Pajiba

@Mrs. Julien - it still blows my effing mind that it's supposed to be 'PAH-ji-ba' and not 'Pah-GEE-ba". I can't just change how I say it in my head, so I will continue to be wrong.

"Li-trah-lee" is one that pisses me off somethin' fierce, probably because a co-worker who was the most annoying human ever created said it that way. (She's probably still annoying, but I don't have to sit near her anymore.)

Every time you say 'draw' when you mean 'drawer' I am contractually obligated to kill a kitten.

Chipotle. It is NOT chi-pole-tay. Makes me crazy.

I'm also in Mrs. Julien's camp. I have to FORCE myself to say PAH-ji-ba. If I don't remember, Pah-GEE-ba comes out.

I just spent so much of my lurking time saying it that way. Hate me if you must, Rowles, but it looks like it should be pronounced with the GEE.

Ohh! Ooh! Also (and this may just be a New Yorkism) the mispronunciation of radiator gets my panties in a bunch too. Its something that radiates... hence RAY-dee-ay-tour. Where di RAD-ee-ay-tour come from?

Oh, Cindy, it isn't / wasn't just you liberal (pinko, commie & etc.) who cringed when shrub said “Nu-cue-ler.”

For Godtous' sake, it's the closest thing to an Armageddon-y rain of fire we pitiful meat sacks can manage on our own. If you want to be an arm or the lord (pronounced LO-Ord-uh) at least say it right.

Forbiddendonut - YES I've heard that commercial too, it's like an organized movement to stop exactly what Cindy is bitching about. I say "real-ter" (without the "uh", lazy e in last syllable), but in the commercial, they keep overpronouncing it as "real-tor", accentuating the "O" sound and it just sounds stupid and frankly insulting.

For me it's "athleticism" as "ath-a-let-is-ism" and "strength" pronounced with no "g".

By the by, many of us a bit right of center abhor the mispronunciation of nuclear also, Little Miss Judgemental.

I'm with tbean. My boyfriend's sister CANNOT say "chipotle". Although she leaves out the "l" altogether and says "chi-poh-tay".

Also she's the absolute worst speller I've ever met and she teaches 3rd grade. But that's a diversion for another time.

I have a friend who insists on pronouncing hammock like ham-awk. It didn't bother me until her bossypants kid tried correcting ME. And them my kid, who worships little Miss Bossypants because she's older, began saying ham-awk.

Otherwise, I'm pretty okay will most of these. Bush's nuclear annoyed me, but so did just about everything else that came out of his mouth. I'm from a family of transplanted southerners, so my tolerance for unusual pronunciations is pretty high. To her dying day, my dear Granny said Hawaii as "Huh-why-uh," even after she'd actually visited the state.

Forbidden- people like you make my ears bleed when they speak. Go butcher someone elses language.. leave mine alone!

My nails on the chalkboard: "thum" instead of "them" my roommate does this constantly.

That, my friend, is the Ep-eh-TOME of Hy-per-bowl.

We're probably supposed to stick to English words here, but I can't stand it when an uber trendy waiter tells me they have bruschetta on the menu and pronounces it "brushetta". It's a hard "ch" people, that's very basic Italian, and I give the general populace a pass but if you are a waiter who thinks he's above it all working in a top restaurant who sneers at the concept of providing free bread with an order of pasta ($2 a slice for our artisanal loaf????), you'd better know how to pronounce your food items correctly.
Also, why would someone who works for tips openly sneer at a guest? Anyone?

P.S. I like to be super nerdy sometimes and play with the "speak'n'spell" option on most online dictionaries. Try "lorgnette" or "pince-nez" and then come back and slap me for wasting your time with something I find delightful and you find boring.

Miss-our-ee. NOT Miss-our-ah. DO NOT EFFIN' SAY THAT EVER.

Miz-or-ee. NOT Miz-or-ah. DO NOT EFFIN' SAY THAT EVER. Missouri does NOT have an "ah" sound at the end.

(Typo in above post, so I reposted. Muhaha.)

Altimers instead of Alzheimer's.

Warsh instead of wash. It's wash, there is no r in the damned word.

For Iraq, saying I-rack instead Ih-rahk.

I don't know about Nevada guys. That doesn't look like an English word to me, and I'm fairly certain that area was once owned by Spain (right?). I would have to defer to the Spanish pronunciation on that one. Of course, I freely admit that I say nuh instead of nay, so...

Unfortunately, "Missourah" is also a proper way of pronouncing Missouri. Don't ask me why that is, but I had an argument with a guy about this in high school because he was saying it that way. He informed me that both are proper pronunciations. So, I looked it up (in a dictionary!) and he was right.

I like Eddie Izzard (speaking of which, pronounce that 'a', it doesn't rhyme with lizard) a lot, but that herb/erb joke is ridiculous. I'd like to know how he pronounces "honor" or "hour". 'Cause there's a fucking 'h' there. Like the fucking British have any grounds for bitching about us dropping leading consonant sounds...

Finally, pref'rence, not prefer-ence. If you don't believe me I could pull out a dictionary in the ref'rence section of the library and show you. Oh, and a former co-worker who rhymed tootsie with boot instead of foot (former 'cause I fuckin' killed him).

People who say 'Valentimes'. I want to shoot them in the face. And then light their corpse on fire.

People who say "calvary" instead of "cavalry" when referring to a military unit.

People who say HAIL-eez comet. The correct pronunciation is HAL-eez. Halley not HAILey!

People who say "Libary" instead of "Library". The first "r" is not silent.

It's not so much a mispronunciation as it is confusion, but I hate it when people say "emancipated" when they mean "emaciated". Ugh. And epi-TOME will get you a good slapping every time.

What? Extra word? How did you get in there? Making me look bad in front of the Pajeebs . . .

OOh rhombus:

That's a whole other discussion: words that mean one thing but people think they mean another.

I had a co-worker who thought "perpetrate" was a fancy way of saying "imitate". She would say "don't go perpetrating a doctor on me with those medical terms".

Paultera:

Nope, I was in a very upmarket Italian restaurant, hence the bruschetta and pasta. Needless to say I stiffed him on the tip.

S not an x in espresso. Birmingham has a g in it.

My mother will refer to all things concerning stage plays as thee-ah-tur. But she will refer to the building where you see a movie as a thee-ate-ur.

Birmingham has a g in it.

Posted by: jim of the lower case at May 26, 2011 6:27 PM

Yes, but what about the "h"?

MelBiv - Something similar happened at my uncle's funeral; His name was Charlton, an admittedly uncommon name, but this was a very small town he had lived in all of his life and he was part of the church community. Her eulogy went through three phases: Charlton, then Carlton, the back to Charlton. This is what proofreading is for. I can't even imagine her mortification when she realied what she had done.

eXpresso. Especially when pronounced by Italians. Grrr.

Also, I hate when people say Roo-sevelt. It's Roe-sevelt!

I orient myself or I oriented something in a cardinal direction. I don't orient-ate anything. Because that is WRONG AND BAD and you do not do that.

Forte. Although thanks to decades of misuse I believe it is not accepted, if you are describing someone's strength, the word is pronounced fort. Not fort-ay. The word is pronounced fort-ay only in it's original use as the strongest part of a piece of music. Again though, thanks to constant misuse the second pronounciation is accepted. But not by me. Not by me.

Forte, as in a strength, is really supposed to be one syllable. It rhymes with fort. But whenever I pronounce it "correctly" people correct me. Sigh.

I also really really hate that "chaise lounge" is now acceptable in the US. Google even corrects my supposed typo. It's "chaise longue." shayz long It's French for "long chair," so when you say "chaise lounge" you're basically saying "chair chair." And that's stupid.

I'm a new england guy, so even though my parents worked hard to train the accent out of me, certain things still come out the way my environment dictates. I still think new england accents are the best.

One thing i've picked up while living in New York is the ubiquitous "wha'happened?", a phrase used as "Could you please repeat yourself?"

every time i use it, i want to die. strange how our own regionalisms are acceptable while others are the devil.

Melody, I'm pretty sure when people are saying "Altimers", they are actually saying "old timers" (it's something that my family have said for years, and I've heard many others do the same).

That being said, I wonder what ever happened to the O-nee-ders.

I used to get corrected by my ex all the time for mispronouncing croissant.

I would say cruh-SAHNT and his head would whip around and he'd give me a pitying look:

"It's cwah-SAAAAAAAAAHHHHhhhhhh..."

Usually, I'm the humble type who likes to learn something new every day and apply it to my life as not to seem like an ignoramus but I simply cannot subscribe to ever saying that word that way. It may have something to do with my memories of him talking in his natural voice and then reverting to a faux French accent for that one word. This actually happened a lot.

The guy liked croissants.

Mispronunciation used to drive me bananas, until I married a reasonably intelligent man who is terrible at spelling, grammar, says certain well-known phrases incorrectly (i.e. "no ifs, and, or buts" is "no ifs, ands, ors, or buts" for him) and also mispronounces a few choice words. I've tried to gently correct him and he's made an effort, but he just doesn't have the patience to try to remember those things. Ah well, at least he can make me laugh, no?
It's funny what you'll let slide for the one you love, especially considering how much it bugs me when strangers make the same mistakes.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

It's pronounced foy-ay not foy-er. Philistines!

Growing up in Massachusetts my lips still curl under my teeth every time I go back home and hear someone say they want to get a book from the "Lie-Berry".

On the other hand I gladly dive into a very put upon accent with aplomb anytime I get cut off it traffic because there something almost therapeutic about shaking your fist at someone who cut you off yelling "Fahk Yoo Yah Gawd Dahm Ree-Tahd! Go back to Med-Fudd, Ahs-Hole!!!"

Okay not the classiest response, but despite having a neutral accent now, sometimes forcing the old "Eastern Mass Whine" is like putting on a broken in pair of jeans.

For me, it's not a word. It's a name.

Favre. As in Brett.

Look. I took French for years and years. Favre is clearly a French name, and even if it wasn't, THE "R" IS CLEARLY AFTER THE "V", RENDERING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIS NAME TO BE PRONOUNCED "FARV".

It's "fahv", dammit. "FAHV"!!! And I don't give a goddamn how he pronounces it, I'm telling you how it is! Every time I hear it pronounced as "Farv", bits of rage start to build up in my chest and I have to occupy myself with YouTube cat videos to keep from taking everyone out in my vicinity.

Last night the mayor of our town told a group of fifth graders that if they were good, people would "immolate" them. Pretty sure he meant emulate.

Pissant, that's not exactly how I meant it, it just seems like all the normal Nevadans I meet are very defensive about how to pronounce it. And the only advocate for Ne-VOD-uh I met in six years there was a super pretentious hippie lady who wasn't even a local. So when the only people saying it that way are a. annoying or b. from the east coast, I go with the locals.

I have to admit that incorrectly spoken turns of phrase piss me off more, but I am definitely perturbed when people mispronounce words. Unfortunately I can't think of any beyond what has already been mentioned. Turns of phrase like "I could care less" (the incorrect way of saying it) or "Back in day" rather than "Back in the day" drive me nuts.

I will say that there are a number of names and words that are European or Native American in origin that have actually been cemented incorrectly into local pronunciations.

I dated a girl from Illinois (silent S people), another Native name, like Missouri and Nevada, and the town immediately west of her hometown was called Marseilles. A French name, well-known as a major city in the country, yet for some reason the actual local pronunciation was Mar-sales. Drives me insane. How hick are you?! There were a number of instances like this in the area, but I can't recall any right now.

I'm from Louisiana and have many relatives named Breaux and Brasseaux and Tibedeaux. The obvious faux pas is to pronounce it as spelled rather than the proper 'Bro', 'Brass-o' and 'Tib-uh-do'. When I was growing up in Miami, I had neighbors who were named Hebert and pronounced phonetically just like that; He-bert. The Cajun way would be 'A-bear'.

As for every day words? Nuclear is probably the number one on my list, but there are many.

Also, d'oh, it's not Spanish, it's a Native American word. And I am totally saying it right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada

Kinda odd how some people can't accept that there are silent "h's" in use

Herb is a man's name. Herb is a plant with a silent "h"

Tijuana pronounce "tee uh wanna"... there's not goddamn A after the I, people!

"Decathlon," and other various words ending in "athlon." Most people say decath-uh-lon for some reason. This has bothered me for years but no one else seems to notice.

On the Brits vs. Americans debate, it drives me up a fucking wall when a Brit says "et" when they mean "ate". Seriously, what the fuck is that shit?

Posted by: HungryHungryHippolya at May 26, 2011 7:21 PM

Et is the past tense of eat. Look it up if you don't believe me. Ate is also the past tense of eat. They are both right.

Vee-hick-ull for vehicle. UUUUUUGHHHH.

Also, though it's probably not a common mispronunciation, I finally got up the nerve (after 10 years of thinking he was kidding when he said it) to ask my husband "Sweetie, you know it's fol-i-age, not foilage, right?" That was more endearing than annoying though.

Agreed, Heather

I'm a little surprised that idea (eye-deer) hasn't been mentioned. I don't hear it as often any more, but it's still there.

My Dad says a TON of stuff wrong, and I make fun of him for it all the time. Not only that, he kind of just mixes words together. I was going to write everything down at one point, and just never did. I should though. Some of the shit he comes up with is hilarious.

That whole herb vs. herb thing has bothered me too. I hate whenever Brits say it in such a condescending way..."There's an H, blah blah blah."

Everyone's seen My Fair Lady right? That whole spiel about H's?

The next time someone says "all's I know..." to me, I will put on snake-kicking boots, come back and hunt them down, then kick them hard in the sphincter. A taint kick is too good for these knobs (some of whom are, unfortunately, well-educated co-workers).

I recently sat through a class being taught by a man who said, "Justiful" instead of justifiable, and "Supposably" instead of supposedly. Now while I know supposably is, indeed, in the dictionary and acceptable (technically), there is something about its use that makes my brain bleed.

Oh, also, the river should be pronounced ARE-kan-sas until it hits the state of Are-ken-SAW. Those damn people don't pronounce anything correctly.

A very nice girl I went to school briefly with got into Harvard. Note, she was pretty damn sheltered and very bookish.

Of course I'm sure she's doing great now in CAM-bridge.

No shit, she called pronounced it that way (and this was after MANY visits). I didn't have the heart to correct her.

Instead I just tell people the story.

Just because I watched the very episode last night, I hate how in Veronica Mars they keep saying 'i-bee-sa' for Ibiza. It's bloody 'i-bee-tha', and even more annoying as they say it every two sodding seconds...

Dontcha mean 'ee-bee-thuh'?

Now while I know supposably is, indeed, in the dictionary and acceptable (technically)

That is fucking criminal. They're now just accepting pronounciations foisted upon us by stupid, lazy people. REVOLT!! REVOLT NOW!!

Axe instead of ask

ex-cetra instead of et-cetra

my wife says "rune" for ruin, which drives me nuts. I don't think I've heard anyone else say that.

I know I say milk wrong - it comes out "melk". I don't know why I do that.

on the other hand, i suppose that various accents have been commented on in this post. this is just like the /herb/ vs. /erb/ debate, although when it's not your native language, i think you can choose which way you'd like to say it. it's not like English speakers pronounce "tortilla" correctly (specifically British people. c'mon people, it's not an /l/ sound.)...
and i've disproved my point.

This is random and I don't really hate it, it just makes no sense. But there is a city close to where I am from in Michigan called Charlotte. Like, any normal person you would think to call it Charlotte, like the name or NC. Right? Not so, for some reason we all pronounce it Char-LOT. Cause why wouldn't you?
I also have a story about a mis-pronounced name at a funeral. I had a Japanese Aunt who was named Emiko. Pronounced Em-ih-ko. At her the funeral, which was a Christian funeral at the VA (never-mind, the fact that she was a Buddhist) the dude kept saying Em-eeee-ko. We all had that same reaction. First we were incredulous, then we just lost it with laughter.
I agree with EX-cetera. Makes me cringe. And my husband says law-yer instead of loyer. It may technically be correct, but it sounds super weird.

Supposedly Supposably is technically correct in that something is 'able' to be supposed. Not that that makes any sense really, but that's the logic.

Y'all. Fucking Y'ALL.

There is nothing worse than y'all. Saying it in jest? OK, maybe. But said earnestly makes my insides scream.

Important things to remember in Pittsburgh:
1) Yinz = Y'all = You all
2) All vowels make the same sound. (A nasally schwa sound)

Sentient. It is "sen-shent", not "sent-ee-ent." Like quotient.

Mirror. Meer instead of meer or, (or meer ah in Massachusetts). Canadians say meer, it's weird. They also say hoose instead of howse and oot instead of out. Though being from the Boston area I have no business telling anyone they are wrong in their pronunciation.

I also hate ax instead of ask.

My mother, who grew up here just like me, decided to flush her Boston accent years ago. Now she says things like

patio- PAH tee oh instead of Pat ee oh
cabana- cah BAHN ya, instead of ca ban ah
theatre- thee ate er instead of theer ter
Tewksbury, TOOWKS berry instead of Tooks berry Andover- Ann dah VER, instead of An DOE ver.
Quincy- KWIN cee, instead of Kwin zee
Woburn- WOH burn instead of Woo bin

We just roll our eyes, and all of my friends call our cabana a "Cah BAHN ya" now

Even though it's spelled Montreal, it's pronounced MUNtreal, not MONtreal. Same way money is pronounce MUHney. Also, Quebec is pronounced KEHbec, not KWEbec. Stop putting a goddamn W in there!

I'm trying to chill out on French words being pronounced in English though, especially when they have become acceptable English words or expressions. Like how Anglophones actually pronounce the silent N in genre. It always makes my skin crawl but I'm trying to get used to it. Or Que Sera being pronounce KAY suhrah. How the hell do you get KAY from Que? Que is pronounce more like Kuh. But I guess that's how you're supposed to say it in English so even I pronounce it that way when speaking English but I always cringe as I do it.

ANYWAYS! I have a co-worker who adds the extra s every time she says anyway OR way. "Can you drive me to the lunch meeting? That ways I don't have to get gas. You're going there anyways." ARGH!

I think the letter E is pronounced "eh" by so many Americans because we're used to hearing Spanish instead of French. They want it to sound like por que.

This is mostly a singer's pet peeve, but I always want to yell at people that THERE ARE NO DIPTHONGS IN LATIN!!!

a = ah (NOT ay-ee)
e = eh (NOT ee or eh-ee)
i = ee (NOT ih, or ah-ee)
o = o (or ah if you want to emphasize it to get it right NOT Oh-oo)
u = oo (NOT uh)

Seriously, there's only one sound for each vowel. It's so easy.

And seriously, how is Kryzewski "Shoe - shef - ski?" Damn crazy Poles.

And seriously, how is Kryzewski "Shoe - shef - ski?" Damn crazy Poles.

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at May 27, 2011 10:59 AM

Uhm, it's not. Where did you hear that? It's Kry-zef-ski

Any moron who pronounces humour You-mer instead of hew-mer. Plus, saying ruff instead of roof

Random, annoying and I want to punch them.

I have more of a foreign words problem. I tend to pronounce French words in French, I can't help it. If you're going to pronounce them wrong, use English, fuckers.
I also lose my shit when people insist on saying "chai tea" or "safari trip". You're just repeating yourself. Stop it! And countries: Libya and Liberia? Different countries. Niger/Nigeria/Algeria. There are 2 Congos. Do not make me hit you with an Atlas.

1) Yinz = Y'all = You all

That drives me nuts. I have a friend on Facebook from Pittsburgh that says Yinz on her page constantly and for a long time I just thought she was mentally challenged. Then I learned that that's a common usage there. I'm okay with accents and dialects and what have you but Yinz for you all makes absolutely no sense to me. Even though people in Bawston can't say they ahhs, at least it makes sense as an accent.

Oh, I am sad that I missed this post, because nobody posted mine, and now no-one will read it, either.

JEWELRY. NOT JEW-LA-RY. ARGH!!!

"Wends-day"
"Feb-you-ary"
"Li-berry"

I went to an Italian deli the other week. They had Italian sandwiches. One of these sandwiches is a "panino", while two or more are "panini" (basic Italian masculine plural, replace the 'i' with an 'o'). The menu had a section titled "Panini's". There are three things wrong there but let's move on. I wanted a chicken sandwich. So I ordered a "panino pollo", because in Italian, like in other Romance languages, the adjectives generally come after the nouns they modify. The waitress stared at me for a moment and asked, "Did you mean the poy-o panini?"

We're in California so I guess the assumption is that any foreign language is pronounced like Spanish. I don't mind that she "corrected" me by repeating two errors on the menu but the random Spanish-ization of "pollo" surprised me.

I just smiled and nodded. Not worth it.

Admittedly, I read it as po-yo before realizing it was Italian and correcting myself, but someone working in an Italian deli really ought to know better.

It's DAY-tah and not DATT-ah. (Can't believe no one mentioned that one!)

Also, an old TV show set in Boston (Crossing Jordan) had one of the characters pronouce the town Meth-OO-en as Meth-YOON.

*sigh* Ok, people...breathe. Many of you seem to have your shorts in a wad over things that are perfectly legitimate regionalisms. Just because people pronounce things differently than you doesn't make them wrong.

Let’s take “y’all” for example. “Y’all”, when used by native speakers, is a contraction for “you all”. It is always used in reference to a group of people, never to an individual, and it fills a gap in the language. Furthermore as it follows the syntax of other contractions in English, it makes a hell of a lot more sense grammatically than “Y’inz” or “youse guys”. To consider it offensive hints of xenophobia and elitism.

Bill Bryson wrote a rather detailed book on this very topic. It's a fascinating read that I'd encourage y’all to check out:
http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Tongue-Bill-Bryson/dp/0380715430

and the moral is: Never ask writing nerds what grammar or spelling faux pas annoy them

or in this case, do, because it's hilarious.

I dunno, local dialectic changes and accents don't explain away lazy Americanizations of foreign names like Marseilles and Versailles. Getting hampty over the mispronunciation of actual foreign words like bruschetta or mozzarella seem more like nit-pickins to me.

YOU GUYS.

admittedly I skimmed the comments but how are there not a thousand people chiming in about how completely hairpullingly awful it is when grown men and women say 'fustrated'?

am I right?

coming a bit late to this but i had a busy day yesterday. i didn't get very far in the comments however because i came across socrates_johnson's comment about the "h" sound in "herb." i'm so sick of people that trot out this tired old argument. dare i ask how you pronounce "heir?" what do you say now?

and while i'm on the subject, i might as well say that yesterday i was quite taken aback to hear the word capillaries spoken by some students. they stress "pill" which sounds all wrong to my american-trained ears.

however, it's just a different way to pronounce it; it's not incorrect. languages are living and dynamic. we must accept variances lest we become as stubborn as those seventeenth century grammarians who wanted an academy such as the french have to regulate the proper use of the english langauge. fuck 'em.

okay, back to comments. my apologies if this...problem with the "h" sound has already been addressed.

Often has a silent t. A lot of people don't know that.

Listen up, you people who read too much and talk too little: "Dour" does not rhyme with "sour". Think more along the lines of Dewar's.

THERE ARE NO DIPTHONGS IN LATIN!!!

Technically, I guess that's true, but there are vowel combinations - as in "laudamus" - one doesn't really pronounce as distinct sounds (in musical settings they're treated as one syllable), so the combination results in a sounded dipthong similar to the "ow" in "how."

I am so glad this topic came up! Mine is that damn word guillotine. People that say it gil-o-teen make me want to murder them! It's a French word so it's not acceptable to pronounce it with the L's!!! This word particularly pisses me off because I hear it so much on tv and movies and they all pronounce it wrong! My b/f is actually sick of me screaming at the screen "It's gie-yuh-teen, you dumbass!"