Al Pacino has ruined my day

[OfCourse]

DM rang last night and told me she had watched a film starring Al Paseeno -that's how she pronounced his name. DM has done this before, and I told her it's not 'Al Paseeno, it's Al Pachino'. So I told her again last night it's Al fucking Pachino.

DM is all narky with me today because I corrected her speech. Well, I said, when you call him 'Al Paseeno' it makes my teeth itch; which is apparently not good enough defence for correcting her and highly bad manners.

She has other words which I don't correct, keybab is one example.

I ended up apologising!

Zara, I know someone with a kid whose name is spelt Moway: on their honeymoon, her parents asked the waiter what their champagne was called and he said moët without the T. They didn't know how to spell it correctly, so just went for the dubious phonetic pronunciation. I mean - SIGH.

My MIL pronounces fajitas as Fa-JITE-ers. And even worse, tortillas as tortilliers. Tortillas pronounced phonetically would be maddening enough, but no, she adds an extra syllable too. My Ex's dad pronounced champagne as shampaggner, and duvet as duvvit. Grrrrr.

I also get really pissed off when people get famous people's names wrong: Princess DIANE, Cliff RICHARDS, etc.

Do not get me started on people who say Tesco's, Aldi's, etc.

My friend was talking about going to see Death Leppard...

The vehicle that take the coffin is a hearst

My other half says serious instead of series as in tv series.... Totally does me in!

I had no idea Cliff Richard wasn't called Cliff RichardS.

Murphys, you've reminded me of a conversation I once had on the school bus.

Friend: They've banned Space Dust because a boy poured it in his ear and now he's death.
Me: Dead?
Friend: No, death.
Me: So, he died?
Friend: No, he went death.

Etc. etc.

ButterflyinFlight She's not really wrong, Butterfly. I remember in the forties and fifties, it was always called Nessle by everyone. The name letters on tins and packets were always in capital letters and, in French, capital letters do not have accents applied to them.

Another one that really annoys me is mispronunciation of words in schools and on the news.

What annoys me though here is that if you are going to teach English to English children in an English school then please, employ a teacher who can speak English. It is a bird, not a bed. It is a committee not a com-i-ty. It is an apple not an ay-ple. A banana, not a bu-nanna.

Grrrr

The tube announcer talking about Hol-borne as opposed to Hoe-bun.

My nan, god rest her soul, continually referred to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami as "that dreadful salami" and would not be corrected....

Lol! My ex-MIL announced, loudly, in Waitrose check out queue that she and her husband had recently discovered 'fa-jee-tas'. (I thought she was referring to lady bits at first!). Cue sniggering from surrounding shoppers! She also pronounces lattes as 'lat-teees'! And as for jalapenos!!!

Note to self: never become tube announcer.

Is it really Hoe-bun? Between that and Cliff Richard, formerly know to me as Cliff Richards, my mind is blown.

Oxford I once won 20 quid on a bet from a self proclaimed know-all guy I worked with who insisted her name is Barbara Streisland not Barbra Streisand. He was adamant about it and furious when he realised

Oh that reminds me - I used to work with someone who insisted that the word "priapic" was actually "priapRic". I knew it wasn't but she was adamant - apparently she and her other half knew someone with the condition so of course she knew best.

Except she was wrong.

I watched an item on the news years ago when it was demonstrated how proper Bristolians always said an 'l' (ell) at the end of a word that finished with a vowel. Passers by were asked to say, "Carl Rosa" and nearly everyone came up with Carl Rosal.

For those who don't know who Carl Rosa was - look him up!

The opposite is, of course, people who insist on correct pronunciation of foreign words. When in England, speaking English, to other native English speakers. MIL does this, and I appreciate that some words don't have an English translation/equivalent, but lots do. And it makes you sound like a bit of an arse when you're talking about eating pan ey booerr on your vakance in Paree.

DMIL pronounces DFIL's first name "MITE-ul." They have been married for more than fifty years so it clearly doesn't annoy him as much as it does me.

Actually this gets my goat-the two dots thing.
In French, it is a trema (can't do the accent);
In German, it an umlaut;
In English, it's a diaeresis.

And to the poster who complained her mother says St. Lucia wrongly, I think that's another one that's changed over the years (though I suspect the island name was always as it is now).

Lucia was once 'Loo-cheea'; Alicia was 'All-iss-eea' and Felicia was 'Fell-iss-eea.

Now it's all 'Loo-sha' and 'Alleesha' and 'Felleesha'.

Tube announcers who say 'Westminister' and 'Upminister' drive me mad.

Oh, and I know it's slightly off topic but...I was at a very upmarket wedding at the weekend and the conversation between 4 people who really didn't know each other turned to avocados (as it does!). "Oh, yes" says posh lady to my left, "I use avocados when I make Guatamala." Really!?!?!

I know this puts me beyond reach in pedants corner, but I once completely discounted someone I was interviewing for a job because they pronounced the eighth letter of the alphabet as "Haitch!" instead of "Aitch"

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew it would wind me up beyond the edge of reason to hear them say it so I just could not hire them.

This thread has really made my day! My dh & I have just had a right giggle, and that's as close as we've been for ages. Thank you mums net. We know a couple of people who call Matalan, Mataland. Where is the d? The signs big enough on the side of the building! Also Dunelm mill is pronounced Dunelm Milln by the MiL it makes me drag my eyes off my face with frustration.

I just remembered that when I had some minor gynae probs in my early 20s, I saw a male consultant who pronounced vagina as 'vageena'. I actually corrected him after the fifth or sixth time. He got all huffy about it, and, when he then briefly left the room, the nurse chaperone leaned over and whispered that everyone he worked with was always telling him he was saying it wrong, but he wouldn't have it. Thankfully, in the end, I never had to let him near my vageena. Or vagina.

Oh just remembered from years' ago the colleague who thought the new girl was called Zoy. Said new colleague introduced herself as Zoe, the rest of us managed Zoe, but any time she was referred to in conversation, "Well Zoy said...", "This packet is for Zoy", etc, no matter how often corrected.

My mum puts a 'h' in front of any word beginning with a vowel so 'ant' for example becomes 'hant' it drives me insane! We also have COOcumber, YO-gurt (as in yo yo) and if she has a head ache she takes eye-bupa-fren (Ibuprofen)

Some of these are just regional variations of either accent or pronunciation rather than actual mistakes where someone adds letters/syllables, gets them in the wrong order or says someone name incorrectly.

e.g. Saying the 'r' in Peter depends on whether you have a rhotic or non-rhotic accent and putting a hard 'g' at the end of swimming or dancing is also very common in Northern accents.

Similarly, I can't really get that worked up over US/UK differences in words like yogurt or data. 'haitch' does sound like fingernails down a blackboard to me too though.