Free Republic

First lady Jill Biden on Monday mispronounced “bodega” during a speech to a Hispanic advocacy group — drawing renewed comparisons to cartoon fellow teacher Peggy Hill. Biden hailed the “bow-get-taas” of The Bronx during a speech in San Antonio, Texas, with such confidence that social media users recalled the “King of the Hill” cartoon character, a substitute teacher in Texas who taught Spanish without being able to correctly say “Español.” The first lady’s pronunciation was closer to that of Colombian capital “Bogotá” than the standard pronunciation “bow-day-guh.”

After years of wondering what caused the last couple of generations of kids to start speaking in such an irritating manner, like silly children, I finally made a short audio recording with an overview of the bad speech habits of young people and brief advice for breaking those habits.

Fred Astaire drew laughs back in the Thirties with his song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" in which the lovers can't agree on the pronunciation of words like either, neither, and tomato. On a personal level, I cringe when I hear someone sound the "t" in often or pronounce pecan with a short "a," but I have to acknowledge that both these pronunciations are widely accepted alternate pronunciations that can be justified by the spelling. Alternate pronunciations, however, are a different matter from out-and-out mispronunciations. The latter, no matter how common, are incorrect, either because of the spelling that...

Although English spelling is famously weird, there are at least some words that anyone learning English will easily get right — words like black, board, boat, clap, coat, cup, and hand. But put cup and board together and you get cupboard, which rhymes with Hubbard. Add kerchief to hand and you say it "hankerchif." Clearly English spelling is an evil trap devised to make the unaware look bad. "You said 'hand ker chief'? Oh. Ha ha. How terrible for you." So we learn these exceptions, and we use them often enough that we remember them. But there are some words...

  P.C. Pronunciation in Mexifornia David C. Stolinsky Sept. 22, 2011 Mexifornia is a term coined by Victor Davis Hanson. It may be an exaggeration, but it is becoming less of one as time passes. One way to describe Mexifornia is a place where P.C. pronunciation is practiced. If you live in Southern California, you know that some newscasters pronounce the names of American people and places as if they were in Mexico. So long as the names are of Hispanic origin, they are pronounced as if the reporter were speaking Spanish, not English. Women are no longer named...

[Video, photo, definitions] According to the media we hate, George Bush was a moron for saying, “Nu-cu-lar” (despite the fact that he captained a nu-cu-lar submarine, Jimmy Carter said it the same way). We’re still waiting to hear how stupid Barack Obama is for mispronouncing “defibrillator” on the Tonight Show. Guess the story was simply lost in the flood of mainstream reportage of the President’s “Special Olympics” quip. Oddly enough, ...

In the delicate world of diplomatic protocol, mispronouncing a foreign leader's name ranks among the worst of faux pas. But that is lost on many Americans. Who can forget Hillary Rodham Clinton's verbal gymnastics after being asked by Tim Russert to name the new president of Russia? (Most transcripts cleaned it up as "Medvedev -- whatever.") Or recall the guffawing last September after a draft of President Bush's speech before the United Nations was found that included the phonetic spellings of several names of foreign countries and leaders. Among them: Harare (hah-RAR-ray) and Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee). At a time when the...

On a recent Sunday morning, National Public Radio's Debbie Elliott interviewed a Denver man she identified as being from "Colo-rod-oh." That night on the television drama "The West Wing," actor Jimmy Smits, playing Texas Congressman Matt Santos, referred to the state as "Colo-rad-oh." The differences in diction weren't pronounced and probably went unnoticed by all but the closest listeners. But they pointed up an intriguing paradox: Despite the homogenization of much of American life, regional accents continue not only to survive, but to thrive.

I am giving a speech tomorrow and need to know how to pronounce "Czestochowa" as in, "The Shrine of the Czestochowa." The part of the speech is below. It's a great story that shows that the relationship between Poland and the US is indeed heartfelt:Born in Poland in 1860, the legendary pianist, composer, and one-time President of Poland, toured the United States several times during his life. And as in World War I, Paderewski stayed the United States to wait out the war in Europe. After arriving in the US in December 1940 at the age of 80, he performed...

The most mispronounced word in Hawaii shouldn't be. Honolulu is mispronounced even by long-time residents and some radio and TV announcers. The first syllable is HO, as in Don Ho or Chinn Ho. It is very often mispronounced Hah-nalulu, or Hahnalula. Granted you might have to live here for a few years before you pronounce all or most Hawaiian words correctly, but it's a shame that the mispronunciation of our capital city is so widespread. Then there's our island, Oahu. "Wahoo" is what too many say. Sign up to receive free daily business updates by email every weekday afternoon. Use...