The Best of The Grammar Diva
When I asked readers for their top grammar peeves, some of these peeves had to do with pronunciation, so this blog post will be about those. We all know about Febuary and liberry . . . so check these out:
Wait! Is your top pronunciation peeve, people who pronounce pronunciation as pronounciation (and spell it that way too)????
My top pronunciation peeve is this one that 99 percent of my students say: mischeevious, with the accent on the second syllable (instead of the first) and the last syllable pronounced as -eeus rather than just -us. And many adults say it that way too! Drives me nuts. But enough about me. Here are some of your pronunciation peeves:
1. acrost — instead of across. I have heard this one more than once!
2. CONtribute with the accent on the first syllable rather than the second. I must say I had never noticed this one until I heard it on the radio just today.
3. idear — instead of idea. But isn’t that just an accent problem? (Hello, Bostonians!)
4. perspective — instead of prospective in a newspaper, so obviously this one is just a confusion between two words. OK, not really pronunciation.
5. phertographer — instead of photographer. Hey, look at that pherto!
6. heighth — instead of height. Width ends in -th, but height doesn’t!
7. ta — instead of to. Send it ta me, will ya?
8. realator — instead of realtor. Two syllables, not three.
9. reprize — instead of reprise (repreeze). It is reprisal (reprizal) but not reprize.
10. tempature — instead of temperature . . . especially if said by a meteorologist.
11. dropped gs at the end of words. Well, that is a pretty common one! I don’t know if I’m comin’ or goin’.
12. often pronounced with the t. I like the t silent! That is one of mine!
Then, there is jew-lery instead of jewel-ry (new branch of Judaism?) (I am Jewish; I can make a joke!)
Mine is when the ‘t’ sound in words such as ‘written’ or ‘gotten’ is produced in the throat instead of by the teeth and comes out like ‘rit-en’ or ‘gah-in’ where I prefer ‘rit-tin’ or ‘got-tin.’
Agree! And I bet I sometimes do it!
Hello!
I can add ENOUGHT instead of enough. My pupils do not live in an English speaking environment
(Bulgaria). Unfortunately TV and Internet do not help them much with pronunciation. It is a hard struggle for me to convince them that what they hear there is not always right. So THANK YOU for posts like that!.I can show them what a native speaker and an expert says about it.
Thank you for the comment and glad to be of help to your students!
Hi Arlene!
These are great! I’ve heard a number of mispronunciations of professions/occupations.
In addition to your “REAL-a-tor,” I hear “ATH-a-lete” as well as the infamous “NOO-kyu-lur (engineer, scientist, etc.). I’d been including “restauraNteur,” but Merriam-Webster – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/restauranteur – considers it an acceptable alternative to the preferred “restaurateur.”
Editorially yours,
Rosina
Thanks for the additions to the list. Yeah, nucular is an oldie but goodie!
‘Of’ instead of ‘have’ (He should of told me!)
I’ve even seen it WRITTEN that way!
I have seen it written that way many many times!That one is usually a grammatical mistake, not pronunciation.
I agree but believe it comes from a pronunciation error. When ‘could have’ is pronounced ‘could’ve’ it sounds like ‘could of’ and that’s where it came from.
That indeed may be the origin, but it certainly has stuck. Many, many people write could of, etc.
Oh, I love this. I have noticed that quite often folks, on TV, say schoo instead of school. I think it is charming non the less.
I have not noticed that one! Thanks!
How about ‘pacific’ instead of ‘specific’. A professor in my medical school was always saying, “The pacific causes for this disease is……” I have made it a point to avoid the Pacific Ocean lest I succumb to the dread malady.
Thanks. That is a good one. I thought people were over that one by now! I had a professor in my credential program who said antidoate instead of anecdote, but I don’t think that was pronunciation.That was stupidity. I think she was eventually fired for a multitude of reasons….
Funny! And I’ve heard the *opposite* of that – as in “…the anecdote to the poison…”!
I don’t doubt that one bit!