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50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid
Daily Writing Tips ^ | December 2, 2008 | Maeve Maddox

Posted on 11/18/2016 12:35:53 PM PST by EveningStar

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 indicates another pronunciation, or because of what is widely agreed upon to be conventional usage. Word of caution: I'm writing from an American perspective.

Here are 50 frequently mispronounced words. The list is by no means exhaustive, but provides a good start.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailywritingtips.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: grammar; mispronunciations; pronunciation; pronunciations; words
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To: Albion Wilde

That one was pretty much always a lost cause.


241 posted on 11/21/2016 5:29:01 AM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.M)
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To: Gay State Conservative
Oh,I get it...you're from flyover country!

Actually, I'm from CT, but after 20+ years, the AF dropped me off in flyover country and I stayed. I guess that means if I'm subjected to flyover country jokes I'm not an innocent victim, since I'm here voluntarily.

242 posted on 11/21/2016 5:46:40 AM PST by Gil4 (And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, ax and saw)
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To: Gil4

As I said...only kidding! :-)


243 posted on 11/21/2016 5:59:07 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Deplorables' Lives Matter)
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To: Albion Wilde; EveningStar; Kid Shelleen
Sort of like the way many Fluffyans pronounce the name of the Acme grocery store: “ACK-a-mee.”

Just can't wipe the Big Wide Grin off my face from seeing this and remembering my grandmother asking me to go to the ack-a-me (four blocks away) to pick something up for her.

She is the one person that I would never "correct" for saying "ack-a-me" not because I feared her but because I loved her and loved to hear her say that. Italians knew there were not enough vowels in the Acme name...

244 posted on 11/21/2016 7:26:25 AM PST by Prov1322 (Enjoy my wife's incredible artwork at www.watercolorARTwork.com! (This space no longer for rent))
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To: Prov1322
LOL! Italian-as-first-language folks love extra syllables! They love adding "a" to the end of hard stop Anglo-Saxon words, too.

Conversely, my Scottish-descended grandmom added "a" to the beginning of verbs—as in, "He's a-goin' to the store."

245 posted on 11/21/2016 9:52:28 PM PST by Albion Wilde ("Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo."--Donald Trump)
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