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Words People Mispronounce That Drive You Nuts...

In summary, my MIL calls "Tylenol" "Tydenol", my one friend always says "verbably" instead of "verbally", and my 2 year old can't say Pizza. I hear "pursy" - my husband swears there's no r in her word. He blushes every time she says "daddy eat pizza?" or "hot pizza daddy, hot!" When my nephew was that age, dump truck sounded like dumb f*ck! DH & I laughed every time we heard it. People who say "acrosst" when they mean across. Makes my skin crawl. My Grandfather used to say "I been knowing him for ___ years
  • #251
ChefBeckyD said:
Here in Michigan, that IS the correct pronunciation. If you pronounced it any other way, you would be considered wrong.

In Michigan I suspect, like around here, people who say "ahnt" (or "awnt") are looked on as stuffy and pretentious. (Or high fallutin', anyway.)

It's enough to make Kara say, "Uncle."

rimshot.gif
 
  • #252
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
In Michigan I suspect, like around here, people who say "ahnt" (or "awnt") are looked on as stuffy and pretentious. (Or high fallutin', anyway.)

It's enough to make Kara say, "Uncle."

rimshot.gif

You suspect correctly. Anyone who says it that way is looked at suspiciously....:D
 
  • Thread starter
  • #253
Kara... OMG names! Don't even get me started! My name is Anne. A-N-N-E. One syllable. People think its pronounced Annie. Its an English, name, people!
 
  • #254
Anne Shirley. Anne with an "e."
 
  • #255
Surely, you can't be serious.Where's Chefann when you need her?
 
  • #256
Even though I have been in MN for 11 years I grew up in New England
Here are some that I notice...it's Soda not Pop
I say Aunt always will...
I hang out the wash not worsh
It will always be a Casserole to me not a "hot dish"That's a few to start I know my last name is a pain but when my child's teacher can not even copy it correctly onto their desk label then something is wrong!!!oh and is pronounced "julfs" not Ju-fus"
 
  • #257
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
Surely, you can't be serious.


Where's Chefann when you need her?

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.
 
  • #258
So I went to Director Express today and I won't say who was doing it but the facilitator kept saying "exspecially", "alls" (as in "alls you need to do is...") and one other that is slipping my mind now lol
 
  • #259
etteluap70PC said:
Even though I have been in MN for 11 years I grew up in New England
Here are some that I notice...

it's Soda not Pop
I say Aunt always will...
I hang out the wash not worsh
It will always be a Casserole to me not a "hot dish"

That's a few to start

I know my last name is a pain but when my child's teacher can not even copy it correctly onto their desk label then something is wrong!!!

oh and is pronounced "julfs" not Ju-fus"

It could be worse. They could mispronounce it "Doo-fus."

I find your "worsh" comment an interesting one, because that's a very Boston thing - where the "R" in so many words is left out and added into other ones. (Like "Nohm" Abrahm doing New Yankee Workshop with his Delta table sawr and other such terms.

My grandmother, rest her soul, lived in Upnorth, Wisconsin. She always did the worsh and for some reason, the small port city on the shore of Lake Michigan was always Sheborgan. In doing some Culver family research, I found that her ancestors came out of New England via New York. They brought that bucket full of non-existent "R"s with them and that's who taught her to speak, so she came by it honestly.

I suspect dat's where da Minnesota folk got it from, you betcha.

(Sidebar: If you live in Iowa and are a member of the Culver family, we're probably very distantly related.)
 
  • #260
mrshamel3808 said:
So I went to Director Express today and I won't say who was doing it but the facilitator kept saying "exspecially", "alls" (as in "alls you need to do is...") and one other that is slipping my mind now lol

wow.... really?
 
  • #261
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
It could be worse. They could mispronounce it "Doo-fus."I find your "worsh" comment an interesting one, because that's a very Boston thing - where the "R" in so many words is left out and added into other ones. (Like "Nohm" Abrahm doing New Yankee Workshop with his Delta table sawr and other such terms.My grandmother, rest her soul, lived in Upnorth, Wisconsin. She always did the worsh and for some reason, the small port city on the shore of Lake Michigan was always Sheborgan. In doing some Culver family research, I found that her ancestors came out of New England via New York. They brought that bucket full of non-existent "R"s with them and that's who taught her to speak, so she came by it honestly. I suspect dat's where da Minnesota folk got it from, you betcha.(Sidebar: If you live in Iowa and are a member of the Culver family, we're probably very distantly related.)
I was wondering if anyone would pick up on the worsh thing... My step-mom grew up in CT and was notorious for saying this. I grew up with great grandparents who were English teachers so my mom (then I) learned about proper enunciation early on. I never did have a super heavy accent and now most people think I have almost no accent. Unless I am tired or have tossed back a few anyway :)Oh and yes I have gotten the "doo-fus" pronunciation.
 
  • #262
I was a RN for 14 years before I stopped and stayed home with my children. My #1 is "prostrate" for "prostate". You have problems with your prostate. You are prostrate with grief. I never did laugh or anything, it just aggravates me!
 
  • #263
Oh, I have some good ones for medical terminology. The most common I hear is Mammiogram. But the funniest, and one that did make me laugh was the lady that claimed (I'm not making this up!) that she had fireballs in her Eucharist. She even said it with such gusto! Somehow, I completely understood that she had fibroids in her uterus.
 
  • #264
Oh, my gosh!! I started laughing and got choked when I read this magentablue!! You are better than me, because I would not have had a clue what she was talking about, lol.
 
  • #265
I had the advantage of knowing what test she was having and why her doctor was ordering it before I spoke to the patient, lol.Someone mentioned earlier in the thread "Alheimer" disease... in my family it's "Al Heimer's disease." I wondered who Al was as a kid. Now I am married, and my husband's family says the same thing. And where did Die-a-beet-us come from? No one in my family says that, but ever since that commercial with Wilfred Brimley, I have heard patients saying it.
 
  • #266
Truck-late milk....
its so embarrassing for my 38 year old brother inlaw to say when ordering at breakfast... ugh!
 
  • #267
Ideal instead of idea
 
  • #268
The Furry Guy, who is no great speller, had a complaint the other day. He works second shift in a factory. One of the guys who works first shift the same department often leaves the following note on machines, "orld machine." In case you don't speak Hoosier, that would translate as, "oiled machine." Yes, in Indiana oil is often pronounced with an r.
 
  • #269
niktim3 said:
Truck-late milk....
its so embarrassing for my 38 year old brother inlaw to say when ordering at breakfast... ugh!

I had to really think about this one.

Is it supposed to be chocolate milk? That was the only thing I could figure out!?
 
  • #270
I think I say both "ant" and "awnt." My friend in school used to tease me for saying "ant." I'm going to poke my husband and see what he says.My dad sometimes slips into "worsh." He also has "an icebox." I talking to MIL about my father's use of the word "icebox" and she said "but he wasn't even alive when there were iceboxes!" Dad and I are from Fairfield County, Connecticut. I've been told that people from Fairfield County don't have accents. But if you ever heard Cliff Claven from Cheers speak, he sounds a lot like my dad. They grew up in the same town.
 
  • #271
Regionalisms are interesting, and it's funny how many of them just hang on forever, like "icebox." Does anyone in the last three generations really know what a "choo-choo" is? I mean, really know? The last "choo-choo" went out of mainline service in the late 1950s and other than a few in museums and some that are in operation on scenic rail lines, they're all gone to the scrap yard. Even in China, the last place on earth to make steam engines, is switching over to diesel for mainline use.I do giggle when I see a little kid point to a huge diesel locomotive and say, "Choo-choo!"
 
  • #272
My gradmother always called a refrigerator a "Frigidaire". I often wondered if that was the brand of the first "icebox" she ever got? Huh, funny to think of that now. My other set of grandparents actually had an icebox, where the ice went to keep the items cold, and they live on an old farm that has an "ice house" where the ice was kept. My one grandma still calls it an "icebox".
 
  • #273
Frigidaire was founded in 1916 specifically to build refrigerators. Billy Durant (founder of General Motors) bought stock in the company and eventually folded it into General Motors. It was such a popular product that it almost became a generic term, like "zipper" did. Your grandmother was not alone in referring to a refrigerator as a "Frigidaire" and, in fact, the term "fridge" is still heard in many homes as a nickname for the icebo...er...refrigerator. (Whether "fridge" is short for "Frigidaire" or just short for "refrigerator" is open to speculation.)
9566af2f.jpg
 
  • #274
I use a lot of old expression, like icebox, Frigidaire, silver paper or silver foil (aluminum foil), and when I grew up in Hawaii, it was common to say Choosday (Tuesday), crank up the car--and How now brown cow!! got that from my mom, too.
 
  • #275
smspamperedchef said:
My DH is 1 of those 'acrost' people. GRRR! Plus he says 'crick' for creek. He's from PA and he says that's what they all say up North
Actually creek can be pronounced either as "creek" or "crick" . It drove me nuts growing up since we had Duck Creek (sounding like creek) and Baird's Creek (sounding like crick). I finally looked it up in the dictionary and found out both pronounceations were correct.
 
  • #276
magentablue said:
Oh, I have some good ones for medical terminology. The most common I hear is Mammiogram. But the funniest, and one that did make me laugh was the lady that claimed (I'm not making this up!) that she had fireballs in her Eucharist. She even said it with such gusto! Somehow, I completely understood that she had fibroids in her uterus.
That's the best!
 
  • #277
Lemme ax you a question. Supposebly this woman wants an expresso, but I told her we only have Jamaican Almond Fudge.

The list goes on and on for me cause I'm an English major with an extreme love for grammar and words (the proper spelling of them to be exact). I used to work at Baskin Robbins and people would ask for Jamaican almond fudge and I would tell them we don't have that flavor, then they'd look and say Jamoca lol. My name gets mispronounced a lot. It's pronounced "Zuh-ned-uh" but most people say Zuh-need-uh.
 
  • #278
Oh, and "Eye-talian"
 
  • #279
OK, now all my most hated mis-pronunciations are coming back to me lol. sang-wich, may-naze, bayg. My last name: Padilla "Puh-dee-ya" common pronunciations "puh-dill-ee-uh" and "puh-dill-uh"When I lived in Texas, I actually liked some of their pronunciations. Like Ole instead of Oil. Some of my daughters mis-pronunciations that I just adore-linging room (living room) chlockolate, schlepane (airplane) brewked ("brooked" for broken lol)
 
  • #280
It really, really burns me when people pronounce the "s" in Illinois. There's no "noise" in "Illinois."
 
  • #281
How about "pacific" for "specific", "battry" for "battery", "alkehall" for "alcohol"?
 
  • #282
My stepmother still answers the phone, "Yellow."Roomie claims there's three r's in "warrrsh."
 
  • #283
One of my biggies is "eeeee-legal" - no, it's il-legal to do that. I hear that one on NPR on a regular basis and it makes me want to drop kick the radio!
 
  • #284
All the more reason to not listen to NPR. ;)
 
  • #285
melaniehay22 said:
It really, really burns me when people pronounce the "s" in Illinois. There's no "noise" in "Illinois."

The state capitol of Iowa is Des Moines - same thing, the "s" is silent. It's pronounced how it looks without the "s". But we always here Dez Moinez, Dez Moineeezzzzzz and other very bad ones! My mom who knew how it was pronounced always threw the last "s" on.
 
  • #286
ideal for idea
 
  • #287
melaniehay22 said:
It really, really burns me when people pronounce the "s" in Illinois. There's no "noise" in "Illinois."

Maybe not in the name, but there is plenty of noise coming out of Springfield and City Hall in Chicago these days. :D
 
  • #288
a girl at work yesterday was complaining about how someone mis-pronounced something. She wanted them to "pronunciate." My boss informed her that is not a word. You "prounounce" or "Enunciate" you cannot "pronunciate."
 
  • #289
I have family members who say sody for soda, alheimer for Alzheimer, and my biggest pet peeve affergan for afghan. I just want to SLAP!
 
  • #290
wadesgirl said:
The state capitol of Iowa is Des Moines - same thing, the "s" is silent. It's pronounced how it looks without the "s". But we always here Dez Moinez, Dez Moineeezzzzzz and other very bad ones! My mom who knew how it was pronounced always threw the last "s" on.

One of the 'burbs northwest of Chicago is Des Plaines. Yup, pronounced "Dess Planes." It must be confusing for someone new to the area (especially if English is their second language) to try to figure out why the "S" is spoken in Des and in Plaines, but not in Illinois.

So many wonderful French names have been Anglicized with all of the silent letters pronounced and I cringe at things like Nick-oh-let and even Jo-lee-yet instead of the proper Nic-oh-lay and Jo-lee-yay.

I especially cringe when someone talks about the Mack-i-nack bridge. That's worse than fingernails on a blackboard for me.
 
  • #291
"Tracy Speaken" Why the heck is it always so hard to pronounce the "ing" sound? I could maybe get by on "Speakin", (as in Speak in what?). But Speaken? Not even close! I listened to that for two years and every time this lady grabbed the phone I would cringe knowing full well it was coming!
 
  • #292
One of my sisters is married with the last name of "Diaz". A VERY common hispanic last name. She says she always knows when someone who doesn't know her calls because they mispronounce it ("DIE-AZE", "DAYS", "DEEZ", etc.). So her solution, "I'm sorry, no one by that pronunciation lives here!" Love it:D
 
  • #293
My last name is Suprise and most people pronounce it like a surprise party. If they spell it right, it's because they spell suRprise wrong. My husband prounounces it "SUE prize." The correct French pronounciation is "Sue PREE zee." That may be correct, but I will not be the person to change it. The whole family uses "SUE prize" and that is what I use.

I have a cousin whose wife found out the "correct" prounounciation of their last name. [Ragatz, commonly prounounced "RAG atz", the correct French (again) is "rah GOTZ"] At the wedding, "rah GOTZ" was being used. My mom was confused because in 30 years of marriage, her sister and brother-in-law never said their name that way. I refuse to be "that" kind of in-law.
 
  • #294
pchockeymom said:
One of my sisters is married with the last name of "Diaz". A VERY common hispanic last name. She says she always knows when someone who doesn't know her calls because they mispronounce it ("DIE-AZE", "DAYS", "DEEZ", etc.). So her solution, "I'm sorry, no one by that pronunciation lives here!" Love it:D

HAHA..my maiden name is Kreitzer..pronounced Cry-T-Sir..so many people like to pronounce it like a close name Kreiser..or Kreider..which is understandable but still not right..I always loved when people would call and ask for Mr or Mrs Crysler..really..you think we own a car company..haha..I wish..LOL. Or Kreetser..we always just said I am sorry you have the wrong number. Only once did I correct the person and give them the time of day..that was because you could tell that they were trying to say it right.
 
  • #295
Well if we are going there - watschke. The "Americanized" version is "watch - key". Makes sense I guess when you consider that the pronunciation was change on Ellis Island when my great grand father arrived here escaping Germany under the Hitler regimen. But about 4 years ago, I found out the correct pronunciation is "washk". The "a" sounds like "AHHH". "schke" has a "shk" sound. No long "e" at the end and the "t", "c" and "e" are actually silent. There is a bit of a discrepancy about the "e" as silent or "a" - short "a" but most times it is silent. I wonder if Ray Nitschke has this problem! "Mr. "Nishk" sounds weird! I found this out from a man at a tire place named Bob Matschke. Who uses "MASHK". I had a boss whose last name was Kuester. Pronounced "kester" by his family,(mostly for protection sake I am sure!). NOT! "KEESTER"! Like in what you sit on! And he was too!
 
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  • #296
I don't think Ray Nitschke cares much anymore. He has a tough area code. ;)
 
  • #297
Intrepid_Chef said:
My stepmother still answers the phone, "Yellow."...

My Dad (now deceased) used to answer the phone "Halo statue" (Hello, is that you) - joking of course, he liked to see how many people could figure out what he was saying. On the rare occasion that someone would say it to him, he'd reply "at's me statue"
 
  • #298
"Statue?" "Ya, dat's me, statue?" sounds like some of the things we used to hear around here (Milwaukee) when I was growing up. Milwaukee was settled into three distinct communities, Germans on the north side, Italians on the east side and Polish "down by" the south side.We all had idioms that were a conglomeration of all three languages, but especially the Polish and German influence. "Ain'a?" which was a contraction of a contraction of a word that isn't even a word: ain't. "Ain'a" was a contraction of "ain't it so?" which punctuated the end of a sentence, much like the Germans say, "Nicht war?" or the Canadians say, "Eh?" or the French saying, "Nes pa?" Example: "It sure was a nice day today, ain'a?""Hey!" which was another punctuation at the end of a sentence. "It sure was a nice day today, hey?" It was often shortened to just "eh" sort of like our friend to the north, eh?German tends to put the object of a sentence at the end, so when our German ancestors came to Milwaukee and learned English from neighbors and friends, they tended to use German sentence construction instead of a more formal English construction. That's how we ended up with such gems as "Throw Mama from the train a kiss." In German, the word "bei" which is pronounced like the English word "by" means to go to a specific place. In English, of course, the word "by" means to pass without stopping. It caused great confusion for many who would have said in German, "Ich gehe bei Manfred's hause" which in English would be, "I am going to Walter's house." (Excuse my poor translation - it's been decades since I studied Deutsch.) So, it became "I'm going by Walter's house," which had others scratching their heads."Going to" someplace became "Down by" as in, "I'm going down by Schuster's" (a popular department store.) Schuster's had several locations, but one of the most popular was on North 3rd Street (now Martin Luther King Avenue) and there was a streetcar route that made a turn there. So, to make it clear which location was being visited, the complete sentence was "I'm going down by Schuster's where the streetcar bends the corner 'round."Monday was always warsh day, and on days with iffy weather, women would call good old Gordon Hinkley on WTMJ radio's Ask Your Neighbor ( a call-in advice show) and ask, "Are the neighbors hanging out today?"The one that always threw me for a loop was the phrase, "Do you walk to work or do you carry your lunch?" It took me years to learn that phrase originated "down by the sout' side" where a heavily Polish workforce toiled in the huge factories, drop-forges, machine shops and steel fabrication shops and lived in the same neighborhoods. If a worker happened to live within a short walking distance of his shop, he might walk home at noon to eat a lunch his wife prepared for him. But, if a guy wasn't that close to the shop, he would have to "…carry his lunch."But my favorite Milwaukee-eeze idiom is "bubbler." Everywhere else in the world, this device is known as a water fountain or something similar, but in Milwaukee, it's a "bubbler." The origin of the name goes back to Kohler, the famous plumbing manufacturer in Kohler, Wisconsin, maker of water fountains that were widely used here. Kohler had a special outdoor version that used to populate Milwaukee area parks. In the center of a small bowl was a chrome ball that resembles a trailer hitch ball. It had a small hole at the top of the ball, and when you wanted a drink, you would open a valve and water would shoot up out of the hole. The water would cascade back on to the ball, flow over it and down a drain hidden underneath the ball. The trademarked brand name was "Bubbler" and the name was cast right into the bowl. Hence: Bubbler.
8d149a8b.jpg
There were indoor versions of it, too, in schools and other public buildings.
c3d5fdcf.jpg

Where's the Bubbler?
 
  • #299
lt1jane said:
a girl at work yesterday was complaining about how someone mis-pronounced something. She wanted them to "pronunciate." My boss informed her that is not a word. You "prounounce" or "Enunciate" you cannot "pronunciate."

actually your boss is wrong. pronunciate is a word. it is a verb and means to declare or pronounce.
 
  • #300
When people say "su-sess-ful." Drives me insane.
 

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