where/were
then/than
epitaph/epithet
I heard a national sports radio broadcaster talking about the Riley Cooper incident. He said that Cooper had used a racial epitaph.
People who pronounce the name Xavier as ex-avier. Why would you pronounce the first letter separately? You don’t say bee-ob or eff-rank. It’s zavier. If you can’t pronounce it, then don’t give your kid that name.
“kew-pon” for “coupon”. I can cope with “nucular”, but this one sets my teeth on edge.
Maybe it IS a Pacific problem.
I have never heard the name Xavier pronounced “zavier”. There are a few Xaviers in my extended family, and they are all pronounced “Ha-vyer”, 2 syllables, accent on the second syllable.
But they can pronounce it. Their standard pronunciation just happens to differ from yours.
One that I’ve noticed lately is when someone says ever when they mean every, and every when they mean ever. For example:
“I see her ever day” and “Every since I was a child…”
People who use “I know” when they mean “I believe.” Mostly religious people “Well, I know the Bible is the truth, and it says…”
I’ve never heard the name Xavier pronouced Zavier. Do you have any examples where this is the case?
Really? I hear all three pronunciations. The St. Xavier near my high school was usually pronounced “ex-zayvyer” but I was taught that “zayvyer” was the correct pronunciation for “Xavier” (at least in American English. Of course, there is also the Hah-vyer pronunciation for Spanish names.)
Listen to the English samples here. One of the Americans pronounces it “ex-zayvyer,” the other two Americans and one Australian pronounces it “zay-vyer.”
This is the one that screws me up, because I can’t remember which pronunciation it is that some people have an issue with. I vacillate between q-pon and koo-pon, but I believe q-pon was the predominant pronunciation in my Chicago neighborhood.
The only one that immediately comes to mind is the misuse of “penultimate.” It seemed to have gone away for away, and now I’ve been noticing its misuse more and more again. “Nonplussed” to mean something like “unfazed” kinda irks me, too.
Joolery.
People who say “Quote unquote” and then whatever they meant to put in quotes. Include the finger gestures for bonus points.
Makes me wanna smack them…
Plantain. The second syllable is pronounced as in mountain, I’m certain. I have found no real dictionary online or in print that gives the Food Network’s mispronunciation of plantain.
Larynx and pharynx. The y is before the n, therefore the proper pronunciations are lair-inks and fair-inks.
I once saw a sign outside a church that read:
Ever body welcome.
I’m likely, here, about to kill (afresh) this thread – a thing which I seem pretty good at doing; anyway – re Malacandra’s original cited mis-speak “How long will it take to fix this pacific problem?” Herewith, an alternative scenario of how the cited, could be accurate and appropriate: being a railway nut, I dream about the good old times long ago, when the world’s railways were mostly operated by steam locomotives. The “Pacific” type of loco – name randomly hit on, for the arrangement of its wheels, “4-6-2” (two pairs of leading wheels on a bogie, three pairs of driving wheels, one pair of trailing wheels) – was greatly favoured for hauling express trains.
One imagines a locomotive depot, many decades ago, which habitually used its only locomotive of this type, for a particular out-and-home express-train working. Train time is approaching, but the “Pacific” loco has suffered some mechanical fault; fitters are frantically working to put it right. One imagines the depot superintendent anxiously asking, “How long will it take to fix this Pacific problem?” On the basis of the answer, he’d need to decide on: whether or not to forget about the “Pacific” loco for that day, and to have the express hauled by a locomotive of a less suitable type, which was however functional.
Huh. Learn something new. All my life, I’ve pronounced it “plan-tane” (and this is well before the Food Network.) Still do. I feel kind of like how when I discovered that “folk” doesn’t have an “l” pronounced in it, and “sherbet” really is supposed to be spelled and said without a second “r.”
Heh. I’ve always wondered why people pronounce the second syllable in “sherbet” as “bert.” 
Like, “Huh, the vagaries of human speech.”? Because that’s how I feel. I say plan-tane and sherbert and anyone who doesn’t like it can get their own dessert.
Yeah, I continue to say “sher-bert” because if I said “sher-bit” (or however it’s supposed to be pronounced) almost everyone I know will look at me as if I came from another planet. I literally don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say the word without two rs.