Mis-pronunciation of common words
I used to have a headmaster who said 'electriticy' and got *very* sharp if corrected by a pupil.

'Supposably' for 'supposedly' - how the heck can you get that wrong?

'Wensday' is not a day of the week, unless the Norse All-father was really named 'Wen'!

Similarly, 'Feb-yew-erry' is not a month of the year.

I also dislike it when people use 'nucular' for 'nuclear', 'of' for 'have' (I should of thought of that...), or the interjection 'you know' as a conversational comma.

What bugs me, is when I've been pronouncing a word a certain way, because I've only seen it written down, then run into someone who pronounces it a different way, for the same reason. Especially if I'm wrong, because it takes me *ages* to correct my pronunciation.

I once described a huge old car my Dad had as being an absolute behemoth (pronounced buh-hee-muth), and got confused looks from someone who eventually twigged and said the same word as bayer-moth.

Ditto 'leviathan' - luh-vee-ya-thun or leh-vya-thun?


I quite like it when language forms new structures. I don't mind "My bad." as a phrase indicative of "I made a trivial mistake and accept responsibility, but as it was so trivial, let's waste no more time on it." I prefer it to 'Sorry' on certain occasions, where I'm not feeling any degree of actual sorrow, but recognise that I have made a mistake that I should not have done.

And I rather like the pronunciation of 'WTF?' as 'wuh-tuh-fuh?' as this is handy for situations where I don't want to say 'fuck', but it sounds sufficiently close to the original phrase.

I work in a programming team, and it's not unknown for someone to pronounce 'RTFM' as 'Rutfum' in answer to a question. Also heard from time to time is 'Jufgey' (JFGI).

The most disassociated from reality though was one recently, where I offered to tape an album for a friend. What I meant was rip a CD to MP3 and copy it onto a memory stick for him. Actual tape and vinyl were not involved, but he knew what I meant anyway...
(Leo Sasquatch hates being the grown-up, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 8:08, 6 replies)

Seems you're just a bit aspergers!
How should you pronounce Wednesday then? Because I don't know anybody that *doesn't* say 'wensday'.

Agree with most of your others except leviathan. Not exactly a common word is it?!
(The Boy Monders I have ginger bits in my beard., Fri 9 Apr 2010, 8:22, closed)

I say 'weddunsday'.
'Wensday' sounds sloppy and vulgar to me.
( Bob Todd whee, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 10:10, closed)

Had a law tutor who pronounced 'aforethought' as 'afterthought'
So someone could be accused of a crime with 'malice afterthought', which presumably meant that he didn't really mean to shoot someone but was very annoyed with him afterwards.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 8:29, closed)

I still
"tape" stuff off the telly.
Even though it's just on the Sky+ box, and then possibly transferred to DVD-R.
Old habits.....
(greatoldone Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl f'tagn, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 8:32, closed)

On the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack
Steven Wright pronounces it Bo-hwee-muth
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 9:09, closed)

My Norwegian friend had the best;
Hippo-po-tamus.
Took me ages to work it out!
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 11:04, closed)