Mispronounced words that drive you mad

[puds11]

Just overheard someone ordering an ‘expresso’

What mispronounced words drive you mad?

Obsolutely instead of absolutely.

I have to listen to a teacher who uses this multiple times per day!!

Privi-cy instead of pry-vacey is because it comes from something being privy, secret. Private is from the same root but has a different pronunciation, which is simply confusing of it.

Click for clique must have been around since the fifties; Colin MacInnes spelt it that way in Absolute Beginners to show how a Notting Hill group of yoof said it when they were members of ver click, and that was published in 1959.

But mid-SHIP-man irritates me. And so does CONtempt.

Ospickal. Hospital

Jamp instead of jumped.

In once worked in a supermarket cafe, and had to phone the salad prep department to order a tuna Nicoise salad. The lady who answered had no idea what I was talking about. I didn't really know what to say, so I started describing it, and eventually she goes, "You mean a tuna nick-oyss." If you say so.

Also, "so-du-ko," rather than sudoku. I don't know why I even notice it, I can't do don't even like the bloody things. Someone I used to work with always had a book of them on the go for years , but could never pronounce the big word on the front.

often with the T pronounced. SO common now, but still hideous.

changes in vowel sounds, dropped syllables, added syllables...dour, medicine come to mind.

Many words have changed pronunciation over my lifetime...sometimes to do with UK or US pron gaining popularity. Sometimes just error becoming commonplace.

I can cope with the UK/US variances, or old/new variances changing popularity. Many words have had several versions for centuries which swing in and out of favour.

But mischievous has to be the worst! Totally unforgivable.

Arksed instead if asked.

Has "pronounciation" instead of pronunciation been mentioned? Because that one irritates me as well.

I was fairly flummoxed when the examiner in my postgraduate oral phonology exam said pronounciation.
Mind you, she also asked me to describe how "ahhhh" was articulated - she was using sounds, not letters obviously- so I described how /a:/ was articulated. Then she said "I meant the letter R"

'Aksed' instead of 'asked'.

On Front Row just now: "pre-emient" instead of pre-eminent.

And all over the radio: die-sect instead of dissect, die-section instead of dissection, when they are talking about the taking apart of a corpse or a plant or an idea. I suppose it's because of bisect.

When describing a reaction, a person saying, "I was like that" (note the past tense), followed by pulling a face to demonstrate said reaction.

Oops, not the right thread!

@Footle

Westmorland, pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Or spelt with an extra e.

Eek. Is it WESTmulund, like Cumberland isn't Cum Berland?

All the things mentioned in other posts annoy me.

Sickth, pronounciation, of, mischievious, ...

runnin instead of running ...

Enunciation rather than pronunciation - Eshjury english.
Heard on the radio today, reshjrigshuns (restrictions).

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

And all over the radio: die-sect instead of dissect, die-section instead of dissection, when they are talking about the taking apart of a corpse or a plant or an idea. I suppose it's because of bisect.

I said before that I heart AQAAT

If i was di-sect, surely we would say di-solve, di-sertation, di-sonance and so on.
The confusion with the pronunciation of dissect might be caused by the word bisect. The meanings are quite different.

When I was learning to teach English absolutely aeons ago, we were taught that if enough people use a word wrongly for long enough, that use becomes correct ~ therefore we were not to mark a learner down if they used 'refute' to mean 'deny'.
I explained lavishly and if they didn't use these words correctly then I marked them down. I won't be part of dumbing down the language

ComMUNal

InTEGral

Saying “excetra” instead of etcetera - and compounding it by writing “ect”.

“Imma” (all one word) instead of “I’m going to....”

Brought instead of bought
Sickth - it's really really not difficult to say sixth!

I’ve only just discovered this wonderful thread!

My most recent irritation is Covvid, instead of CO-vid.

@VanillaAndOrange “CommUNal” - yes this!! Drives me crazy on almost every property programme on TV.
It’s COMMunal, COMMunal fgs!!!