Okay, so I was watching the McCain speech a few nights ago and I heard him say "Warshington". Seriously, this gaffe is enough to sway my vote alone...there is no "R" in Washington!! So...
Why do people miss-pronounce words that are clearly spelled?
It happens all the time. From "Expresso" to "Warshington" I can't help but get aggravated when I hear people miss-pronounce words. So below you will see a guide of the most common (at least that I can think of) words that are miss-pronounced.
Incorrectly - that's right people, there is a "T" in there before the "ly". Let's break it down as my second grade teacher did. In-correct-ly, say it together class "incorrectly". That's good! You all get a gold star.
Hundred - I used to always get mad at this one kid in my grade school class that always said "Hunnerd". I realize that I grew up in a rural town with farmers and ranchers that talk with that country drawl, but the word is clearly spelled with two "D"s. "Hun-dred" just because there are two does not mean that one "D" is less important than the other.
Nuclear - This one gets miss-pronounced all the time! If we break it down into syllables you can clear-ly see how "New-clear" is supposed to sound.
Especially and Espresso- If there is one sure way for people to think that you have a lower IQ, it's definitely to pronounce "ESP" "EXP". There is no "X" in either of these words so please, leave that consonant alone!
Frustrate - This one really is really "fustrating" to me. Yes, there are two "R"s in there, so please give this consonant it's due (twice) and pronounce the word "FR-UH-STR-ATE".
Realty - I have actually been guilty of this myself. It is correctly pronounced "REAL-TEE". A lot of people like to put an "A" in there, but really it's real-tee!
Last and certainly not least (as I'm sure there are many more, feel free to comment if you have another good suggestion!)
Pitcher or Picture. My high school geometry teacher used to always refer to a picture as "PICHER". I was genuinely waiting for an example of a pitcher so that she would say "Look at the picher of the pitcher." Perhaps then she would realize there is a "C" in "PICK-CHUR".
Alright, I'm off my high horse. You have to agree that four years of listening to the person representing our country refer to the White House in "Warshington" would get pretty old!
Edit: Thank you to anonymous for pointing out that I miss-spelled "definately". With all the deliberate miss-spellings I didn't catch that...even on my high horse I can be humbled!!
Also, watching the Presidential Debate I noticed a definite change in McCain's pronunciation. Kudos to his speech therapist!
3 comments:
Another of my favorites, "supposibly". Another mistake that even well educated people make is "for all intesive purposes." The phrase is "for all intents and purposes." We should all write that down.
Okay here comes the linguistics person...I am in no way defending John McCain, but it is actually a dialect to pronounce words with "r"...Warshington, Idear, or to leave the r out...such as my lovely man who is from the Northeast, and kid you not, thought ulcer was actually pronounced ulca. The other ones - there is truly no good reason not to know them.
I agree with your comments, but you misspelled definitely. That is me on my high horse.
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