# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![TheMightyFro](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themightyfro/32/20081_2.png) [@TheMightyFro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMightyFro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/101 "2018-11-26T12:24:58Z")
My personal favorite: “Su-pose-a-bly” for “Supposedly”. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/102 "2018-11-26T12:32:35Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > 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. Our choral director raised this with us the other week. I was confused as to me, “wandering” and “wondering” have always been homophones. I understand why a distinction here would be useful, but I’ve never heard it or learned of it and even now I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/103 "2018-11-26T13:19:47Z")
> [@TheMightyFro](#): > > My personal favorite: “Su-pose-a-bly” for “Supposedly”. I worked with someone who did this and I never corrected him. When he kept on using the phrase “the powers to be”, that crossed the line and I did correct him on that. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/104 "2018-11-26T13:29:14Z")
I share every one of the peeves mentioned, except, oddly enough, not the example in the OP. Luckily “karaoke” doesn’t come up in conversation too often. I don’t think I saw “pitcher” mentioned. That would be the word “picture” as mispronounced by some adults and many five year olds. The same crowd that says “Liberry” instead of “library” Forward, as in the overused corporate blather “. . . going forward” is pronounced FOURwerd, not FOwerd. Unless one is from some part of New York, there’s mo reason to omit the “r”. And what’s with saying words that start with “st” being said as “sht”, like “shtreet” instead of street. Is that some kind of regionalism? Speech impediment? How does a person pick up that particular problem? There are so many more I could mention; I really hate listening to most people speak 😛 But I can’t let a mispronunciation thread go by without mentioning the worst one: Reeses, as in peanut butter cups, is NOT pronounced REE SEAS. Stop it. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/105 "2018-11-26T14:29:14Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Forward, as in the overused corporate blather “. . . going forward” is pronounced FOURwerd, not FOwerd. Unless one is from some part of New York, there’s mo reason to omit the “r”. The person could be from England!? Or Savannah, Georgia, or any number of other places… > [@](#): > > And what’s with saying words that start with “st” being said as “sht”, like “shtreet” instead of street. Is that some kind of regionalism? Speech impediment? How does a person pick up that particular problem? Philadelphia and/or German accent? – Here is one example: anyone pronouncing “Culzean Castle” or “Clan Mackenzie” with a /z/. That’s not even Gaelic… ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/106 "2018-11-26T14:38:59Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Turmeric is having a moment, and people keep pronouncing it **TOO** -mer-ic, and leaving out the “R.” WHY?? It has an “r”?! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/107 "2018-11-26T14:54:54Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The person could be from England!? Or Savannah, Georgia, or any number of other places… > > Philadelphia and/or German accent? > > – > > Here is one example: anyone pronouncing “Culzean Castle” or “Clan Mackenzie” with a /z/. That’s not even Gaelic… This isn’t British non-rhotic - that would be more like “fauwood” (also, Brits sound delightful and can speak no wrong:)). I would also recognize a German accent. I’m talking about that annoying thing the otherwise incomparable Michelle Obama does. Speaking of Philadelphia, however, I had a coworker whose irritating way of saying “batatas” for potatoes and “birfday” for birthday seems to have been a regional thing. ---
**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 26, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/108 "2018-11-26T15:10:21Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > Our choral director raised this with us the other week. I was confused as to me, “wandering” and “wondering” have always been homophones. I understand why a distinction here would be useful, but I’ve never heard it or learned of it and even now I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. Interesting. I didn’t realize there were dialects that pronounced the two the same. I wonder if it’s related to the cot-caught merger, though it doesn’t involve quite those same vowels. ---
**Author:** ![PAjoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pajoe/32/58_2.png) [@PAjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PAjoe)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/109 "2018-11-26T16:08:47Z")
- Asterrick ---
**Author:** ![Stana\_Claus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stana_claus/32/13874_2.png) [@Stana\_Claus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stana_Claus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/110 "2018-11-26T16:15:52Z")
My children make fun of me because I actually pronounce the r in February. It’s Fe-brew-ary, not Feb-yew-ary! ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/111 "2018-11-26T16:47:31Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > … > Can’t stand it when I hear people use “a” like “ay” and “the” like “thee.” Like “Thee cat has run up ay tree.” It sounds like the person is still in first grade and I can’t see how someone gets to adulthood still saying those simple words the wrong way. > … “Thee” before cat is definitely wrong. But it is absolutely correct before words that start with vowel sounds. “Thuh” before those words…you sound like a prehistoric caveman trying to speak for the first time. “A” as “Ay” is sometimes correct but I cannot for the life of me remember the rule/circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/112 "2018-11-26T17:00:19Z")
> [@PAjoe](#): > > - Asterrick I had a math teacher that pronounced it that way. He also pronounced “asymptote” as “asthma-tote”. No lie. ---
**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 26, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/113 "2018-11-26T17:01:03Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > “Thee” before cat is definitely wrong. But it is absolutely correct before words that start with vowel sounds. “Thuh” before those words…you sound like a prehistoric caveman trying to speak for the first time. That’s the traditional “rule,” but it’s not quite that neat. “THEE” can absolutely be used for emphasis before “cat.” Like, “No, not AY cat, THEE cat.” Or, “Is that Michael Jordan, like THEE Michael Jordan?” Or, “La Casa Bonita has THEE best carne asade tacos!” Native speakers also very often use the “thee” pronunciation before a hesitatation pause/break in a thought, while talking. And often native speakers will just use one pronunciation throughout, or the “thuh” pronunciation before a vowel. It’s not an iron-clad rule of any sort. But “THEE” is traditionally considered an emphatic form that can be used before consonants. ---
**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 26, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/114 "2018-11-26T17:22:58Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I had a math teacher that pronounced it that way. > > He also pronounced “asymptote” as “asthma-tote”. > > No lie. I can beat that. I had an American history teacher who, during one class, referred to “Salt Ste. Marie”. Not once, but several times. I went up to him afterwards and told him nicely what the correct pronunciation was. His answer was, and I quote: “It doesn’t matter.” :smack: ---
**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 26, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/115 "2018-11-26T17:29:38Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I can beat that. I had an American history teacher who, during one class, referred to “Salt Ste. Marie”. Not once, but several times. I went up to him afterwards and told him nicely what the correct pronunciation was. His answer was, and I quote: “It doesn’t matter.” :smack: Which is apparently “Sue Saint Marie,” something I didn’t know, either, even though it shows up in crosswords a good bit for the “STE.” It’s tough, because sometimes/often the Frenchy words get pronounced Frenchy, and sometimes they don’t. (For example, we have “Des Plaines” here as a Chicago suburb, pronounced “dess plains” or more like “deh-splains” and not" day plan" or similar. Heck, even “Illinois” should end with “wah” as the French intended, and better reflects the Ojibwe word it was trying to represent. Or take Des Moines, which is kind of a mess, sorta French, sorta not. ---
**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 26, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/116 "2018-11-26T17:36:21Z")
ETA: (And I don’t think “sault” would quite reflect “sue,” anyway, if I’m remembering my French classes correctly. More like “so.”) ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/117 "2018-11-26T18:00:31Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I can beat that. I had an American history teacher who, during one class, referred to “Salt Ste. Marie”. Not once, but several times. I went up to him afterwards and told him nicely what the correct pronunciation was. His answer was, and I quote: “It doesn’t matter.” :smack: I wasn’t going to reply to Riemann’s last post (letting him/her have the last word), but these are examples of what really gets my goat! I can accept the general public mispronouncing words (which sometimes irritates me, but not to the point of internalized anger), but there are now a number of fellow students who will defend the incorrect form, “Because that’s how my teacher said it and he/she MUST be right!”. During the Vietnam era, people would pronounce Vietnam as Viet Nam (rhymes with bomb) or Viet Naam (rhymes with bam). I asked my father which pronunciation was correct and he said “Well, President Nixon says Viet Naam” so that’s the way we say it." Intuitively I knew that wasn’t correct, but I had two authority figures tell me so, so it must be correct! BTW, I still continued to say Viet Nam. It wasn’t until much later, when I heard some native Vietnamese speaking in person, that Viet Nam was in fact closer to the original form. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/118 "2018-11-26T18:08:14Z")
That place where your horses are poncing about? It’s a fucking manège, not a ménage. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/119 "2018-11-26T18:11:27Z")
lie-berry gets on my nerves Is it that hard to say lie-b-airy? There’s no berry in library. ---
**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 26, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951/120 "2018-11-26T18:33:47Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > lie-berry gets on my nerves > > Is it that hard to say lie-b-airy? > > There’s no berry in library. Do you mean lie-brairy, with both Rs ? Because otherwise, berry and bairy are the same in my dialect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mispronounced-words-and-descriptions-that-drive-you-crazy/824951.md?page=7)