# People who insist on mispronouncing words **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 23, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471 "2014-06-23T18:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/141 "2014-06-28T06:00:05Z")
I guess we shouldn’t mention lieutenant at all then, eh? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/142 "2014-06-28T06:41:17Z")
> [@infinitii](#): > > I’ve pronounced Linux with the vowel sounds like sinus for as long as I’ve known the word. I’m not going to change. I wouldn’t feel bad about it. I once heard GWB pronounce it as Loonix, and was very surprised that the comedic community seemed to utterly miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Nerdessence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nerdessence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nerdessence)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/143 "2014-06-28T09:25:04Z")
Mispronunciation Gems from the Workplace: “I want a new bedroom suit.” “Got any new pitchers?” “Well, ob-vus-ly, you don’t get it.” “What are we 'posed to do?” “I’m not stocking you, I promise!” (stalking) BONUS: For awhile there, I was reading _Moby Dick_ on my break period and a gal walked up to me and asked, “Is that the one about the whale?” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/144 "2014-06-28T12:39:36Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I guess we shouldn’t mention lieutenant at all then, eh? 😉 Pitch in colonel, too, but that’s already been mentioned, right? And does anybody, in everyday speech, say the “-day” in the names of the days? Around here, except for overly pedantic types and “News” people, it’s just “-dy.” ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/145 "2014-06-28T12:46:20Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Pitch in colonel, too, but that’s already been mentioned, right? > > And does anybody, in everyday speech, say the “-day” in the names of the days? Around here, except for overly pedantic types and “News” people, it’s just “-dy.” I always say “day.” ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/146 "2014-06-28T12:47:23Z")
> [@Nerdessence](#): > > …“I’m not stocking you, I promise!” (stalking)… I pronounce “stalking” and “stocking” the same. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/147 "2014-06-28T12:47:31Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I always say “day.” And you’re not from “around here” are you? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/148 "2014-06-28T13:19:03Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > And you’re not from “around here” are you? 🙂 Yeah, maybe the “day” is a thing people do in certain parts of Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/149 "2014-06-28T13:24:22Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I’m English, lifelong UK resident; and I pronounce the word in four syllables – rhyming the end more like with “curry”(using the sort of all-purpose “weak” non-vowel). I have the impression that most people I know, pronounce it that way. Interesting. I’m surprised it sounds anything like “curry” and that a lot of people seem to say it that way. I’d be interested to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/150 "2014-06-28T13:32:56Z")
I just thought about it some more. Are you somewhere further north than me? Do you use a schwa sound in “curry”, as in the last syllable of “Canada”? (I was searching for an example so I borrowed a word from the previous post) and say the third syllable in “military” as if it’s only just there? That would make sense to me, and would be close to my pronunciation. ---
**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:** [June 28, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/151 "2014-06-28T13:47:42Z")
One that bugs me is vinaigrette. It’s vin-eh-gret, or possibly vin-ah-gret. It is NOT vin-ah-gah-ret! For place names, the town of Charlotte in MI is sha-LOT. Gawd knows why… In TN, there’s Ooltewah, which everyone who lives in the area pronounces ootle-wah And it may be LA-fay-ette, IN, but it’s la-FAY-yet, GA. My husband can’t say ‘drawer’ - it’s always ‘draw’. Linux he gets, but Joomla is beyond him, and I can’t even attempt a phonetic spelling of what he spews 😛 At least he knows that the point is moot, not mute. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/152 "2014-06-28T13:55:58Z")
> [@saje](#): > > At least he knows that the point is moot, not mute. Most likely I have posted this before but anyway… One of the “middle manager” types I had to work with was my best buddy’s boss and he was forever mangling the Mother Tongue with shit like… “Do me a graft of that fomula that shows the disturbution of the peach goods and a analyzation of the precentages, unless it’s a mute point.” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/153 "2014-06-28T15:08:45Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I pronounce “stalking” and “stocking” the same. In New York, they’re a little different, but in Indiana, they’re not, just like the first names “Don” and “Dawn” are different words in New York, but in Indiana, they are the same. Once I was working in an office where I had two co-workers who were also from New York, but everyone else was from Indiana, except one person, who was a military brat, and had a generic “TV” accent. One person was going on about two people we had to deal with, a case worker and a client, Dawn “Smith,” and Don “Jones.” She kept calling them by their full names, because she said the first names the same. After ten minutes of it, one of the New Yorkers responded, and just talked about Dawn and Don, and it was perfectly clear who she meant without last names. We laughed a little about this later. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/154 "2014-06-29T03:48:06Z")
At least the people who pronounce Cairo as Kay-ro are aware it’s not Ki-ro, but at least as concerns the one in NY it still proclaims you are “not from here.” Locals say Care-o, as in who cares - I care. In Ohio people in their second year of HS are South-mores. Not to mention “PutMaN” county, named for Gen. PutNaM. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/155 "2014-06-29T17:16:23Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I have a friend who insists on pronouncing “military” > with four distinct syllables, rhyming the end with “berry”. > > I know that’s normal in the US, but that’s not the standard pronunciation in the UK; we use three syllables: approximately “mil-i-tree”. I don’t think it’s American influence so much as an assumption that everyone pronouncing it the standard way is just being lazy. > [@vontsira](#): > > I’m English, lifelong UK resident; and I pronounce the word in four syllables – rhyming the end more like with “curry”(using the sort of all-purpose “weak” non-vowel). I have the impression that most people I know, pronounce it that way. > [@Bozuit](#): > > Interesting. I’m surprised it sounds anything like “curry” and that a lot of people seem to say it that way. I’d be interested to hear it. > [@Bozuit](#): > > I just thought about it some more. Are you somewhere further north than me? \*\* Do you use a schwa sound\*\* in “curry”, as in the last syllable of “Canada”? (I was searching for an example so I borrowed a word from the previous post) **and say the third syllable in “military” as if it’s only just there**? That would make sense to me, and would be close to my pronunciation. My parents came from the Chester area: I consider that essentially I speak the Queen’s English, but somewhat overlaid with the Northernish accent that I got from them. I’ve lived all over England – nowadays, in Birmingham. Indeed, a schwa sound in syllable 3 of “military” – altogether, I say it pretty much, the way you express it in the bolded above (in my previous post, couldn’t think of the word “schwa”) – except that I think I put more emphasis on syllable 3, than “only just there” – my pronunciation of the word, very definitely four syllables. I’m not all that perceptive re pronunciation: but have the impression that throughout my life and wherever I’ve lived in England, I’ve heard the four-syllable “mil-i-tuh-ry” far more than the three-syllable “mil-i-tree”. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/156 "2014-06-29T18:08:31Z")
The four-syllable US pronunciation is still different. It’s MIL-i-_ **TER** _-ee. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/157 "2014-06-29T18:20:00Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The four-syllable US pronunciation is still different. It’s MIL-i-_ **TER** _-ee. Not if “ter” rhymes with “purr.” At least I’ve never heard it that way. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/158 "2014-06-29T18:29:26Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Not if “ter” rhymes with “purr.” At least I’ve never heard it that way. Rhymes with “tear,” as in “rip.” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/159 "2014-06-29T19:19:34Z")
That sounds like the pronunciation of some colonel as he’s chomping on a cigar and poking out of a tank hatch. “The MIL-i-TER-ee will PRO-ceed to bom-BARD the Vee-ET-cong.” Or basically the tank guys in Starcraft. Normal emphasis is on the last syllable, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471/160 "2014-06-29T19:47:52Z")
All those who pronounce herb without the h are pretentious twits and will be first against the wall when I’m emperor of the world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-insist-on-mispronouncing-words/691471.md?page=9)