Pronunciations that drive you mad

pickarooney · 10-05-2012 10:05am

PandaX9 wrote: »

Nothing worse than con-TROV-a-see instead of controversy.

And priv-ih-see instead of pri-va-see. I mean, you wouldn't normally say prov-et instead of pri-vate so I don't understand people who can say private but not privacy..

That just sounds like foreigner logic.

Davidson2k9 · 10-05-2012 10:57am

I hate when you pronounce 'Gullible' really slow, it sounds like 'Orange'.

Gbear · 10-05-2012 11:28am

Modren.

fasttalkerchat · 10-05-2012 11:32am

Windy for window. Also Winda
The colour yella.
Torkey dinner.
Atein' ma dinnur.

Does anyone here pronounce Lager correctly? I tried it once and either sound Australian or Plymouth, England.

ziggy23 · 10-05-2012 11:37am

'eye-talian' instead of 'it-talian'

fricatus · 10-05-2012 11:37am

Gbear wrote: »

Modren.

Modherden!

fasttalkerchat · 10-05-2012 11:45am

Gbear wrote: »

Modren.

Is that modern, Mothering or murdering?

"I'm trying to moder my kids"
"You're trying to murder your kids"
"No, I'm trying to be a moder to them"

Rocky_Dennis · 10-05-2012 11:48am

Calling a lollipop "lullipup"

I will "follie" you instead of I will follow you.

seamus · 10-05-2012 11:56am

In terms of foreign placenames, the convention is that you should pronounce foreign nouns in your own language, so it's appropriate for an English person to say "Port-oh-Prince" rather than "porr-o-prance". In exactly the same way that a French person would say "Doob-lan" rather than Dublin.
Broadcasters often make this mistake as they try to show off their broad worldliness by pronouncing placenames in the local dialect. But it's wrong.

People's names however should be pronounced in their local (or chosen) language. So Sarkozy should be pronounced in your best French. However, the bad French accent is optional, you can do French without the accent. Again, broadcasters tend to forget this and bizarrely switch to a French accent in the middle of an English sentence.

New one I heard yesterday was "opingins" instead of "opinions". What is it with culchies throwing "ng"s into words where it's not even easy to make that mistake - Hang Sangwich. WTF is that?

languagenerd · 10-05-2012 12:03pm

Sindri wrote: »

When people say 'toy-leh'. It's toilet you peon. :mad:

Even worse is "tie-leh".
My brother says it all the time now cause he knows it drives me mental!

People in primary school used to say "I have to go to me toileh". What, do you own the toilet now? :P

Abi · 10-05-2012 12:13pm

languagenerd wrote: »

Even worse is "tie-leh".

It's like listening to nails scraping down a blackboard. I think it takes extra effort to draw the word out like that, so I don't get it. Missing 'T's where they are supposed to be pronounced is one of my biggest peeves.

IvyTheTerrible · 10-05-2012 12:14pm

Tree-ah-tee for treaty...

Nulty · 10-05-2012 12:14pm

Plazaman wrote: »

Million is not Millen

The A to Z is not Ah to Zed

If you want to be specific, please do so but don't be Pacific

If there is an obstacle in your way, calling it an oxtable will not help

Off course I've often mispronounced things myself. Only recently when trying to ask my ex-girlfriend "Would you like to go out for dinner tonight dear?", I mispronounced it to sound like "You've ruined my life you manipulative bítch".

So is it a Zebra or a Zeebra?

Zed is acceptable in British English.

In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed /ˈzɛd/, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta, but in American English, its name is zee /ˈziː/, deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal form

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z

As usual in most of these matters, it's we the people of the US that changed it, not the other way around. "Zed" comes from the original Greek zeta via Old French zede, and pretty much all English speakers worldwide pronounce it that way.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1632/why-do-the-british-pronounced-the-letter-z-zed

Rastapitts · 10-05-2012 12:39pm

Saoirse!

dpe · 10-05-2012 1:01pm

Rastapitts wrote: »

Saoirse!

What about it?

Funnyonion79 · 10-05-2012 1:17pm

I shouldn't of told him

instead of: I shouldn't have told him

I also hate when people say that they are so unorganised. Should it not be disorganised?

Also, what is it with people writing the word loose when they mean lose as in "where did you loose it?" This is unbelievably common.

thomond2006 · 10-05-2012 2:08pm

not really a pronounciation but I hate when people say 'euros' instead of 'euro' for the plural.

DrumSteve · 10-05-2012 2:10pm

Gor-dee.

Sea Filly · 10-05-2012 3:04pm

LordSutch wrote: »

Do you still say Heigth?

Sadly, yes.

IMO, heightH makes more sense than throatH. At least there's a 'th' at the end so you can see how people might grow up thinking it's 'th' but throat just has a 't' at the end.

fricatus · 10-05-2012 3:05pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

not really a pronounciation but I hate when people say 'euros' instead of 'euro' for the plural.

I say euros and cents. In English we add an -s to form the plural, so it makes perfect sense to do so.

When the euro was introduced, some "barmy eurocrat" decided that the noun was invariable because it had to be the same in all languages, yet they have no problem with the Greeks even putting the word "leptá" for cents on the back of their coins.

A massive double-standard and a ridiculous arbitrary rule!

pickarooney · 10-05-2012 3:06pm

On the other hand we don't say yens and rands.

fricatus · 10-05-2012 3:08pm

Sea Filly wrote: »

IMO, heightH makes more sense than throatH. At least there's a 'th' at the end so you can see how people might grow up thinking it's 'th' but throat just has a 't' at the end.

Ehhh, no, "height" does not have a TH at the end. Although in fairness, I can see how people would have a difficulty spelling that word. G-H-T isn't exactly a pretty sequence of consonants...

fricatus · 10-05-2012 3:10pm

pickarooney wrote: »

On the other hand we don't say yens and rands.

Fair point, but we do say dollars and pounds, so in currency units that we're more familiar using in our own language, we certainly do add the final -s.

10-05-2012 3:15pm

I'm pretty sure official guidelines said euros was acceptable in countries where they used the s, like us
I used to correct people on it as well until I went off and read up on it

as for height-h - this is like the "wrought-h iron" conversation with my mother all over again...

Wibbs · 10-05-2012 3:17pm

Sea Filly wrote: »

Sadly, yes.

IMO, heightH makes more sense than throatH. At least there's a 'th' at the end so you can see how people might grow up thinking it's 'th'

Eh no, there is not. HeightH is a holdover from the fear of dropping Aitches and is repeated so often by media Irish types that "speak proper" it continues on. There was one road safety ad that was on the box a year or so ago about trucks and high loads and the woman voice over kept saying heightHH. Arrgh. :mad: That said many centuries ago, there was an aitch at the end of height, but unless you're a time traveler from the 1700's there isn't any more.

pickarooney wrote:

On the other hand we don't say yens and rands.

Maybe because we don't use them regularly?

seamus · 10-05-2012 3:22pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

not really a pronounciation but I hate when people say 'euros' instead of 'euro' for the plural.

"Euros" is the correct pluralisation.

The confusion arose because many of the european languages don't pronounce the "s" at the end of a plural. In French for example, pluralisation is indicated by the definite article, so it's, "le euro" and "les euros".

However, they still spell the plural with an "s" at the end like any other regular noun.

In English, where we don't really have any gender, and usually only one in/definite article ("the" or "a"), it is considered regular to pronounce the "s" at the end of the word to indicate plurality.

It's only for a handful of irregular nouns that this convention is dropped - sheep, fish, deer, etc. "Euro" is not an irregular noun, and should be pronounced "Euros".

Although you'd be forgiven for the confusion since EU legislation uses "euro" for plural, even though the official EU translation service insists that "euros" is the correct plural.

tiny_penguin · 10-05-2012 3:24pm

Not a pronunciation thing - well kind of but I hate when people say yo-yo's instead of euro/euros. Both my parents do this all the time, i dont think i have heard them say euro/euros in the past 2 years.

fasttalkerchat · 10-05-2012 3:33pm

tiny_penguin wrote: »

Not a pronunciation thing - well kind of but I hate when people say yo-yo's instead of euro/euros. Both my parents do this all the time, i dont think i have heard them say euro/euros in the past 2 years.

I got myself into and out of the habit of saying "youra".
Years ago people up north used to refer to "the punt money".
£20 is 30 in the punt money.

hcass · 10-05-2012 3:54pm

Ah do yis remember coolapops? Also know as cool pops or mr freeze. Cola was the best.

marcsignal · 10-05-2012 3:55pm

Morketing (Marketing)

:mad::mad::mad:

Sea Filly · 10-05-2012 3:59pm

fricatus wrote: »

Ehhh, no, "height" does not have a TH at the end.

That's what I meant. And I'm sure you knew what I meant too.

This kind of nitpickery kind of gets on my wick. I very much doubt you and the people who thanked your post pronounce every word correctly and have perfect grammar. I have never come across a person who does.

Sea Filly · 10-05-2012 4:01pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Eh no, there is not. HeightH is a holdover from the fear of dropping Aitches and is repeated so often by media Irish types that "speak proper" it continues on. There was one road safety ad that was on the box a year or so ago about trucks and high loads and the woman voice over kept saying heightHH. Arrgh. :mad: That said many centuries ago, there was an aitch at the end of height, but unless you're a time traveler from the 1700's there isn't any more.

Do you speak every word correctly?

I have actually also noticed you using 'it's' where it should be 'its' a fair few times, Wibbs.

Not a pronuciation error but a very, very basic, primary school one.

Denise90 · 10-05-2012 4:03pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

not really a pronounciation but I hate when people say 'euros' instead of 'euro' for the plural.

Drives me mad!! Regardless of whether it's the right way to say it or not, it just bothers me. Tescos, Aldis, Lidls all fall into the same category (as in "I'm going to Tescos")

fricatus · 10-05-2012 4:08pm

Sea Filly wrote: »

That's what I meant. And I'm sure you knew what I meant too.

No, all I know is what you wrote, and that's what I replied to. I didn't mean to be deliberately insulting, so sorry if I was.

Sea Filly wrote: »

This kind of nitpickery kind of gets on my wick. I very much doubt you and the people who thanked your post pronounce every word correctly and have perfect grammar. I have never come across a person who does.

I would suggest respectfully that if you don't like nitpickery, this is the wrong thread for you. This is the sort of thing that pedants like me love discussing!

Sea Filly · 10-05-2012 4:12pm

fricatus wrote: »

I would suggest respectfully that if you don't like nitpickery, this is the wrong thread for you. This is the sort of thing that pedants like me love discussing!

I've never yet come across a pedant who doesn't make mistakes themselves.

Bigcheeze · 10-05-2012 4:20pm

Denise90 wrote: »

Drives me mad!! Regardless of whether it's the right way to say it or not, it just bothers me. Tescos, Aldis, Lidls all fall into the same category (as in "I'm going to Tescos")

They don't fall in to the same category.

The S in Euros is the correct use of the plural. The S in the supermarket names is incorrect use of the possessive, as in it's Mr. Tesco's shop.

The use of Cent instead of Cents as a plural annoys me more than the use of Euro as Cents was already well established in English as the plural of Cent.

The French call "Cents" Centimes and the Spanish call them Centimos so there's no point making a standardisation argument.

Wibbs · 10-05-2012 4:42pm

seamus wrote: »

It's only for a handful of irregular nouns that this convention is dropped - sheep, fish, deer, etc.

Some still use fishes S, though it's much less used today than in the past. I've noticed that in old flyfishing books I have about the place.

Sea Filly wrote:

Do you speak every word correctly?

Close enough yea, or at least strive to. My diction is pretty clear, or so non native English speaking folks have told me in the past anyway. Mark though, I don't have a Dort accent or anything like it.

I have actually also noticed you using 'it's' where it should be 'its' a fair few times, Wibbs. Not a pronuciation error but a very, very basic, primary school one.

Really? I'm usually very specific about watching for that and similar(or is it pacific...

). HeightH is both a pronunciation error and (oddly?)a spelling one.

TBH I am not the pedant about some of these things as many seem to be. Many "errors" hereabouts seem to be just local accent based ones and I'd personally hate to see them go. Part and parcel of the history and development of local language. I love some Cork accents*. I find them very pleasant to the ear, but if you were to look at many of the pronunciations objectively, they'd be "wrong". Give me that "wrong" any day of the week. The adding of aitches though, often as part of a Dort/telephone voice for some reason grinds my gears. That and examples like "ruf" instead of "roof".

It reminds me of those accents beaten into some at the point of an elocution teachers cane a few generations ago. A while back read an interesting one(well..) on that point. Apparently in the 60's and 70's Ireland had one of the highest numbers of elocution teachers in the western world. It might explain my experience growing up of meeting people, girls in particular near gagging on marbles in their mouth, yet their parents had perfectly bloody fine regional accents. I'd much rather turn my ear to the latter than the former. Give me the strongest turbo charged Culchie or Dub accent you can find any day over to some half vowel strangled put on accent. The more recent American/the Hills nasally twang, the ill formed bastard offspring of Daddy Dort and Mommy** 'Murkin damn near makes me murderous. End rant...

:pac:

*as a Dubliner that nearly stuck in my craw to say

** and it would be mOm. I quite honestly never heard "mom" before the mid 90's and I knew enough D4 types. Mum, yes. Ma, Mam etc, but never mom, unless they were North American in background.

languagenerd · 10-05-2012 5:35pm

fricatus wrote: »

When the euro was introduced, some "barmy eurocrat" decided that the noun was invariable because it had to be the same in all languages, yet they have no problem with the Greeks even putting the word "leptá" for cents on the back of their coins.

A massive double-standard and a ridiculous arbitrary rule!

That's 100% not true. In French and Spanish, for example, they put an "s" on the end, so if your "barmy eurocrat" made this decision, he would have made it the other way around.

I looked this up before because a Spanish friend asked me about it. According to here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_issues_concerning_the_euro#In_Ireland, it was someone in our Dept of Finance who decided it should be "euro" for both, and seeing as we're the only English-speaking country who use the currency, other countries imitate that.

It might be because we'd say "a twenty-euro note" (not "twenty euros note"), so some of us (myself included!) say "euro" in the plural by analogy. I only say "euros" if I'm talking about a pile of one-euro coins. Not saying I'm right, btw, just pointing out where it came from.

The King of Moo · 10-05-2012 6:01pm

It's one thing to talk about pronunciations you find annoying; it's only natural to find some pronunciations grating.

But it's another to talk about "correct" pronunciations when it comes to words like "schedule" and "controversy" which have alternative pronunciations which are both considered correct.

Most English words have one broadly-accepted pronunciation, but there's still an incredible diversity within, and particularly between, English-speaking countries.

If you look at any pronunciation book in any language school in Ireland, it'll recommend that the letter "r" not be pronounced at the end of words like "flower" or "car."
Does that mean that Irish people and a number of Americans are wrong to pronounce that "r?"
Of course not.

I love the diversity of English, and hate to see people claim that a certain pronunciation of a word is the only valid one simply because they prefer that pronunciation or because it's more common.

One more pronunciation I hate: "pronounciation!"

earlyevening · 10-05-2012 6:37pm

fricatus wrote: »

Ehhh, no, "height" does not have a TH at the end. Although in fairness, I can see how people would have a difficulty spelling that word. G-H-T isn't exactly a pretty sequence of consonants...

I'm sure the confusion over "height" comes from the fact that length, width and breadth DO end in "th".

earlyevening · 10-05-2012 6:40pm

Gbear wrote: »

Modren.

Throw "eastren" and "westren" in there too. Pat Kenny is a big man for those pronunciations.

twinQuins · 10-05-2012 7:33pm

BarnhallBull wrote: »

Mispronouncing schedule as Skedule

Please don't tell me you pronounce it shedule. Do you also pronounce school as shool?

Sea Filly · 10-05-2012 7:50pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Really? I'm usually very specific about watching for that and similar(or is it pacific... ). HeightH is both a pronunciation error and (oddly?)a spelling one.

Yep, really. You're not that careful, I'm afraid.

Anyway, my point was, I've often noticed that pedants are often the worst for fúcking up.

Like the acquaintance on Facebook who once declared she dislikes "people who use poor grammer". So, acquaintance, you hate poor "grammer" but you've no problem with bad spelling then? :pac:

Sea Filly · 10-05-2012 7:52pm

The King of Moo wrote: »

It's one thing to talk about pronunciations you find annoying; it's only natural to find some pronunciations grating.

Yeah, my offering to this thread was 'secsual' for 'sexual'. It gets on my nerves, but it's probably not wrong.

Brendan97 · 10-05-2012 8:30pm

Whenever I say scone(pronounced scon) and someone else says "no you say it 'scone'(scone as in cone)", it makes my blood boil because they are infact wrong
Because its from scotland and they named it Scone(pronounced scon)

its like us pronoucing facebook as fak-book (never heard this happen before its just as an example)
they named it that so why change it

I don't mind them saying it, its just when they argue to say that I am wrong, when THEY are wrong, is what gets on my nerves

Bigcheeze · 10-05-2012 8:50pm

Brendan97 wrote: »

Because its from scotland and they named it Scone(pronounced scon)

How do you pronounce Paris ?

LordSutch · 10-05-2012 8:58pm

Sea Filly wrote: »

IMO, heightH makes more sense than throatH. At least there's a 'th' at the end so you can see how people might grow up thinking it's 'th' but throat just has a 't' at the end.

TroaTH

That's a new one on me, do some people really say TroaTH?

HEIGHT, THROAT, Simples.

Wibbs · 10-05-2012 9:00pm

LordSutch wrote: »

TroaTH

That's a new one on me, do some people really say TroaTH?

Yep they really do.

GaryIrv93 · 10-05-2012 9:07pm

One that used to drive me crazy years ago was 'Grand Prix'. I'd always pronounce it as 'Grand Pricks'

I'd go mad, asking why on earth was the 'x' even there if it wasn't pronounced

10-05-2012 9:08pm

"H" should be pronounced "haytch". The clue is that there's a H at the start of it.

Pronunciations that drive you mad

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