Do you Mispronounce These Words?

Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
I saw an amusing video (a little long, sorry about that) that covers commonly mispronounced words.

Please, be honest and tell us what you scored at the end (how many did you get wrong, or right? depending on which number is smaller). As the originator of this discussion, I am not telling until later because I want honest answers! However, I will say that I apparently am an asshole (according to the two guys) and no one wants to be my friend, LOL!
05/11/2014
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Contributor: Rossie Rossie
OK, let me be the first - here are the words I mispronounced:

Antarctica (I missed the first "t")
Dilate (I've been pronouncing it as "dia-late")
Expresso (I always thought it was "Ex-presso" with a "x")
Et cetera (I pronounce "Et" like "et" in French - this one is hard to correct!)
Sherbet (I thought it was "sher-bet" instead of "sher-bit")
Forte (I thought it was "for-tay")
Lambast (I pronounced it as "lam-bassed" )
Spit & image, or spitting image (I thought it was "splitting image")

05/12/2014
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
My biggest problem was me guessing the right thing! I swear, guessing "lambast?" Definitely made me feel stupid. I've never really thought about how it was pronounced, so I likely would have pronounced it wrong had I been able to. I said prerogative the wrong way, as well as forte (which I am quite frankly going to continue saying the wrong way) and "spitting image" is staying within my dictionary as well no matter what the origin was. I think that they sort of cheated picking things that have been updated in a dictionary (I mean, all language evolves - an apron used to be called a napron and it's definitely not right to do so today).

Thank you for the Rhett and Link er... link. I hadn't seen this program of theirs and it was fun! I hope that they do another pronunciation one.
05/12/2014
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
I got lambast wrong! Unfortunately, or maybe not, I like to know exactly what I am saying, so I always looked up things, saw them written, or asked about them. Not to mention I had picky teachers an my maternal Grandmother was an English teacher, lol! My mother was big on enunciation and pronunciation. So, yeah, I knew spit and image, but I also knew it had evolved. One of my pet peeves is forte being used as forté, but I'm a musician, so maybe that plays into it. I notice another one people mispronounce is cache. They will say a caché of weapons instead of cache. And finally, I am surprised they didn't include a most common one, that harass and harassment are pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, not the first. It took me a while to cure myself of that when I learned better in high school.

But wait, there's more! I just remembered February and people calling it Febuary, not February! And I don't think anyone doesn't know better here, but there is another problem saying BR instead of just B. I am sure you've heard people call the Library, the Libary and ask as axe which is actually them inverting the sk to ks, so they say aks instead of ask.

I even have one that is more a correct usage problem than a mispronunciation one. People say they are nauseous when in fact they mean nauseated. To be nauseous means you inspire nausea in someone else (make them want to vomit)! To be nauseated means you feel like vomiting. So, you never say you are nauseous, but rather, nauseated. And before I go on, ad nauseam, I better stop

@Rossie, I think you did great! Those are the most commonly mispronounced words I can think of! Most just come down to misspellings, if you think about it.

@surreptitious, I had never seen Rhett and Link before, but I sure would have liked it had they just printed out the entire list so we could see even the ones they skipped due to time constraints. I would like to see more on this.

I would love it if people submitted anything they know to be commonly mispronounced!
05/14/2014
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
I got lambast wrong! Unfortunately, or maybe not, I like to know exactly what I am saying, so I always looked up things, saw them written, or asked about them. Not to mention I had picky teachers an my maternal Grandmother was an English teacher, ... more
I memorized this for funsies when I was in high school (I don't know if that meant that I have a peculiar sense of fun or what, but I thought that I'd share it while it was relevant, because I love it).

Whenever I hear "epitome" mispronounced, I just about go crazy.
05/16/2014
Contributor: dv8 dv8
I don't mispronounce any of those words. Recur and reoccur are two different words. Although I'm aware of the original saying "spit and image", I use the contemporary version "spitting image". Language always changes. I use the pronunciations in the video but dictionaries list the supposedly mispronounced versions of prerogative and forte as standard pronunciations. Plenty of current standard pronunciations would've been unacceptable 100 years ago and that's not even counting differences between British and American variants of English. I agree, however, that the remaining mispronunciations are mispronunciations.

My pet peeve from that video is sherbet. Also, doesn't high school chemistry make people aware of the difference between silicon and silicone?

11 more words and 50 food words that are commonly mispronounced. I couldn't find a link to an article but Americans typically mispronounce Nikon, Nike, and Adidas.
05/17/2014
Contributor: dv8 dv8
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I memorized this for funsies when I was in high school (I don't know if that meant that I have a peculiar sense of fun or what, but I thought that I'd share it while it was relevant, because I love it).

Whenever I hear ... more
I had forgotten about Pall Malls. Epitome reminds me of antipodes although the "wrong" pronunciation of the latter is becoming standard.
05/17/2014
Contributor: dv8 dv8
Here's another classic mispronunciation.
05/17/2014
Contributor: KyotoAngel KyotoAngel
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
I saw an amusing video (a little long, sorry about that) that covers commonly mispronounced words.

Please, be honest and tell us what you scored at the end (how many did you get wrong, or right? depending on which number is smaller). As the ... more
;_; I got 7 wrong (and there was one "lambast" that I'd never even heard of, so I skipped it.)...I feel kind of silly now.
Though for "sherbet", I initially thought the word they were hinting at was sorbet until they actually displayed it. xD


And don't listen to those two, you know you've got friends. You're the kind of person that people would have to try really hard not to like, after all.
*sneaks you a freshly baked peanut butter cookie*
05/17/2014
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by dv8
I don't mispronounce any of those words. Recur and reoccur are two different words. Although I'm aware of the original saying "spit and image", I use the contemporary version "spitting image". Language always changes. ... more
The list of 50 food words has some interesting French and Vietnamese "corrections" ; that definitely don't sit well with me, which makes me a bit skeptical about the rest of the listed words from languages with which I am not familiar. There are a few on the list of eleven words that would drive me nuts to hear mispronounced, though, that's for sure.

I don't really get annoyed with bastardizations of the language (like "nauseous," for example) because the whole of English is one giant bastardization. Language is constantly evolving, and (though I'm definitely not accusing anyone HERE of this - like I said, I definitely agree with you that language always changes!) trying to keep it "pure" is laughable. I minored in literature as well as linguistics during my first degree, and the elitist attitude found in a lot of lit students seriously made me want to drag them with me to the linguistics half.
05/17/2014
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I memorized this for funsies when I was in high school (I don't know if that meant that I have a peculiar sense of fun or what, but I thought that I'd share it while it was relevant, because I love it).

Whenever I hear ... more
LMAO, I remember once hearing someone say epi-tome and capa-city. She had never heard them spoken, just seen them in print, LOL. Back then, you had to know how to read the pronunciation guide in the definition and apparently, she never learned, or remembered/mastered it. Now people just go to Howjsay.com But this was before there were even personal computers!

But still, I have never again heard anyone mispronounce epitome and I marvel that you have come across that more than once!

OMG, that link is genius! How funny! And I love you even more for knowing you chose to memorize that for fun! No wonder I adore you so! You are a girl after my own heart, lol!
05/18/2014
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by dv8
Here's another classic mispronunciation.
Bahaha!
05/18/2014
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by dv8
I had forgotten about Pall Malls. Epitome reminds me of antipodes although the "wrong" pronunciation of the latter is becoming standard.
No offense, but how often do you really hear anyone say antipodes? I think though, that if they are using that word (assuming they know what it means), then the ought to damn well know the pronunciation!
05/18/2014
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by dv8
I don't mispronounce any of those words. Recur and reoccur are two different words. Although I'm aware of the original saying "spit and image", I use the contemporary version "spitting image". Language always changes. ... more
YOU WIN dv8! You are the biggest asshole and nobody wants to be your friend! Yeah! I am relieved of the title! (LMAO! I am teasing you and not serious!)

Seriously though, you say lambast and no one bothers you about it, not knowing what you mean, or making fun of your pronunciation? Or are you saying you don't mispronounce any (because you either don't use those words, or you have chosen to say them differently)? I can say spit and image, but because it's so fast, it sounds like spitting image which of course, is how it got bastardized in the first place. I think the point of speaking is to be understood, so I don't think it's always best to stick to what are now lesser known pronunciations if they are impractical (for example, if they sound so unlike the commonly understood pronunciation of the word that the person wouldn't understand what you are saying). However, I still think there is value in knowing the correct pronunciation of words despite the ever eroding...excuse me, 'changing'... standards.

Thank you so much for the links! For the first link, I didn't know how to correctly pronounce Seuss, but I say the rest correctly. As for the food words, got those with no problem, thank goodness.
05/18/2014
Contributor: dv8 dv8
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
YOU WIN dv8! You are the biggest asshole and nobody wants to be your friend! Yeah! I am relieved of the title! (LMAO! I am teasing you and not serious!)

Seriously though, you say lambast and no one bothers you about it, not knowing what ... more
^ A simple way to brag would be to claim that I was previously aware of all the pronunciations. I was a lit geek and cunning linguist in one life.

I'm also a science geek and one word I hate to hear mispronounced is cation.
05/18/2014
Contributor: dv8 dv8
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
No offense, but how often do you really hear anyone say antipodes? I think though, that if they are using that word (assuming they know what it means), then the ought to damn well know the pronunciation!
Antipodes was the title of a play I saw at a Fringe Festival so the issue of pronunciation came up. The word's also relevant to the They Might Be Giants Song Ana Ng.
05/18/2014
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
YOU WIN dv8! You are the biggest asshole and nobody wants to be your friend! Yeah! I am relieved of the title! (LMAO! I am teasing you and not serious!)

Seriously though, you say lambast and no one bothers you about it, not knowing what ... more
Seuss was one of my favorite authors as a child, and when I started working in the children's department of a library, I learned a lot about him. It's true that the original German pronunciation of Seuss (Theo Geisel's middle name) is "zoice," but he himself said "soice" and then switched to the commonly pronounced version "soos" because it rhymed with "Mother Goose." I found a link that talks about it, though mostly it is about cats (which gives me even more reason to post it on one of WW's boards ).
05/18/2014
Contributor: dv8 dv8
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
Seuss was one of my favorite authors as a child, and when I started working in the children's department of a library, I learned a lot about him. It's true that the original German pronunciation of Seuss (Theo Geisel's middle name) is ... more
The German pronunciation of Seuss reminds me of misprounciations of Euler and von Neumann whose names show up in math and science because of their eponymous functions, theorems, proofs, and whatnot. He wasn't German but Ramanujan's name also gets mispronounced by math newbies.

I don't like hearing artsy names mispronounced: Edvard Munch, Piet Mondrian, Richard Wagner, Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, and Titian.

Mispronunciations of nuclear and mischievous also annoy me. I once ended a date quickly because my date kept mispronouncing gnocchi although the waiter and I had both pronounced it correctly. The date reminded me of this date. If she had been dressed like this, I would've tolerated the mispronunciation.
05/23/2014