# Mispronounced words and descriptions that drive you crazy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 22, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951 "2018-11-22T18:31:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/21 "2018-11-23T02:28:51Z")
> [@Stuntman\_Mike](#): > > Melk. > > It’s milk! Say it right. Yeah, I have a friend I grew up with who says it that way. We were always a bit amused and bemused by it, as nobody we knew said it like that, and he grew up in the same neighborhood as the rest of us. Even he didn’t know where he picked it up from (nor realized he was doing it.) His folks don’t talk like that, either. On the other hand, I somehow picked up pronunciations like “tyoosday” or “chews-day,” even though I didn’t grow up in a dialect where the pronunciation had that kind of softening of the “t.” Even today, I’ll sometimes slip up and say “chewsday” and I have no idea where I got that from. That appears to be the only word I soften the “t” like that. I have a feeling I may have as a kid I may have softened other “tu” combinations, but that’s the only one that still occasionally slips in. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/22 "2018-11-23T02:32:36Z")
Hate it when someone’s mispronouncing “puck” when their fingers are stretching out their cheeks. Oh let’s call the whole thing off! ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/23 "2018-11-23T02:40:05Z")
Probably an annoyance to those not born or lived a good number of years in Hawaii. Pidgin English is a common “second language” that almost everyone born here or lived for a while picks up unintentionally. So I’ll sometimes slip if I’m speaking in a rushed tone and say things like: “One, two, TREE” or “Ova dea”. Locals usually won’t blink and eye, but will sometimes laugh if they catch it. LOL, pulykamell have you ever lived in or visited Hawaii for an extended period? Maybe friends from Hawaii? Chewsday is how we say it in pidgin and there’s also Thirstday! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/24 "2018-11-23T02:43:14Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Sushi is just raw fish on rice and sashimi is raw fish. Sigh.There are hundreds of toppings for nigiri (the ones with the toppings and no nori -seaweed) sushi and sashimi can be any type of raw or very lightly grilled or fried (i.e. still raw in the center) seafood or meat. There’s even vegetarian sashimi made from konnyaku, a firm jello like block made from konjac root. Also, the rice in sushi isn’t just plain, it’s always prepared with at least some type of vinegar (usually mirin, sweet rice wine vinegar) and usually sugar for modern sushi and sometimes sake. Your descriptions are basically correct but I’m not clear on what errant pronunciation or description you’re complaining about here. Incidentally, I think the description of sashimi is somewhat understated. I love sushi and when I was at the sushi bar in a very good Japanese restaurant recently, one of the omakase offerings (basically a kind of prix fixe tasting menu of many courses) included both sashimi and sushi. I was a little hesitant because I prefer nigiri sushi and pictured sashimi as being basically nigiri without the rice. Not at all! At least, not in a great restaurant. The sashimi part of the meal was a series of absolutely delightful separate courses of all kinds of beautifully arranged elaborate dishes of all kinds, raw, grilled, whatever, and included fish, shellfish, and meats, all spectacularly presented with a wealth of accompanying exotic ingredients. It was absolutely heavenly, and then there were a great many rounds of different sushi. I was sure glad I had picked that particular omakase. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/25 "2018-11-23T02:46:42Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > The word “presently” correctly means “in the very near future.” It does not mean “now.” If you mean now, say now. People who say presently instead of now are just being pretentious. You’d enjoy South Africa, where “now” means presently. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/26 "2018-11-23T02:53:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Your descriptions are basically correct but I’m not clear on what errant pronunciation or description you’re complaining about here. > > Incidentally, I think the description of sashimi is somewhat understated. I love sushi and when I was at the sushi bar in a very good Japanese restaurant recently, one of the omakase offerings (basically a kind of prix fixe tasting menu of many courses) included both sashimi and sushi. I was a little hesitant because I prefer nigiri sushi and pictured sashimi as being basically nigiri without the rice. Not at all! At least, not in a great restaurant. The sashimi part of the meal was a series of absolutely delightful separate courses of all kinds of beautifully arranged elaborate dishes of all kinds, raw, grilled, whatever, and included fish, shellfish, and meats, all spectacularly presented with a wealth of accompanying exotic ingredients. It was absolutely heavenly, and then there were a great many rounds of different sushi. I was sure glad I had picked that particular omakase. 🙂 Your description is exactly what my gripe about ‘sashimi is raw fish’ is. I wish you were on a food channel and described what you had! Saying ‘sashimi is raw fish’ to me is akin to someone saying “Oh, so you had spaghetti?” when you tell them you had a great meal of pasta at an Italian restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/27 "2018-11-23T02:57:25Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > You’d enjoy South Africa, where “now” means presently. Or South Texas. “_Mañana_ doesn’t mean tomorrow. It just doesn’t mean today.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/28 "2018-11-23T03:07:57Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > LOL, pulykamell have you ever lived in or visited Hawaii for an extended period? Maybe friends from Hawaii? Chewsday is how we say it in pidgin and there’s also Thirstday! Nope. Visited for the first time in my late 20s. I grew up learning Polish first, and there are a lot of softened sounds in that languages (there are two different types of “sh,” “ch,” and “zh”-type sounds), so maybe somehow it comes from that, but I’m not sure how. I also wonder if some cartoon or TV show influenced my pronunciation, as I think most of my initial English exposure was through that, as my folks spoke Polish in the house and, until kindergarten, I didn’t really have any English-only speaking friends. I was wondering if it maybe be Wimpy from Popeye, but the examples I find have him saying “too-sday,” although there is one where he says “tyoos-day” and it’s not far from “tyoos-day” to “chewsday.” I’ll have to ask my parents, as I have no clue how I ended up learning English, but I must have had some knowledge of it before kindergarten. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/29 "2018-11-23T06:22:34Z")
One of my constant pet peeves is the confusion between “wandering” and “wondering.” WAHN-dering is moving around aimlessly. WUN-dering is being curious about something. I’ve heard professional singers miss this. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/30 "2018-11-23T07:26:42Z")
This should be called the pendant thread! 🙂 I thought this thread was going to be about Eric Clampton, Valentimes Day or fustrated kind of things. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/31 "2018-11-23T07:39:59Z")
People who think that \*gyros \*is a plural word. Much like \*kudos \*and many other Greek words, the S does not imply a plural. It is just a natural way that they end nouns. “I’d like one gyros sandwich, please,” is the correct formation. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/32 "2018-11-23T09:38:34Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > You’d enjoy South Africa, where “now” means presently. Not to mention the “right now”, “now-now” and “just now” variants. Oh, it’s better with [a chart](https://www.goodthingsguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/south-african-time-explained.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/33 "2018-11-23T10:43:28Z")
TEMP-a-chur for temperature, especially from a meteorologist. “Percision” for precision… in fact, any “per” for “pre” substitution. I hear it on commercials all the time! To me, it’s just lazy speech. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/34 "2018-11-23T16:09:44Z")
“Expresso”. Just stop. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/35 "2018-11-23T16:45:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > On the other hand, I somehow picked up pronunciations like “tyoosday” or “chews-day,” even though I didn’t grow up in a dialect where the pronunciation had that kind of softening of the “t.” Even today, I’ll sometimes slip up and say “chewsday” and I have no idea where I got that from. That appears to be the only word I soften the “t” like that. I have a feeling I may have as a kid I may have softened other “tu” combinations, but that’s the only one that still occasionally slips in. Another one that drives me nuts is they’ll pronounce Tuna ( fish ) like “chee-yoona”. Or New as “nee-yoo”. Don’t know where it comes from. My WAG would be that it’s “media english”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/36 "2018-11-23T17:18:04Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > People who think that \*gyros \*is a plural word. Much like \*kudos \*and many other Greek words, the S does not imply a plural. It is just a natural way that they end nouns. “I’d like one gyros sandwich, please,” is the correct formation. Ah, yeah, that one sometimes sticks out to me. That said, “yee-row” or “ghi-row” without the “s” I’ve grown accustomed to, so much so that I’ll even use it, knowing better. It’s the “jeye-row” pronunciation (as in gyroscope) that most grates. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/37 "2018-11-23T19:28:56Z")
Vinegrette is NOT vin-eh-gar-rette. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/38 "2018-11-23T20:47:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Ah, yeah, that one sometimes sticks out to me. That said, “yee-row” or “ghi-row” without the “s” I’ve grown accustomed to, so much so that I’ll even use it, knowing better. It’s the “jeye-row” pronunciation (as in gyroscope) that most grates. How are you supposed to pronounce “gyros”? I thought it was “YEE-ros,” but on Diane Kochilas’ Greek cooking show (PBS), she says it “JHY\*-ros,” and she lives in Greece. \*JHY rhymes with SHY, and with a soft “J” as in Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/39 "2018-11-23T20:53:20Z")
The ‘g’ in ‘gyro’ is pronounced like the ‘g’ in ‘garage’ ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/40 "2018-11-23T21:16:34Z")
> [@Stuntman\_Mike](#): > > Melk. It’s milk! Say it right. For reasons unknown, my mother always pronounced it “mee yilk” (pronounced as I’ve written it, spoken quickly as one viscous syllable). The one I hear regularly in present day real life: “REE luh tur” (a person who sells Real Estate). And just to show how brave and honest I am - after seeing it upthread, I shall never again pronounce _vinaigrette_ “vinegar ett.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951.md?page=3)