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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: Zeppo

“Mispronounce?” . . . What’s wrong with it?


41 posted on 11/18/2016 12:57:29 PM PST by Phlyer
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To: stanne

“... and Letts do it Let’s do it,...”


42 posted on 11/18/2016 12:58:27 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Pelham

A ‘PEE-can’ is a port-o-let. The nut is ‘pe-CAWN’.


43 posted on 11/18/2016 12:59:15 PM PST by ClearBlueSky (Whenever someone says it's not about Islam- it's about Islam. That death cult must be eradicated.)
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To: EveningStar

My biggest irritant in all of alternate pronunciation is use of a hard pause instead of a hard sound. For example instead of “eating” or “eading” someone see “ee in”.


44 posted on 11/18/2016 12:59:20 PM PST by be-baw (still seeking)
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To: IronJack

Because you?


45 posted on 11/18/2016 12:59:21 PM PST by x
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To: Red Badger

Pecan is a Native American (Algonquin)word and is properly pronounced pehcahn. It is also a Native North American tree, found only in America anbd Mexico.


46 posted on 11/18/2016 12:59:26 PM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Cowboy Bob
Wipped cream...or Whipped cream?


47 posted on 11/18/2016 1:00:04 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Don't question faith. Don't answer lies.)
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To: al baby

A pox on them!...............


48 posted on 11/18/2016 1:00:23 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: piasa

LOL. Me too.


49 posted on 11/18/2016 1:00:33 PM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Hate it when pecan is pronounced ‘pee-can’ ..right or wrong that’s not the way we say it in Tx.


50 posted on 11/18/2016 1:00:34 PM PST by patriot08 (5th generation Texan-(girl type) I'm so thrilled we won! Donald will give us our country back!)
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To: EveningStar

Prostate: The late mayor Tom Menino of
Boston on a public service announcement:
“Together we can beat prostrate (sic)
cancer.”

Names mispronounced: Ray or Dave Davies
of the Kinks: should be “daviss” not
“day-vees”.
Have heard Britishers pronounce Michigan
as “Mitch-i-gen”.And what’s with lieutenant as “lef-tenant”?


51 posted on 11/18/2016 1:00:42 PM PST by raccoonradio
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To: al baby

when I wus laidup in the Horsepistal thay gave me a PEECAN, to yourinate in!


52 posted on 11/18/2016 1:01:01 PM PST by GOYAKLA ( "Suck it up Buttercup"; Pick-up the pace, I'm eighty-one!)
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To: GregoTX

Texas is a differnt story...............


53 posted on 11/18/2016 1:01:22 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: Zeppo
Their ‘Intellectual Property’ lawyers likely instructed them that spelling the name in that way would strengthen their claim to the trademark.

Well that worked out well. NOT.

The only place you can get it these days is on eBay.

54 posted on 11/18/2016 1:02:31 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Don't question faith. Don't answer lies.)
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To: Pelham

Or “praline.”

Why would someone spend $50K - $200K for a Porsche and not learn to pronounce it.

Even the TV ads mispronounce “Volkswagen.”


55 posted on 11/18/2016 1:03:03 PM PST by Boojum
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To: stylin19

In his reading the audiobook of
Killing Lincoln, O’Reilly pronounced
cavalry as Calvary


56 posted on 11/18/2016 1:03:23 PM PST by raccoonradio
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To: EveningStar

I think a lot of these are not so much mispronunciations as they are non-standard pronunciations, or regionalisms, or pronunciations based in dialect.

I remember “bob-wire” was common where I grew up in southern Illinois. That area was originally settled by southerners, and there was an influx of southerners in the area when I was a kid.

As for ask/ax — “ax” was evidently common in some parts of England going back a number of centuries.


57 posted on 11/18/2016 1:03:32 PM 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.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Who says it 'OFFEN' ? That would make me cringe.

Listen, that's the way we said it back in my castle when we were moistening our fasteners ...

58 posted on 11/18/2016 1:04:38 PM PST by x
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To: Southside_Chicago_Republican

A few characters in Stephen King’s The Stand say bob-wire; also family as “fambly”


59 posted on 11/18/2016 1:04:55 PM PST by raccoonradio
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To: nobody in particular

the word is ‘height’ not ‘heigth’


60 posted on 11/18/2016 1:05:27 PM PST by SGCOS
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