A common mispronounciation in south TX is “fustrate” instead of “frustrate” and it drives me absolutely batshit.
The wrong word which bugs me the most (at the moment) is “literally”, especially when in print. “It literally scared the crap out of me” or “She literally flew down the hall.” Grrr…
Also “supposively”
Well, she’s a pretty good friend, so yeah, I’ve smacked her. But just lightly, on the arm in a “You’re such an idiot!” kind of way. 
What I can’t figure out is how “Grand Canyons” makes more sense than “Grand Caymans.”
People who think the name Craig is pronounced “Creg”.
I live about 30 minutes away from you and I came to point out all kinds of regional mispronounciations. My high school guidance counselor said “Ohia” instead of “Ohio” and “yella” instead of “yellow”. Common ones that I hear are “wrastlin”-“wrestling”, “geetar”-“guitar”, “oncte”-“once”, “twicte”-“twice”, “war”-“wire”, “pal”-“pile” and my personal favorite “I-talian” instead of “Italian”. As in, “My I-talian dressing was made in I-taly.” GRRR.
I could go on and on (oops…too late) but I will spare you any more of this butchered piece of work that some people call the English language.
Maybe it would help if you told her that a cayman is a big lizard.
Of course, since she seems to think that her opinion is more important than the opinions of the people who live there, chances of that making an impression are slim.
Like others here, I absolutely LOATHE it when people who hope to make themselves look smarter than they are misuse “apropos,” but what really makes me crazy is when they throw in “begs the question” without knowing what that means. (Of course, I also hate it when people use arguments that beg the question, that’s another issue entirely.)
I think a lot of mistakes are due to people’s lack of experience with reading, leading to such abominations as “could of” in place of “could have.” People use the word they think they hear without ever asking themselves if that construction makes any sense.
That word, I do not think it means what you think it means…
Happy Snoopy dance that I said it first!
My wife’s redneck grandfather prattles on about how he’s got a “fibulator” for his heart condition.
(Sorry I can’t contribute much to this thread - I work in radio, where people are pretty well-spoken.)
There’s a car commercial that uses “begs the question” incorrectly, and it’s on con-stant-ly. It drives me up a wall–especially since it’s for some luxury car, and the announcer’s supposed to sound all suave and sophisticated. To my ear, it’s as though he said, in that smarmy-suave announcer voice, “The Luxucar 3991E: You never seen nothing like it.”
I’ve certainly known people who used the wrong words, but what really sticks out in my mind was when I picked up the wrong word. I was corrected, and not gently, for using flaunt instead of flout on a message board once. And for a brief time, when I becan studying relativity, I had “casual relationship” mixed up with “causal relationship.” I’ve never had a very good grasp of relativity, and, to be honest, my love life wasn’t too great at the time, either. Coincidence? Or causally related? 
I had a vo-tech instructor who said “otherwise” when he wanted to say “in other words”. It was confusing, until we learned to ‘translate’.
My boss says “mute” for “moot.” Even though I have worked for the man for 16 years, I cannot bear to tell him…
There’s a local car commercial for a new Lexus dealership near me that is just awful.
Since it’s for Lexus, the whole thing is very snooty and high-end. The dialogue at the beginning between the supposedly sophisticated couple is as follows:
The husband says, “Are you ready to go pick out our new Lexus?”
The wife responds, “I’ve never been readier.”
:eek:
I can’t believe it made it through copywriters and various ad execs and whomever to making it on the air.
I very commonly hear people say, when something doesn’t make sense, “That doesn’t jive.”
My SO, when he plans to try a different approach to a problem, says he’s “going to take another tact.”
Why not? Readier is a perfectly legitimate word. To quote the linked page:
Meanwhile, other people are driven batshit when mispronunciation is misspelled…
Okay, I stand corrected (but I’d never use it).
I think it should be “I’ve never been more ready.”
People who say “Take it for granite” instead of “granted” really need to stop and think about it first. Granite??
And: “Couldn’t care less” is the correct phrase, not “could care less.”
Fortuitously, I all ways use the rite herd when I poach on this missive bored!
:smack: Dang! I never remember how to spell that one correctly. This time I knew I had just seen it and stole it from that earlier post. But what the hey, I’ll take the burn. Teach me to look it up next time!
My mother used to disapprove of the amount of time that my brother and I spent playing Intendo. (Nintendo).