Monday, December 26, 2011

Word Pet Peeves


I'd like to address the topic of misused or mispronounced words that I hear quite frequently. With the new year approaching and people thinking about goals and resolutions, some people may want to set a goal to improve their vocabulary. DISCLAIMER: I'm no expert and I regularly make many mistakes on this blog so I'm not presenting this in a holier than thou attitude. I'm just doing it because hearing some of these words pronounced incorrectly can be more painful than hearing nails on a chalk board.

The most common mispronounced victim is the word Escape, not excape. The button on the computer you use to escape says ESC, it is not the X button.

Realtor not Realator. Even many realtors I have known mispronounce their occupation.

You take something for granted not granite. The exception to this is if you make assumptions about counter top materials you are shopping for.

Nuclear not nucular. President Bush had many critics who did not agree with him on a variety of issues. The way he pronounced this word was my biggest concern with him. Just sound it out!

Especially not expecially (a cousin to excape)

It is etcetera not excetra.

Asterisk not asterix (I guess we are a country with a fixation for the x sound)

For all intents and purposes is often verbalized as "for all intensive purposes."

Chest of drawers is not Chester Drawers. He was Cleetus' friend on the Dukes of Hazard.

The color sticks kids draw with are called crayons not crons or crowns.

Another favorite is "Patriotical" used in place of patriarchal. I think a patriotical blessing must be something members of the LDS church receive on the 4th of July.

"Samich" and "libary" are the most painful words to hear. If you are out of grade school you need to pronounce these correctly.

What other words would you add to the list?

4 comments:

Karen said...

LOL - e(x)pecially on the Chester Drawers - what is with that? Another one is "ax" as in "let me ax you a question". Again with the x fixation I suppose.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I had a boss once who pronounced specific 'pacific.'
I live in the South - I could provide a very long list of mispronounced words.

Lisa said...

I think we don't do bad at all here in Malaysia.

Happy New Year.

Eric said...

The day before Monday... it is not pronounced 'Sun-dee'.