AIBU to think that the BBC should employ newsreaders who know how to pronounce words correctly?

[Dawndonna]

I have put up with 'contra verse y' for years, recently it has been 'pie ra cy' and 'pry va cy'. This morning, I heard 'in gin u a' for ingenue. I turned it off.

Yeah, I know it's trivial, but it annoys the hell out of me!

[hairylights]

Yanbu. It grinds my gears too.

[giyadas]

What's wrong with 'pie ra cy'?

[CuntryManner]

I also think they shouldn't be allowed to talk about countries unless they can, unaided, point to them on an atlas.

[GreenEyesandNiceHam]

Feel sorry for us idiots who get a mental block that will not allow us to pronounce certain words correctly.

I cringe for all the times I've said 'inevitable' out loud in public

[Bucharest]

Collins dictionary gives contra- versy as correct.

Pie-ra-si (acc to same dictionary) should have an extra little "uh" in the middle (pie-uh-ra-si) (not that I've ever heard anyone say it like that!)

[TheTenantOfWildfellHall]

It annoys me too. And the fact that they seem to use American pronunciations for a lot of words (pry-va-cy) being one.

[Dawndonna]

It should be pir acy as in piriton and privacy as in privet.
I think it was the ingenue thing that got to me most. Perhaps the Beeb pronunciation unit needs to be resurrected.
I got hacked off when supermarkets took the 'h' out of yoghurt too.
I am obviously getting old and set in my ways!

[ApplesinmyPocket]

Yes but to be fair there is a bit of contrOV ersy about how to pronounce contra verse y.

[CalamityKate]

Newsreaders who can't pronounce nuclear make me want to put my foot through the TV. They say "nu-cu-lar". I don't like it.

[giyadas]

Is it? I've never heard anyone say pir-acy (not that it comes up in conversation that much)

Agree with you on the others, though.


sorry, Dawndonna, am going to stick to pie-ra-cy.

[knittedbreast]

people all speak differently. chill out

[jenfraggle]

Piracy from the word pirate, pronounced the same way, surely

[limitedperiodonly]

YANBU. It drives me crazy when reporters can't be bothered to check.

And what about the people who say island when they're talking about Ireland?

And people who say Playstow instead of Plarstow? And when Jade Goody was dying kept saying she lived in Upsheer when everybody from that bit of Essex knows it's Upshyer?* And people who mix up Forest Hill in south London with Forest Gate in east London? And people who persistently place Romford in east London or worse, the East End? Buy a fucking A-Z and put it on exes.

Maybe those last things are slightly parochial but, as you can tell, they really get on my tits.

• I rang Sky News to tell them they were getting it wrong in their wall-to-wall Jade deathwatch. I could tell they thought I was mad.

[activate]

laughs at take on Piracy - like piriton - I think not!

(you're right on the others though)

[limitedperiodonly]

calamitykate George W Bush couldn't pronounce nuclear, which was a bit unsettling.

Neither can Michael Douglas who is a UN spokesman on Nucular Disarmament.

I think he got that gig because he was in The China Syndrome.

[WhoIsThatMaskedWoman]

The presenter of the Horizon programme on FTL neutrinos was saying "nuculus". I missed huge chunks of the physics because I was fuming.

[giyadas]

Conspiracy has piracy like piriton.
Piracy is pie-ra-cy.
Piracy no longer makes any sense to me as I've massively over-thought it.

[Pomtastic]

Oh my goodness, YANBU!

Can I add saying "an" rather than "a" before words that begin with a "H" - eg, "an house" rather than "a house" - it's WRONG, it drives me MAD.

Also a Radio 4 newsreader earlier this week who repeatedly pronounced caravan: "ca-ra-VAN".

[Andrewofgg]

Don't get me started on Laura Norder.

How about asking every broadcast journalist who covers the Olympics to pronounce the name of every competitor correctly?

[LittleChiefRunnyCustard]

Me too WhoIsThatMaskedWoman - I had to turn it off!

[ScatterChasse]

I thought they were taught how to say names correctly.

Now at risk of being flamed, very few people are going to know if names are pronounced slightly off, but we will know if they don't say actual words properly!

I'd rather they were taught how to say 'ingenue'!

[troisgarcons]

Unfortunately, in the name of 'inclusion' we have to suffer regional accents and all their awful pronunciations. Bring back RP and people who can speak properly on all those sorts of programmes.

[ScatterChasse]

But not all of it's regional accents, some of it is just that they don't know how to say the word!

I think, if you know you can't pronounce it, steer clear! Or hope your producer tells you afterwards.

[VFVF]

And could you tell them it's not New-cars-tle, it's New-caas-tle (upon Tyne)