" instead of "across." And is extremely attached to it.

When she was living, my grandmother used to say "twiste" instead of "twice".

Can these be dialect accent somewhere?

 

[Spun Silver]

Definitely but my hubby is from northern NJ - I didn't think that was an area with much of a dialect.

These two examples sound like they'd have the same geographic origin but I think I grew up hearing "twiste" ("twycte") in the South. What do you think, PB?

 

[PolymerBob]

Definitely but my hubby is from northern NJ - I didn't think that was an area with much of a dialect.

These two examples sound like they'd have the same geographic origin but I think I grew up hearing "twiste" ("twycte") in the South. What do you think, PB?

Well, my grandmother was from Pennsylvania, and she said "mira" rather than "mirror", and "hamburg" rather than "hamburger". I'm not sure how much of that was location and how much was education.