Comments on: 50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid

By: graham

graham — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:44:42 +0000

I have a feeling you grew up in the south, because I hear all these words mispronounced just like this. (Maryland, but a hick part, not a fun part) I bet the list would be different if you lived in New York

By: abby

abby — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:50:17 +0000

Highheels,

Oops….I’ve almost always said “It’s in the frig (pronounced”fridge”)… even though I have plenty of pet peeves myself, this has never been one of them.

I’m originally from San Francisco, and although I don’t mind if someone refers to that fair city as San Fran …. it really grates when someone calls it “Frisco.”

By: Highheels

Highheels — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:58:22 +0000

My pet peev is when I hear someone say, “It’s in the frigerator” instead of , “it is in the re-frigerator.”

I am curious about whether it is correct to say, I am going down Maine vs. up Maine when you live in MA.

I was told a long time ago it was correct to say, down Maine.

By: ailaG

ailaG — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:49:59 +0000

PamB, people will always pronounce words differently in different places. It’s just like how words are different in different countries. It depends on the society and the area itself.

If, for example, there’s a certain way to pronounce the name of some common type of snow in Alaska, I still won’t use it because it never snows in my country. I’ll use the word snow for every type and I won’t pronounce it like Alaskans may because I won’t hear it said enough times to imitate it.

People also often try to make common words efficient. So if you can skip a vowel on a common word you probably will. And if that word isn’t so common where I live, I probably won’t.

And you can’t force it on people.. not even through the education system.

By: PamB

PamB — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:30:08 +0000

Come to Australia and hear “pitcher” for “picture”, “cock-a-roach” for “cockroach”, “haitch” (constantly) for “aitch”, “filum” for “film” (although now not so often), “Feb-u-ary” for “February” (I do say Feb-roo-ry. English is hard enough to spell without pronunciation making it even more difficult. Standardising language makes it that much easier for kids to learn to spell. In learning another language, you learn a “standard” form – why can’t we accept some standard of English. I think most mis-pronunciation is simply laziness. When corrected, the defence then is, as I’ve read in so many of the comments, “you’re elitist” etc. What rot. Imagine if we approached science or maths with the same attitude!