annoying mispronunciations + giveaway!

GIVEAWAY IS  OVER!!!

 

People mispronounce or misuse words/phrases all of the time. It’s not a felony or even a misdemeanor but sometimes it’s pretty darn annoying. And sometimes, when I hear these mispronounced words, it’s like fingernails on a chalk board. Since misery loves company, I thought I’d share some of what I consider the biggest offenders with you:

1. Valentime’s Day. It’s Valentine’s Day!! Would you pronounce New Year’s Eve, “Mew Year’s Eve”? I doubt it. I know “M” and “N” are consecutive letters in the alphabet but seriously people.

2. Libary. It’s Library! If you are going to make a trip there, you might want to look at the dictionary and see how it’s spelled. Libary? C’mon!!

3. Alfit. Outfit. Ok, this is not a common one, but I have heard people pronounce “outfit” as “alfit” as in, “I’m going to wear a sexy alfit when my boyfriend takes me to the libary on Valentimes Day.

4. My As Well. Might as Well. I am extremely ashamed to admit that I used to say this and apparently I used to say it often. No one ever corrected me until one day, my boss had enough. I must have said something like, “I my as well give it a shot, right?” Well, Alan’s face turned a deep shade of red, to the point where I thought it might pop off of his neck, he pounded his fists on the desk and shouted, “It’s Might as well. MIGHT. MIGHT. MIGHT!” Needless to say, I never made that mistake again. (I learned it from my mother. Just sayin…)

 5. irregardless. Ok, there is no such word as “irregardless.” The correct word is “regardless.”

6. Mines. Mine. As in:

“I got my prom dress today.”

“Ooh, you’re so lucky! I’m getting mines tomorrow!!”

7. For all intensive purposes – for all intents and purposes. I think I might have been guilty of this at some point. “For all intensive…” is easier to roll off your tongue than “for all intents and…” but it doesn’t make it right!!

8. Anyways. Anyway. “Anyway, I better get going now.” not “Anyways, I better get going now.” This one doesn’t bother me all that much unless I am PMSing 🙂

9. Gimme – ok, this one just bothers me because it’s rude! I hate when the person in front of me on line at (insert name of restaurant/store) says “Gimme a glazed donut and a chocolate munchkin.” ‘Gimme a pack of Marlboro Ultra Lights” Gimme? Even if you said “Give me”, I would still hate you. Politeness goes a long way!

10. Axe. Ask. May I axe you a question?

Bonus – even though I’ve only heard this one once, it’s my absolute favorite:

11. Rappaport – Rapport. My boss and I were in the elevator at our previous law firm. Two women were speaking and one told the other how she was introduced to someone recently and discovered they had a really good “rappaport” We assumed she meant to say “rapport”. I bit my lip and stared at the ground trying to avoid eye contact with my boss. As soon as the women exited the elevator, the two of us looked at each other and burst out laughing. Whenever I tell him about a new friend, he asks if we had a good rappaport.

This list is certainly not exhaustive because I want some audience participation. I’ve left room for you to add to it. I will give a free copy of Just Friends With Benefits (paperback or Kindle download) to the person whose comment I like the best!! Deadline is February 14th – ValentiNes Day 🙂

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO!

18 Comments

  1. Tiffany N. York on February 8, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    But Meredith, if you’re raised in Brooklyn like I was, this is all normal speech! You think we’re gonna learn how to speak right? Fuhgeddaboudit!!!!

  2. Jesse on February 8, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    “Just for prosperity” instead of posterity. This one drives me nuts! What, are they expecting to profit??

  3. Jesse on February 8, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    Also, ” I could care less!” You couldn’t care less!!!

  4. Natalie on February 8, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    I’m from Kansas originally and a lot of people there enjoy the word “nother.” As in: That’s a whole nother issue.

    Bugs the crap out of me.

    Oh! And the “was ya’s”! As in: Was ya gonna drink that?

    READ A BOOK, PEOPLE!

    Sorry. So angry.

  5. marj on February 8, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    Thanks Jesse for the “I could care less”. I HATE THAT!!! And let’s not forgot this one, “could of”. WHAT??? I COULD HAVE killed the last person I heard say that one!! But I “seen” her leave too quickly. LOL.

  6. Michelle on February 8, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Irregardless and Axe are two of my biggest mispronunciation pet peeves.

    I twitch a lot at internet speak used in every day language.

    “Rule” instead of “Rue”. “You will rule the day you made that decision.” Well, then slap the crown on my head and call me Queen.

  7. El on February 8, 2012 at 7:51 pm

    “Where is he/she at?”

  8. Jeff Salter on February 8, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    I’ve heard all these except one. And all bother me as well.
    One I hear a lot in KY is “I’ve got a good ideal.” It makes me want to scream.
    My wife used to have a boss who always used the word ‘pacific’ instead of ‘specific’ … so a typical phrase might be, “You need to be more pacific.”

  9. Kristen on February 8, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    “Flustrated.” You are flustered, or you’re frustrated. You are not flustrated.

    A coworker used to say this all the time and it drove me nuts!!

  10. Jeryl M. on February 12, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    I used to work with this girl at camp when I was younger instead of saying “both of you” she would say “both of yas”. It was annoying!

  11. Ellie on February 13, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    I get annoyed when I hear these two stores referred to as, “going to Giants” and “going to Walmarts”! It’s Giant and Walmart, people! LOL!

    Another one is, ‘she came acrosst as’ instead of ‘she came across as’!

  12. Michelle Crowe-Paz on February 13, 2012 at 4:10 pm

    I used to be WAY GUILTY of saying “axe” instead of “ask”. But I thought it was “aks” hahaha. Great stuff Meri; never stop writing! ~Michelle

  13. Kaley @ Books Etc on February 14, 2012 at 9:45 am

    I have a coworker who says “fustrated”. Argh! How hard is it to add an r to make it frustrate??? Let me tell you, it really fustrates me. 😛

  14. Gail on February 14, 2012 at 10:20 am

    The people who sell houses? RE-al-tors. Not REAL-a-ters. And the worst person I’ve ever heard for this one? A REALTOR! I felt like telling her, “If you can’t pronounce what you do, please stop doing it immediately. Become something you can say please.”

  15. Meredith on February 15, 2012 at 10:22 am

    Great comments everyone! I chose a winner randomly and it was Gail. I’ve sent you (Gail) a DM on Twitter with more details.

    Thanks so much for participating in my blog giveaway. I’m sure I will hold another one soon!

  16. Tess on February 15, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    Nucular instead of nuclear! I don’t care if you WERE the president at one time…

  17. Michele W. on February 15, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    OMG! These are all things I complain about too. I do not understand how people think they are speaking proper English. If they actually think about what they are saying they would realize that it makes absolutely no sense!

    Add:
    Proby and Probably
    pisgetti and spaghetti
    Pacific and specific
    supposebly and supposedly

    to the list too. It drives me nuts. I work in a professional environment and have to try so hard not to laugh at patients and colleagues sometimes.

  18. Tim Gibbs on April 13, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    Here is something that I’ve never heard any one recognize other than me. Mostly spoken by young women, they mispronounce vowels and
    accompany with a nasal twang to their speech. You will hear this “neo speech” mostly on the national news programs.
    Here are a few examples:
    regulation comes out as regulashin
    education comes out as educashin
    Boston comes out as Bostin
    Washington comes out as Washingtin
    Business comes as businiss
    And on and on. I recall one of the female anchors took a maternity
    leave. I especially liked her because she spoke like an actual person. When she returned , she spoke in the new way of speaking.
    Reminiscent of the movie, “The Stepford Wives.”

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