to want to flick people in the forehead when they...

[LadyOfTheManor]

pronounce Pavlova as Pav-a-lova. Really winds me up. How dare they?

RatherBe Mon 17-Jan-11 01:47:54

Oldmumsy, similar here! Do you also have a futility room?

I wish!! I have house plans that include such a space if we every get round to rebuilding. I will update the plans with this name though

Upminister for Upminster, that's an old favourite.

KDDD I think pizza should be pronounced pitsa as the z gives a ts sound in Italian, and two zs is more pronounced. As I recall.

Lovecat - we used to live near Chesham Bois (Boyce, too - beats me!)

KenDoddsDadsDog - how exactly does that make oneself sound intelligent?

A midwife at the unit for my antenatal classes couldn't say 'specific' - she kept on and on about 'baby-pacific' stuff... I really was afraid that if she were to be present at my birth, I would scream 'and it's baby-specific you idiot!' at her.

He pronounces it with an 'i' for igloo sound though and not peetza. Hope I don't have to back down

I want to whack people when they say the G in 'Spaghetti BoloGnaise'

RARRRRRR!!

The 'i' sound in Italian pronunciation of pizza is longer than it would be in pitsa, but shorter than peetzer.

I have a friend called Tanya - not pronounced Tan-yah, nor yet Tarn-ya, but an inbetween length of the a, sort of Tah-nya.

Controversy - the original way to pronounce this is contro-versy; con-TROV-ersy = new derivation and has been ascribed to American English, although this may not be the case.

'Amn't I', although it sounds funny and isn't much used, is more grammatically correct than 'aren't I'.
I have noticed that Scots in particular tend to preferentially use "you're not" instead of "you aren't".

As another poster commented a few pages back, a lot of these gripes are about regional variations - that's a bit off, IMO. Just because you don't talk like that where you come from, doesn't make it unacceptable for others to do so in their region.

I can't say endriometriosis, I need three or more attempts.

Oh no, I have a phone call to make to my dad tonight then as I ridicule him all the time about pitsa.

perhaps cos it's spelled 'endometriosis', melika?

I have troubles with anemometer and anemone - not particularly everyday words, but when they come up, I tend to add an extra syllable in somewhere - something to do with all the 'n's and 'm's.

My DH pronounces every letter of jewellery, like it's a 4 syllable word. It should be a short, snappy 'joolry'

Oaf.

My mum and sister both say "o-ven" rather than "u-ven" - they may be right and I may be wrong, but it's annoying! Mum also says "steer-io" rather than "ste-reo", and "cafee-tiere"!

KenDoddsDadsDog - I thought my mum was the only person in the world who said 'pitt-sa'. Does your dad also pronounce 'Co-op' as if it was 'Corp'?

the letter 'h' is said aitch, not haitch

Anyone else mourning the loss of the correct pronunciation of 'controversy' ? It was weird everyone, including newsreaders just suddenly about 15 years ago started saying it wrong.

it used to be contrOversy

now it's contra-vERsy

wrong

sorry i see thumb has already mentioned this - so does that mean everyone has gone back to saying it that way?

contra-vERsy is wrong IMO and definitely sounds more American,

ContrOV ersy is still right IMO

just saying.

planetearth yes he does! I always assumed it was an accent thing with the Corp though (Sunderland)

" I haven't got one, do I?"

should be "I haven't got one, have I?"

or "I don't have one, do1?"

ok that's it, - must go before I think of any more to annoy myself with.

I've seen 'then' written in place of 'than' lots recently - even in the Guardian and Observer. It really pisses me off.

My mother - bless her cotton socks - has many annoying mis-pronunciations under her belt!
numder - fucking annoying!
comdom - mental image of a sledgehammer hitting her in the face - especially when coupled with a bit of unnecessary contraception advice. I'm 33
stare - when asking me to stare the white sauce I have been known to just look at it for a bit...
pacific - instead of specific

And I dumped a boyfriend within minutes of calling it a Lounge Gaaaa!

Getting 'effect' and 'affect' confused winds me up.

And 'binoclee-us' instead of 'binoculars'

Oh and my FIL says 'plah-stic' and 'elah-stic' for plastic and elastic. Is that just cos he's posh or something else? The rest of the (posh) family don't say it that way...

KenDoddsDadsDog - my mum's from Barnsley, I wouldn't have thought the accents were that similar. Strange.

I've got loads of these and am a complete hypocrite; my pronunciation changes according to the company/location/weather/time of day

Has anybody issued an edict on how to say Asos? Ay-sos or Ah-sos? I need to know!!

itsatiggerday - my dad did that, too. Apparently it's correct in Kent [unverified]

I used to work in an area where lots of people said hospical istead of hospital. It used to drive me insane!

I also hate it when a person at work says Too-sday (Tuesday). Aggghhh!!!!

I must get a life!!