This post wraps up our series on commonly mispronounced words. See the other posts in the series: Part 1 , Part 2, and Part 3.
Commonly mispronounced words: S through Z (actually U)
Salmon — The L is silent.
Salon — Not the same as saloon; and the second syllable is accented—it’s French.
Sherbet — Has only one R. It isn’t sherbert.
Silicon — Not to be pronounced like silicone. Even more like sili-cn, rather than silikon.
Status — I did not know this, but the preferred pronunciation is with a long A: stay-tus.
Suite — Pronounced sweet, not suit.
Supremacist — It is not supremist.
Supposedly — It is not supposably, even if that rolls off the tongue more easily.
Tenet — Not the same as tenant. Tenet is a law or rule; tenant—well, you know what that is.
Take for Granted — Don’t get sloppy (I know you wouldn’t) and say take for granite.
Transient — Has only two syllables, not three. Tran-junt.
Triathlon — Has only one A. Not triathalon.
Undoubtably — It’s undoubtedly.
Come visit me at the Sonoma County Fair! I will be displaying and selling my books with other local authors from Redwood Writers. I will be there from 10:30 to 5:30 on Saturday, August 4; Sunday, August 5; and Friday, August 10. We are in the Kraft Building, Santa Rosa Fairgrounds.
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Now available for preorder on Kindle (or, if you would prefer, Kobo, iBooks and Nook).
Includes standards for using all the punctuation marks: periods, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, italics, semicolons, colons, parentheses, brackets, hyphens, dashes, apostrophes, ellipses, and, of course, commas. Also includes quizzes, an answer key, a glossary of grammar terms used in the book, lots of examples, an index. and a comma quick reference guide.
I’m such a fan. I love that you stand up for poor old American English, trying to hold it to some standard, when it feels as though the powers that be are trampling all over the old rules.
I live in a multi-cultural community and feel as though it’s a miracle that anyone ever manages to learn English as a second language. How do they motivate themselves to master our many layers of rules and then sort out all of the ones that are usually ignored? Or all of the usages that are made up “on the fly” by our powers that be, that may never be used again?
Thank you for fighting the good fight.
Knuti – Thank you for your lovely comment! And thank you for keeping up the fight with me. Speaking of trying to learn English as a second language, I have a post coming up — maybe this coming week — about one of the things that makes English so difficult to learn — and so arbitrary.
In English ‘Transient’ has three syllables.
Salon … the second syllable is not accented (which is a symbol usually written above the letter), it’s stressed
According to my dictionary, the two-syllable pronunciation is preferred. While I was writing “accented,” I was thinking I should write “stressed.” When I was in school, we called it accented, although I realize that means something else, and the term is now “stressed.”Thank you.
Interesting. I have never heard “transient” pronounced that way. I learned something today!
Really? Never heard it with just two syllables? I have heard it both ways, but I think I have always said it with two, so I must have heard that first.
An interesting write-up; may be worth giving it a READ by those, howsoever in a minority, who have THE mind and THE time to spare thoughts in order to decide , in a given context, to comma’ or not to. But in the current life situation – that is, the realities of life commonly noticed , or factually and actually obtaining at large, the only inference has to be, that is no longer even the least concern of any professional, in practice, always busy. For, on the contrary, his worry all the time is how best to take on but be given an interpretation of advantage, by exploiting any such grammatical errors / nuances in law or rules (including regulatory law /rules), to suit/accommodate his client’s case. And not having to bother even remotely, that thereby he will be responsible for promoting /stimulating litigation, conceived or not. So much so, …..
Any thoughts ?
(OPEN to EDIT / Finish, provided mind and time permits)
But a small mistake in placement of a comma has many a lawsuit made.The book is about all punctuation marks, not just commas, and most people still try to follow standards and get it right.