10 Words Stupid People Mispronounce

Don’t forget n-u-c-l-e-a-r, the word that made me cringe every time ‘W’ said it.

As a matter of fact, Jay Leno made a joke about it. He said it was okay for the Iranians to get ‘nucular’ weapons, as long as they did not get any nuclear ones.

I guess the part of the east coast that can’t say the word “car” or any word with an r at the end must be a bunch of idiots.

Nuclear as W pronounced it is a “Texan-ism” for sure.

What about “espresso”?

Oh crap I just realized it’s #1?

Specifically, not Pacifically. No, it’s not an endearing word describing the Ocean or a location of the western United States.

Awww. Along with nuclear, you missed my #1: Library.

I heard a young man on a college campus one day repeatedly yelling to his friend “I’m going to the liberry! The liberry!! I’m going to the liberry!” and couldn’t help myself. Apparently, I said “you’d better hurry, maybe you can look up how to pronounce library” a little too loud…

Guilty on all counts I trust spell check too much. and being a bit dyslexic does not help as well.

GC

Before I read this, i thought about what words might be on the list. I’m so glad you included ‘regardless.” that one makes me crazy. And I never heard ‘idea’ pronounced with an ‘l’ but here in MA, i hear lots of people add an ‘r’ as in ‘idear’

thanks for the laugh

Verb-i-age… not verb-age.

Best article I’ve read from Lockergnome in a LONG time!

I have to disagree, it’s not a “Texan-ism”. “Nucular” is a “Bushism”. Just so you know, Bush was originally from Connecticut. I just thought I’d point out that common misconception.

They always teach you this in speech class. It really stinks if you have a heavy accent though.

I left library off the list because I’ve heard many smart people say it incorrectly. Nuclear is a good one, but is also common. Sometimes people say it incorrectly on purpose to reference W or Homer Simpson.

Nucular is the one that really irritates me. It’s so nice to have a president who can pronounce it correctly.

so people are stupid for there mispronunciation???

@ASIANxREDNECK - No, the people guilty of this list tend to already be stupid. It’s the dumb person in line in front of you. Your pretentious boss. The woman on your block that thinks she knows everything but says ‘idn’t’ instead of ‘isn’t’. Anybody from South Dakota.

Have you noticed the wide-spread use of TAH-morrow instead of TOO-morrow. And TAH day instead of TOO-day.

Woe is me. What have we done to the children?

What about asphault? I know people that pronounce it ASH-phault instead of ASS-phault… Maybe that’s why?

Might as well add Supposedly to the list. I hear people say Supposibly all the time.

People get upset and worked up over the stupidest of things. Life is shorter than you realise, just get on with the better parts of it!

Ah, so you’re one of these Language Police who still subscribes to the idea that there IS such a thing as Proper English. Hate to burst your bubble, but the word “ask” actually comes from the word “aks”, which was the commonly used form until the 16th century–thus one could argue that technically, the people saying “aks” are the ones saying it properly. “Foliage” derives from the French word feuilleage, which was pronounced foil-age, so it makes sense that the “wrong” pronunciation would get passed down in some areas.

English is a living language. Millions of people speak it all over the world in many dialects, and we borrow words from many languages–as seen above with the understandable “foil-age” corruption from French. Word pronunciation varies from one part of the US to another, even among so-called “educated” folk. As a result, English changes and evolves through everyday usage. You apparently aren’t cool with that concept: when the language beast gets out of your personal control and doesn’t match exactly what your 3rd grade teacher made you memorize for your spelling test, you flip out. You’ll be horrified to know that “Irregardless” is now so common that it’s in the Oxford English Dictionary, which claims that it’s probably a blend of “irrespective” and “regardless”. Yeowch. Oh wait, is an unacceptable corruption of “ouch”? Sorry dude.

I happen to pronounce all the words on your list in your preferred form, but I’m also comfortable with the idea of change in everyday dialect. If someone’s giving a speech or performing a business or academic transaction, then arguably one should stick to the most standard usages possible for maximum listener comprehension–but even there we get into the toward/towards tomato/tomato debates. The corruptions on your list may sound odd to my ear since I too was taught differently in grade school, but I don’t want to someday be the old lady who waves my cane around and says “Back in my day, we used to speak PROPERLY.” You, by contrast, seem to be getting a head start.

When I was in high school, my English teacher really frustrated me with the way she pronounced a lot of words.

Rabid –> Ray bed (it’s Rab-id)
Protagonist/Antagonist –> Pro-Taa-ge-on-ist/Ant-taa-ge-on-ist (it’s pro-tag-gon-ist/an-tag-gon-ist, there’s no such kids game as Taa-ge, it’s Tag).

I loved this article. it was one of my faivortes.

What do I think? I think Jen needs to get over her hooray for diversity kick and stop excusing the execrable American education system that can’t teach people proper pronunciation by talking about English being “fluid”.

Sure, I think all of us would be completely understanding and accepting of hearing a Nobel laureate or a Rhodes Scholar or the dean of MIT or the Queen of England talk about how they supposably axed the bearista for an expresso irregardless of whether they served them…yes, I would be heartily impressed by the elastic usage of the English language. Just replace “lazy” with “diverse”.

Let’s all guess who totally didn’t understand what Jen was talking about. Here’s a hint: It’s Alex. English is a descriptive language. Just because you can look a pronunciation up in a dictionary doesn’t make it any more legitimate than an “incorrect” pronunciation. The dictionaries come from our usage. The usage does not come from the dictionary.