Mispronounced words that drive you mad

[puds11]

Just overheard someone ordering an ‘expresso’

What mispronounced words drive you mad?

People saying draw instead of drawer

I have to add that people saying 'we was' instead of 'we were' is probably the most annoying incorrect way to say something ever.

You can just tell that the person saying it or writing it never went to secondary school much

Sequences instead of sequins / sequinned - two of my very fashions friends do it and I nearly have to leave the room when they do it!

The only person I've ever heard use anything similar was from Redditch and they used 'fink'

Watch some old episodes of 'Kitchen Nightmares', Gordon Ramsey does it all the time, I think someone had a word and he seems to have stopped now.

I work with someone who says "pacifically" when she means "specifically" and it really irritates me.

Not a mis pronouncement more of an accent thing, but it really grates when people say "garridge" rather. than "garage".

Crocogator. I think (hope?! Wouldn't surprise me if she thought a crocogator was a real thing) my mil thinks she's being funny but it just gets that stupid "interior crocodile alligator I drive a chevrolet movie theatre" song in my head and it stays for days!

Pacifically drives me mad too.

I mispronounce a lot, it's really fucking embarrassing. In my case it's having a foreign parent and a parent who takes pride in "being common" and mispronounces everything, so from that and having learnt a lot of words through writing them but never knew how they were pronounced so had to guess. Epitome was one of the worst ones, I mispronounced that in front of a boss who made me feel shite about myself generally and to this day I remember that moment like it was yesterday. DH gently corrects me on words now as I don't want our DDs having the same!

@neddle my DH mispronounces our DDs and too, a u instead of an I, it's que common for people to do, our mothers do it too so I hear it often when she's being cheeky around them, but had I realised he would before she was born I'd have reconsidered the name!

I can’t bear it when people say ‘Belgium’ chocolate instead of ‘Belgian’. I want to shout you don’t have ‘France’ Onion Soup grrr

There is no AY sound at the end of latte! The end sound is a short E, like the E sound in "ebb". It's pronounced "Luhtte".

Drizzle- it really, really isn't. You're now changing the first /æ/ sound into a schwa?

The "problem" with the Italian /e/ vowel sound, like the Italian /I/ vowel, is that the British English /e/ is slightly shorter than the Italian one, acoustically. So we tend to turn it into an "ay" . The reality is that the Italian pronunciation of the sound is some way between the short "e" of "bed" and the long "ay" of "play".

It's the same with the "i" which is why Italian learners of English have more trouble with words like "ship" and "sheep" than with other, arguably more complex sounds.

The "a" at the beginning isn't as problematic. Italian /a/ is very slightly longer but not that it makes a difference. It's the British pronunciation of the Italian word that's turned it into /la:tei/ with the longer /a:/ at the beginning.

Yappety- "draw" is a perfectly acceptable standard variation of the pronunciation, though if you listen very carefully, and in isolation, you'll hear that many of the speakers we think are saying "draw" are actually saying "drawer" but with a very very weakened schwa for the second syllable.

As language evolves (to the delight and fascination of the true linguist) (David Crystal: "if it is said, it is correct") I imagine the spelling of drawer will also be modified.

Not sure we'll be allowed to apply adverbs to nouns quite yet though

It's pronounced "Luhtte".

No it isn't. In any case it's pretty silly saying that any Italian vowels are the exact equivalent to the pronunciation of any English vowels, because they aren't.

The 'a' in latte isn't an 'uh' sound at all. And if anything, the e is halfway between an English 'e' and an 'ay'.

Palava and palaver sound exactly the same to me

There is no AY sound at the end of latte! The end sound is a short E, like the E sound in "ebb". It's pronounced "Luhtte". It isn’t pronounced like that at all. I agree with Lazylinguist.

Ok, I don't know what a schwa is and it's difficult to spell a foreign word as the letter sounds aren't all the same (like you said). But I can assure you that my Italian family do not say AY at the end of latte. Obviuosly people can choose to pronounce a word any way they like and plenty of words that originally come from other languages have a different pronounciation in English.

"Not a mis pronouncement more of an accent thing, but it really grates when people say "garridge" rather. than "garage"."

You don't understand what a pronouncement is, but you want to make people feel bad for where they come from? Where I live it's a garridge and that's that.

Not a mis pronouncement more of an accent thing, but it really grates when people say "garridge" rather. than "garage"."

That's like saying people pronouncing 'bath' as 'barth' is irritating. It's just accent differences.

Like this

I can’t bear it when people say ‘Belgium’ chocolate instead of ‘Belgian’. I want to shout you don’t have ‘France’ Onion Soup grrr

No but in the US we have California wine, Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes, and Georgia peaches.

I imagine the spelling of drawer will also be modified.

In what way? Aren't most speakers of English rhotic speakers? Surely it won't be modified to eliminate the "er"?

"Munster" instead of monster.
"Sangwidge" instead of sandwich

Just. Feckin. Grrr.

"Except" instead of "accept"
"Effect" instead of "affect"

Pure rage!

In fact, the above are "misused" rather than "mispronounced". Sorry about hijacking the thread and Merry Christmas to all the language purists out there!

Lootenant is an acceptable American pronunciation that is actually closer to the original French.*
*
Yes, but he's in the British Army, where it should still be LEFtenant

(Why can't I get my c&p to show bold?) 🙄

Drizzle, I'm speaking to you from my Italian house in Italy, surrounded by Italians all going "lutte?" "wtf?"
When I'm teaching my 300 Italian students how to pronounce (British) English vowels, the layman's explanation I give about Italian v English vowel sounds is exactly what Lazy and I were saying- the Italian vowels are longer than an English short vowel, but shorter than an English long vowel. We do all kinds of fun, verbal gymnastics to get it right.
However, the schwa (unstressed, neutral sound) does not figure anywhere in the word "latte" because it doesn't exist in Italian.

Seneca- hello, you and I have often discussed finer linguistic points on pedants' - I think (but may be wrong) there are more non-R speakers in the UK. Not sure though. Scotland, N Ireland and parts of the south west are definitely rhotic.