8 pronunciation errors that made the English language what it is today
Think hyperbole rhymes with Super Bowl? Don’t worry, it could be the start of something beautiful
Someone I know tells a story about a very senior academic giving a speech. Students shouldn’t worry too much, she says, if their plans “go oar-y” after graduation. Confused glances are exchanged across the hall. Slowly the penny drops: the professor has been pronouncing “awry” wrong all through her long, glittering career.
Not a nadder any more. Photograph: Natural England/PA
We’ve all been there. I still lapse into mis-CHEE-vous if I’m not concentrating. This week some PR whizzes working for a railway station with an unusual name unveiled the results of a survey into frequently garbled words. The station itself is routinely confused with an endocrine gland about the size of a carrot (you can see why they hired PRs). Researchers also found that 340 of the 1000 surveyed said ex-cetera instead of etcetera, while 260 ordered ex-pressos instead of espressos. Prescription came out as perscription or proscription 20% of the time.
This kind of email appeals to me, as does anything concerning words and language. Thank you!
A couple more that drive me crazy is when someone uses the term unthaw when they are referring to defrosting something and the other is the irregardless, which is not even a word and it is used all the time.
I only use UN-thaw when I freeze things………..:)