Things people say wrong...a lot.

[Christine]

What's wrong with just "suddenly" instead of either one?

Nothing at all.

But lots of people say "....and all of a sudden, there was the deer, right in front of me..." but lately I've heard a few "....and all of the sudden,...."

 

[Liberty Belle]

I say Ree-see's. It's the way I heard it pronounced (on commercials) growing up. Also, we used to know a family with the last name of Weese and it was pronounced Wee-see. I think they may have been German, but I'm not sure.

 

[sorul82?]

fur shur dude!!

not fore shore?

 

[mkymouse1928]

OK...I'm really bad at figuring out phonetics, but here's what grates on me. I live in Missouri. In St. Louis we pronounce the state's name with using the S sound in the middle and an E sound at the end (Mi sur e). Unfortunately, the rest of the neanderthals in the state pronounce it with a Z sound in the middle and an uh sound at the end (Mi zzour a) ! When I hear my home state pronounced incorrectly, I tell the neanderthal that I guess that folks living in Mississippi must be living in Mississippa!

Now for the others....I seen (cringe)....I doesn't confused... and using can for may! Sorry, but they drive me bonkers!

K

Haha. I have the same problem. I live in Cincinnati (i sounds like ee), but I hear a lot of people pronounce it Cincinnatuh. Drives me batty!

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

not fore shore?

Thats east coast, I'm west coast!

 

[Liberty Belle]

Haha. I have the same problem. I live in Cincinnati (i sounds like ee), but I hear a lot of people pronounce it Cincinnatuh. Drives me batty!

That's how my MIL pronounces it and it drives me crazy. She also says puh-tay-tuh and tuh-may-tuh.

 

[MichelleVW]

Another one, but it is personal:

My name is Alisa. It's not hard to pronounce. Don't make it hard.

It's Ah-Lisa (long e sound). Lisa is Lisa (long e sound) pretty much everywhere you go. But if you add an A to the beginning people want to make it Alisha, Aliiisa (short i) etc. I have known people all my life who hear people call me the correct name but insist on calling me Alisha. Makes me crazy! One of my mom's best friends does this - to my mom, as if she thinks my mom is saying it wrong or something!

It's not hard people... don't make it hard!

thanks for listening,
Ah-lisa

DD18 is named Alyssa (Like Melissa but with an A). My Grandma was hard of hearing and called her "Uh Lisa" when she was born. I don't think anyone ever tried to correct her because she wouldn't have been able to hear the difference. When Alyssa got a little older Grandma just called her Lisa and she just answered to it! She knew Grandma loved her no matter what she called her!! We just explained to her that Grandma couldn't hear and had never heard of the name Alyssa so she thought she was saying it right.

Now, when she was little she did have people in school call her Melissa and that drove her nuts. I asked her once if she corrected them and she said she would usually correct someone about 3 times and then it was just easier to answer to Melissa!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The two that get to me:

Axe for ask
Ejuhcation for education

 

[turkeymama]

We can add a superfluous syllable to any word -- it's a veritable requirement down here (pronounced HE'-ah).


(BTW, I see you're in Montgomery -- that's where I work. Howdy! [pronounced HIDE'-ee for those of you elsewhere] )

Oh my goodness, this is so true. DH's cousin's first name is one syllable, but his wife usually makes it at least 2 syllables, and if she is upset it turns into 3 syllables. Crazy!

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Wallmark is mine....there is no K in Wal-Mart.

 

[turkeymama]

I'll contribute one. I hate when people say (and type) "prolly" when they mean "probably". I don't ever know if that has become some sort of acceptable way to type it in Cyber-world, but it drives me bonkers when I see it.

 

[MichelleVW]

Oh...this is funny...I just remembered a friend of DD's from NC.

There was a girl on her cheerleading squad who we thought was Rachel BEALE. One day I was trying to find her name on the phone roster but couldn't find it, well, that's because her name was really Rachel BILL, but with the major accent these girls had, they pronounced it BEALE!!!

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Oh...I have another one. I have a friend who says "warsh" instead of wash and it drives me nuts. There is no "r" in "wash."
I have been told by same friend that I say "aunt" incorrectly. I say "awnt" and they say it should be "ant."

 

[kimmar067]

.... sooooooo, is it FLOO-tist or is it FLAH-O-tist??? .....

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

This is a complaint about the media.

For the first 30 years of my life...people from Alabama were called Alabamians. (Al-a-bam-e-ns). This was done locally, nationally, everywhere.

Then one day a linguist somewhere pointed out that if we were Alabamians, that meant that we were from Alabamia.

Ever since, the media, in lock step, has called us Alabamans. (Al-a-bam-uns)It sounds retarded. It doesn't roll off the tongue at all.

My biggest pet peeve though is that the media seemed to have gotten together and changed the label of who we are!!

 

[Liberty Belle]

This is a complaint about the media.

For the first 30 years of my life...people from Alabama were called Alabamians. (Al-a-bam-e-ns). This was done locally, nationally, everywhere.

Then one day a linguist somewhere pointed out that if we were Alabamians, that meant that we were from Alabamia.

Ever since, the media, in lock step, has called us Alabamans. (Al-a-bam-uns)It sounds retarded. It doesn't roll off the tongue at all.

My biggest pet peeve though is that the media seemed to have gotten together and changed the label of who we are!!

Alabamans sounds a lot better than Alabamians to me.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Oh...I have another one. I have a friend who says "warsh" instead of wash and it drives me nuts. There is no "r" in "wash."
I have been told by same friend that I say "aunt" incorrectly. I say "awnt" and they say it should be "ant."

I say "ant" and something between "waw-sh" and "wah-sh."

 

[MichelleVW]

Oh...I have another one. I have a friend who says "warsh" instead of wash and it drives me nuts. There is no "r" in "wash."
I have been told by same friend that I say "aunt" incorrectly. I say "awnt" and they say it should be "ant."

I can't stand "warsh", but we use "ant" in my family.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm also somewhat guilty of the last one. Took me years to correct it! As I said in the above post, I grew up around Philly, meaning all my "berry" words sound like "burry." (No, it's not wrong! Philly is the birthplace of the nation, we pronounce everything correct! ) So I'd say "Lie-BURRY." Then I went to college (in Indiana) and everyone started looking at me funny. No idea where I picked up the mispronunciation...'til I heard my Nana talking about the nice new LIEBURRY they were putting in on my campus

As a librarian for over 25 years, I've got to double-check this one.

Honestly, I and most of my colleagues are just fine with it if you and your Nana want to say LIE-BRURY, but please don't say either LIE-BURRY *or* LIE-BERRY.

There are supposed to be two R's, and one of them comes after the B and before the A (or in your case, before the schwa, as it were.)

PS: In my profession, we always get a lot of job candidates who make the same stupid typographical error on their resumes: "PUBIC LIBRARY".

 

[Mickeyluver37]

Christine, I remember it too. And there's the reason why we all say it that way--the company says it that way!

Remember when they came out with the Reese Sticks and were heavily marketing them? They weren't calling them REESEE sticks. They were calling them Reese sticks.

My BIL named his dog REESEE because it's black and brown. Drives me nuts that they named her after a mispronounciation!

I also disagree about the regional dialect thing. If it's common in an area for everyone to pronounce something still wrong, it's still wrong. There are certain ways to pronounce certain words, and most words don't have optional pronounciation. Dh and really saw these differences when we got married. He is from Upstate NY and I am from MD. We both have dropped all misprounounced words for fear of the other making fun!!!! My inlaws say things like Elemen-TARE-EE, Kindygarden, that thing you put in your hair, they call it a BAR-ETTE, not a BUH-Rette.