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Mispronunciations that annoy you

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Escape Goat said:
British people putting R at the end of words that end in A. !
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I always wondered how this happens. It's like certain versions of the accent omit the R when it's in the spelling (Doctor becomes Dok-tah) but add it when it's not (Vita becomes Vee-ter). I've noticed certain Spanish speakers do this as well with the flipping of Js and Ys (You becomes Joo while Jenny might become Yennie) but at least the reason is more obvious with English being the second language.
 
Wreck-It Ralph said:
This was the first one to come to mind. It drives me insane.
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Yep, that's the very first that popped into my mind. And I'm not even a native speaker of the language.

Heard it again recently on 24. Still cannot wrap my head around the thought process that leads people to pronounce it that way.
 
When I was a kid, my mom would tell me her work involved see-oh-chen. No idea what she was referring to, even after she vaguely described the appearance of something or other. Later on, after she brought some home, I learned that she was trying to say "sea urchin". She'd break them open, remove the insides and such. My mom doesn't speak English well.
 
Delta Assault said:
When people mispronounce schedule as shedule.

Also people in Chicago who pronounce "humor" as "yumor." Roger Ebert used to do it a lot.
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An accent isn't really a mispronunciation.

OJdaKiller said:
Can I axe (ask) you a question? Yeah, that'd probably be a bit bloody. I'll pass.

Ill-i-noise (Illinois)...As if there is more than one state in question...
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It isn't inherently wrong. Note that "axe" used to be the standard pronunciation of the word: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch...-said-ax-instead-of-ask-and-why-some-still-do
 
Timeaisis said:
I apparently say "compass" wrong.

I say COM-pass as opposed to khum-pis or khum-pus. The latter just doesn't make sense to me, as I'd never pronounce "com" like "come" or "pass" like "piss" or "puss". I guess that annoys others.

Also, not a word. But people who say "Intensive purposes". Gah. That makes no sense.
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Without a shout of a doubt for all intensive purposes is the correct way to say it man!
 
MattKeil said:
Neither is wrong. "Math" is simply another term for the whole of the subject, in the same way one can say one is studying "the sciences" or one is studying "science." Since "maths" is a really awkward word, I can see why the "s" was dropped so readily.
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I didn't say they were wrong, I just said I hate Americanisms. An irrational hate really.
 
Mac_Lane said:
Yep, that's the very first that popped into my mind. And I'm not even a native speaker of the language.

Heard it again recently on 24. Still cannot wrap my head around the thought process that leads people to pronounce it that way.
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The Sound "Nu" does not flow very well into "Clear". This is why people end up saying "nuclear" incorrectly as "Nu-cu-lar" or as "nuke-u-lar". The "u" makes it flow more easily.

It's wrong, but it's hardly baffling. I catch myself doing it by mistake sometimes to. "Nu-Clear" doesn't roll of the tongue very well, and if you aren't thinking about it you are going to say it the "easier" way.
 
Gonna make a second post because African American English gets hated on by the (ironically) uneducted.

Saying "ask" as "axe" isn't particularly a mispronunciation.

Sheidlower says you can trace "ax" back to the eighth century. The pronunciation derives from the Old English verb "acsian." Chaucer used "ax." It's in the first complete English translation of the Bible (the Coverdale Bible): " 'Axe and it shall be given.'
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch...-said-ax-instead-of-ask-and-why-some-still-do

So if we want to be prescriptivists, "axe" is more correct than "ask" for the pronunciation of a-s-k.
 
It was pointed out to me that I, and most everyone else around here(Nova Scotia) say 'Malk" instead of "Milk"

It's just waaaay too much effort to say "Milk".
 
mullet2000 said:
The Sound "Nu" does not flow very well into "Clear". This is why people end up saying "nuclear" incorrectly as "Nu-cu-lar" or as "nuke-u-lar".

It's wrong, but it's hardly baffling. I catch myself doing it by mistake sometimes to. "Nu-Clear" doesn't roll of the tongue very well, and if you aren't thinking about it you are going to say it the "easier" way.
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But the thing is "Nu-clear" isn't anymore correct. Nuclear is a 3 syllable word (nu-cle-ar); so really people are having pet peeves about others pronouncing a word they too pronounce wrong. XD
 
adam387 said:
The word important has two t's in it. It's not inporunt. It's imporTanT.
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tumblr_mrxv54RDfe1s9s5hvo1_500.gif


Urt's imporunt'in Toronno, ya know.
 
Notrollious said:
Maths. It's fucking MATH
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The reverse is what fucking irritates me. Whenever I hear someone say math instead of maths I cringe inside. Thats only when I hear americans use it on tv though. In real life people say maths. The full word is mathematics. Plural, implying theres more than one.
 
Walmarks (walmart)
Worsh (wash)
Krogers (Kroger)
Antanna (antenna)
Nevahda (Nevada)
Peench (Pinch)
Amurika (America)
(nonverbal)
 
Cache

Have heard it pronounced kash, kaysh, cashay

The annoying one is the last one because its a difference term entirely, cachet
 
There is no "h" sound at the start of aitch.

Just because it is the word for the capital letter H doesn't mean it has to actually have that letter at the beginning.

Edit: beaten, It was the most recent post and I can't even read.
 
expresso.

I do not see an x in espresso, anywhere. Every time I hear it that way I feel like tearing the persons' eyes out.
 
GuitarAtomik said:
I always wondered how this happens. It's like certain versions of the accent omit the R when it's in the spelling (Doctor becomes Dok-tah) but add it when it's not (Vita becomes Vee-ter). I've noticed certain Spanish speakers do this as well with the flipping of Js and Ys (You becomes Joo while Jenny might become Yennie) but at least the reason is more obvious with English being the second language.
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I read somewhere that it is to let the words flow better when a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel. After hearing that I started paying attention and to me it makes a lot of sense.
 
RangerX said:
The reverse is what fucking irritates me. Whenever I hear someone say math instead of maths I cringe inside. Thats only when I hear americans use it on tv though. In real life people say maths. The full word is mathematics. Plural, implying theres more than one.
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er, no

it's one of the cutest but wrongest folk etymologies used in that "debate"



how many mathematics are there?
how many physics are there?

Would you say "I study mathematics because they are important"?

the 's' is not plural, it's an adaptation from Greek


Both are 'correct'!
and math predates maths anyway
 
It's not a mispronunciation per se, but it sounds wrong when people pronounce "finance" as "fin-ance" instead of "fi-nance".
 
Oh, and can't believe "irregardless" hasn't been brought up yet although I guess its not really a mispronounciation, just a word that doesn't exist
 
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