Commonly mispronounced words - Page 9

Sundae · 12-01-2005, 09:04 AM

My Dad is dyslexic, so I haven't included some of his classics as it's not fair..... But Michelle Pettifer (Pfeiffer) made me laugh.

Sandwich is often pronounced Samwitch here. I can hold my hand up to it myself (have sat here saying it repeatedly under my breath - I think my colleagues are looking up Witchfinder General on Yell.Com)

seakdivers · 12-02-2005, 03:05 AM

Ah yes, dyslexia pops up in my family quite a bit. My sister used to write her friend Toby's name as ybot, so here it is 20 years later and I still call him ybot. It sounds like eebot.

Sundae · 12-14-2005, 11:01 AM

I'm not sure how common the phrase "Wolf it down" is, but even if you haven't heard it before you will agree it creates a clear mental image of the way someone is eating.

Today I heard someone say "Woof it down". Not only is ait wrong but it's stupid!

The worst thing is the little voices inside my head seem to like it and it's been circulating all day. Grrrrrrr - and I mean that literally.

xoxoxoBruce · 12-14-2005, 01:07 PM

Woof it down and wolf it down, seems to be pretty interchangable around here.

mrnoodle · 12-15-2005, 01:38 PM

This isn't a mispronounced word, but a mangled turn of phrase. I used to work for a very sweet woman who was in all ways refined, correct, and educated. Cept fer one thing. You know the phrase "Six of one, half dozen of the other"? It means "It doesn't matter, it's all the same to me." She said it as, "Half of six, a dozen of the other" and COULD NOT be convinced of the correct version.

seakdivers · 12-15-2005, 09:21 PM

Thought of a couple more this evening.

Species. Its not spee-shees. Its spee-sees. Also when people sign a card or type in an email "congrads". There is no D in congratulations.

Shoooot, I had a couple more, but I've lost them.

Axe me later.

richlevy · 12-15-2005, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seakdivers

There is no D in congratulations.

There is if you just barely missed flunking out before graduation.

Sundae · 12-16-2005, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Woof it down and wolf it down, seems to be pretty interchangable around here.

I've only heard it a couple of times... perhaps it makes more sense with repetition. It still seems wrong to me - woof is a sound, made while exhaling. How can it apply to the process of ingestion?

Clodfobble · 12-16-2005, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Woof it down and wolf it down, seems to be pretty interchangable around here.

I've known many people who in general pronounced the word "wolf" without the L. It may be that if they wrote it down you'd see they at least knew the correct word to use, even if they couldn't say it.

Nunya · 12-24-2005, 12:16 AM

Do you ever mispronounce words to purposely irritate your foreign friends? I do. One of my French friends hates it when Americans pronounce French words incorrectly. One day we were having a party and she was making crepes. I made sure to have a reason to say croissant, but I pronounced it "croy-SANT" just to see what she would do. She screamed,"CWASOOOO!!!" and then threw a crepe at me. Then I said, "Hey! Quit throwing creaps at me!" She did refrain from throwing the skillet at me.

wolf · 12-24-2005, 12:25 AM

Ah, another reason not to befriend the French!

Welcome, Nunya!

Nunya · 12-24-2005, 12:43 AM

Thanks!

Urbane Guerrilla · 12-26-2005, 03:39 AM

Jaguar, my very silly dear easily patronized fellow, if you're going to be so ignorant of Latin that even I can do it better than you can, what is to be done with you?

Ignorami if I want it that way. If it's nonstandard, well, it's nonstandard, with all the caveats appertaining thereunto.

You're trying too hard, kid.

richlevy · 01-06-2006, 05:16 PM

On a related topic, I would like to express my frustration with the substitution of two similar words, not just in speech but in writing.

I have seen at least two different posts by two allegedly different Cellar users in which the word 'loose' is substituted for the word 'lose'.

While not of earth shattering significance, this still upsets me.

I have noticed the tendency to switch around homophones. For example, I have seen people substitute "your" for the contraction "you're" a lot, as in "I think your going too far." I have grown to accept this as a natural mutation of the English language.

In the case of loose and lose, the words do not even sound the same when pronounced correctly. They are not homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, or any other kind of -nym. They have no relationship to each other except for sharing a subset of letters in the same order.

I realize that if this is the most troubling thing I have seen recently, then I am leading a charmed life, but for some reason it annoys me. One hope for the Internet is that it would return the world to the age of letter writing, when 'a stern letter to the Times' and the keeping of journals left a historical record of the thoughts of generations.

Unfortunately, the sloppiness people use in speech has crossed over into writing. I am not talking about typos, or even using slang like typo instead of typographical error. I am not even talking about poor sentence structure with concepts like dangling participles. Everyone breaks those, including a huge number of authors. My second grade English teacher would be appalled at the structure of most of my posts.

If it turns out that the people who are doing this are ESL, than I am very sorry that I brought this up. If I was in a forum writing in Spanish and I substituted perro for pero and someone ranted about it, I could honestly say I was trying my best.

Still I figure I should bring it up before it ends up on a resume or application letter.

Now that I think about it, I might have ranted about this a few years ago about the same two words. It might be time to search the Cellar archives.

xoxoxoBruce · 01-06-2006, 05:26 PM

Hang lose, Rich......you've nothing to loose.

12-14-2005, 01:07 PM	#124
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Woof it down and wolf it down, seems to be pretty interchangable around here. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

12-15-2005, 01:38 PM	#125
mrnoodle bent Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: under the weather Posts: 2,656	This isn't a mispronounced word, but a mangled turn of phrase. I used to work for a very sweet woman who was in all ways refined, correct, and educated. Cept fer one thing. You know the phrase "Six of one, half dozen of the other"? It means "It doesn't matter, it's all the same to me." She said it as, "Half of six, a dozen of the other" and COULD NOT be convinced of the correct version. __________________ Sìn a nall na cuaranan sin. -- Cha mhór is fheairrde thu iad, tha iad coltach ri cat air a dhathadh

12-24-2005, 12:25 AM	#131
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	Ah, another reason not to befriend the French! Welcome, Nunya! __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

12-26-2005, 03:39 AM	#133
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	Jaguar, my very silly dear easily patronized fellow, if you're going to be so ignorant of Latin that even I can do it better than you can, what is to be done with you? Ignorami if I want it that way. If it's nonstandard, well, it's nonstandard, with all the caveats appertaining thereunto. You're trying too hard, kid. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course. Last edited by Urbane Guerrilla; 12-26-2005 at 03:42 AM.

01-06-2006, 05:16 PM	#134
richlevy King Of Wishful Thinking Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Philadelphia Suburbs Posts: 6,669	On a related topic, I would like to express my frustration with the substitution of two similar words, not just in speech but in writing. I have seen at least two different posts by two allegedly different Cellar users in which the word 'loose' is substituted for the word 'lose'. While not of earth shattering significance, this still upsets me. I have noticed the tendency to switch around homophones. For example, I have seen people substitute "your" for the contraction "you're" a lot, as in "I think your going too far." I have grown to accept this as a natural mutation of the English language. In the case of loose and lose, the words do not even sound the same when pronounced correctly. They are not homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, or any other kind of -nym. They have no relationship to each other except for sharing a subset of letters in the same order. I realize that if this is the most troubling thing I have seen recently, then I am leading a charmed life, but for some reason it annoys me. One hope for the Internet is that it would return the world to the age of letter writing, when 'a stern letter to the Times' and the keeping of journals left a historical record of the thoughts of generations. Unfortunately, the sloppiness people use in speech has crossed over into writing. I am not talking about typos, or even using slang like typo instead of typographical error. I am not even talking about poor sentence structure with concepts like dangling participles. Everyone breaks those, including a huge number of authors. My second grade English teacher would be appalled at the structure of most of my posts. If it turns out that the people who are doing this are ESL, than I am very sorry that I brought this up. If I was in a forum writing in Spanish and I substituted perro for pero and someone ranted about it, I could honestly say I was trying my best. Still I figure I should bring it up before it ends up on a resume or application letter. Now that I think about it, I might have ranted about this a few years ago about the same two words. It might be time to search the Cellar archives. __________________ Exercise your rights and remember your obligations - VOTE! I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. -- Barack Hussein Obama Last edited by richlevy; 01-06-2006 at 05:19 PM.

12-01-2005, 09:04 AM	#121
Sundae polaroid of perfection Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 24,185	My Dad is dyslexic, so I haven't included some of his classics as it's not fair..... But Michelle Pettifer (Pfeiffer) made me laugh. Sandwich is often pronounced Samwitch here. I can hold my hand up to it myself (have sat here saying it repeatedly under my breath - I think my colleagues are looking up Witchfinder General on Yell.Com)

12-02-2005, 03:05 AM	#122
seakdivers Icy Queen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Southeast Alaska Posts: 700	Ah yes, dyslexia pops up in my family quite a bit. My sister used to write her friend Toby's name as ybot, so here it is 20 years later and I still call him ybot. It sounds like eebot.

12-14-2005, 11:01 AM	#123
Sundae polaroid of perfection Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 24,185	I'm not sure how common the phrase "Wolf it down" is, but even if you haven't heard it before you will agree it creates a clear mental image of the way someone is eating. Today I heard someone say "Woof it down". Not only is ait wrong but it's stupid! The worst thing is the little voices inside my head seem to like it and it's been circulating all day. Grrrrrrr - and I mean that literally.

12-15-2005, 09:21 PM	#126
seakdivers Icy Queen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Southeast Alaska Posts: 700	Thought of a couple more this evening. Species. Its not spee-shees. Its spee-sees. Also when people sign a card or type in an email "congrads". There is no D in congratulations. Shoooot, I had a couple more, but I've lost them. Axe me later.

12-24-2005, 12:16 AM	#130
Nunya Lead Subordinate Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: USA Posts: 15	Do you ever mispronounce words to purposely irritate your foreign friends? I do. One of my French friends hates it when Americans pronounce French words incorrectly. One day we were having a party and she was making crepes. I made sure to have a reason to say croissant, but I pronounced it "croy-SANT" just to see what she would do. She screamed,"CWASOOOO!!!" and then threw a crepe at me. Then I said, "Hey! Quit throwing creaps at me!" She did refrain from throwing the skillet at me.

12-24-2005, 12:43 AM	#132
Nunya Lead Subordinate Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: USA Posts: 15	Thanks!

01-06-2006, 05:26 PM	#135
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Hang lose, Rich......you've nothing to loose. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

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