Say what?

Mispronounced words?

Where? (aka, Who me?)

You might be surprised.

To-MAH-to, po-TAH-to.

Don’t you wanna know?

Seriously, though …

There’s quite a queue of words that we’re likely to mispronounce on any given day.

(A sandwich spread or a prodigal poet—you might mispronounce and not even know it.)

Persnickety, you say?

Perhaps.

Chinchilla_cat_(5833713404)

Photo by allen watkin via Wikimedia Commons

Although you should know that it’s technically pernickety.

Well, it is.

Anyway, if you want to feel just a little bit smarter than you did when you woke up this morning, here’s an easy means to that end:

Affluent

Don’t say: a-FLU-ent

Do say: AFF-lu-ent


Either (Neither)?

Well, just watch:


Mayonnaise

Don’t say: mannaize

Do say: MAY-o-naize

 

Miniature

Don’t say: minichur

Do say: miniachur (yup – the short “a” sound should be heard)

 

Potable

Don’t say: pottable

Do say: potable (long “o” is the way to go)

 

Prestigious

Don’t say: pre-STEE-jus

Do say: pre-STI-jus (short “i”)

 

Respite

Don’t say: respite (rhymes with despite)

Do say: respit

 

Seuss (as in, the good doctor of children’s literature)

Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, adopted his pen name from his German mother’s maiden name, which was properly pronounced in the native tongue as “Soice” (rhymes with voice). But, the American inclination to say “Soose” stuck, and Geisel gave in, realizing that it was potentially profitable to rhyme with another famous name in children’s lit—Mother Goose.


Silicone

Don’t say: silicone

Do say: silicon

 

The (nope, not kidding)

Technically speaking, there are some instances when one should say “thuh” and others when this word’s pronunciation should be “thee.” According to Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, pronunciation of “the” depends on how you pronounce the word that follows it. If the following word begins with a consonant sound, you say “thuh” (as in, “thuh” farmhouse). But if the following word starts with a vowel sound, you say “thee” (as in, “thee” egg).

Thee egg and me, prestigious. Pass the mayo please.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    This is all very interesting. I would add that regional location has a lot to do with how we learn to pronounce words too. When everyone speaks a certain way, you just grow up not knowing anything different. Here in the South, we have a lot of “alternative” ways words are pronounced. For that matter, it differs from state to state with certain words. When I was in New Orleans, with it’s Cajun overtones, I had a hard time understanding the locals at times. The cadence also gets tricky in some areas too. I understand that in Britain, some of the local dialects and pronunciation makes it almost non-English sounding. So, what is the correct way to say something? Mignon Fogerty’s recommendations or the local interpretation? LOL!!!

  2. Darlene Ricotta says:

    Well that was really interesting and I learned a lot from that today.

    Thanks.

    Have a good Sunday.

  3. Cindi says:

    First off, I am completely astounded that this is the subject for the day ~ since earlier this morning I was bemoaning the loss of my pronunciation guide to advancements in technology that rendered my old program useless. To Winnie’s comment about growing up not knowing anything different ~ I completely agree, often wondering how I knew to change the way I pronounce “the” depending on the following word. I don’t remember ever being taught to do that. Then we come to mayonnaise. A word of many wonders! Ugh. Defying the regional location theory, my oldest daughter says “mannaize”. How can that happen?! I raised her! I think. But then… she also says “am-blee-anz” instead of ambulance. I hang my head in dismay 🙂 🙂

    • MaryJane says:

      My kids had fun saying pasketti instead of spaghetti, si-LA-ble instead of syllable. My mother said liar instead of lawyer:), chimley instead of chimney and in Utah where I grew up they go to great effort to get their tenses wrong–I tense wrong, therefore I belong. “We was just getting ready to leave.” “She weren’t aiming high enough.”

      • Cindi says:

        Ahh hahaha! My sister-in-law gets her tenses wrong, as well as using the most irritating “and I says…”

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Urge to Nest

Need a little vernal vocab to impress your friends?

Tweet this:

nidificate (NID-u-fi-cate)

Meaning: to build a nest

As in:

Photo courtesy GiantBirdsNest.com

It’s REAL.

Designed by OGE CreativeGroup as “a fusion of furniture and playground,” the Giant Birdsnest is pure farmgirl fantasy.

Photo courtesy GiantBirdsNest.com

“The wooden nest is filled with highly comfortable egg-shaped sitting poofs, which allow ergonomic sitting positions and various configurations for informal meetings and social exchange,” explain creators Merav Eitan and Gaston Zahr. “The nest comes in various sizes, from a small and intimate nest for one, up to a big version, which can host 16 people at once. The soft space is a perfectly comfortable and inspiring place for resting, browsing the Web, reading, relaxing, loving, talking, briefing, discussing … Simply jump in and enjoy.”

Wondering about DIY, aren’t you.

 

  1. Cindi says:

    THAT is cool! Everybody would always want to come to my house if I made one of those (yes, DIY!). As for the word… my poor tongue is getting all tangled up with my brain practicing that one. Perhaps it is best that this word stays quietly in my notebook ~ where it can nidificate. (oh it is fun to type ~ spell check does not like it!)

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Now, that is cool and very artistic! It goes way beyond the old original bean bag craze of the 1960s. My only wonder is if you can get yourself up easily, as in old bones and old age get up easy. I can sort of see myself stuck in there like a beached whale!

  3. Virginia Meyer says:

    I think it would be fun just to have one or two eggs in my living room or on my bed. I have a reading corner in my room where I have all sorts of pillows piled up, with a small canopy over head, where I like to do my reading while relaxing. I could put one or two of them, (egg pillows), in my reading corner! How fun would that be!

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