Pronunciation Errors That Drive Me Nuts

May I aks you about some moderin houses they have listed at the realator across the skreet?

I don't like it when people say 'niche' with a long ee sound and an sh sound like Charlene.

Sounds snooty.

I say with a short i sound like and ch like Charley.

It should rhyme with bitch not quiche.

Aks is perfectly legitimate unless the language of Chaucer and others is bad. http://thehackensack.blogspot.com/2009/01/oed-on-conversate-and-aks-versus-ask.html?m=1

Nice response. Good back-up.

Good thing you came accrossed that link.

Moët & Chandon pronounced as 'mo-ay' rather than 'mo-wett'. Similarly Petrus pronounced phonetically rather than 'pay-troose'.

Both are bad enough to ruin an otherwise good evening for me.

Mischievous is often pronounced with the "i" in the wrong syllable.

The way vast numbers of people under the age of, say, 35 pronounce words ending in the contraction "...dn't," e.g., "diddent," "couldent" "wouldent."

I second the pronunciation (by roughly the same age cohort) of "s" as "sh" as in "shtructure."

My stepmother from Crackerville, Illinois always said Worsh instead of Wash and pronounced Mature as "Merture". It was f**king annoying but not as annoying as she is in general.

I can't believe this one hasn't been mentioned up until now.

We moved to Chicago a year and a half ago, and one I hear daily that drives me bat-sh*t crazy, is 'alls'

For example, "Alls I have to do is finish this paragraph"

I hear it from all types. Last week, a senior executive at my company said it on a company-wide call. I just don't get it.

Can someone here from the midwest help me understand why this lunacy is so widespread?

I'm 52 and have lived in Chicago all of my life, and I have never heard that used in the manner you describe.

Not in south side, north side or suburban vernacular.

Perhaps you, and the rest of the people in your company are responsible for its use?

short-lived, said as rhyming with "sieved" rather that the correct rhyming with "hived"

This isn't a pronunciation error; rather, it's an expressive use of a preposition. I actually like it, even though at first it struck me as awkward because of the superfluous "of."

"My car was making a funny noise so I got underneath of it to check it out."

Expressive preposition use is pretty common and is often effective. I think you're more likely to have heard things like this if you grew up in the South or in Texas. Southern story-telling ethos, perhaps.

While answering a question in class, my friend pronounced the word 'horizon' without emphasizing the 'i' sound in the middle. Instead of hor-I-zon, it was just a flat horezon. This from someone who was in the top 5% of my high school class.

Possibility pronounced 'poss-eye-bile-eye-tye' rather than 'poss-i-bility'. Hear it all the time and it drives me nuts

Comptroller being pronounced comptroller instead of controller.

Is speaking that difficult wrote:

...athlete, not aKlete.

I refuse to believe that any person has ever mispronouned this word this way. No way. Prove it or you're just making it up.

think about it wrote:

"I could care less" instead of

"I couldn't care less"

^ Winner! (Although not a pronunciation error.)

Goldenboy wrote: "Take it for granite" - Yeah. someone actually said this all the time. None of us had the heart to tell him he was saying it wrong.

There once was a treasurer in my company's finance department would say "onyx" in place of "onus" - Drove me nuts but he was a nice person and I didn't want to embarrass him by point out the error.

internet skeptic wrote:

Is speaking that difficult wrote:

...athlete, not aKlete.

I refuse to believe that any person has ever mispronouned this word this way. No way. Prove it or you're just making it up.

Really? I've heard it numerous times, most recently by a basketball analyst who appeared on the Mike & Mike show this week. Sorry, I can't remember the guy's name, but I'll make a note of it if he is on the show again.