<p>VeryHappy–both my kids did that! So cute. My daughter also liked “yo-grit” (yogurt). Makes you almost not want to correct…</p>
<p>My D was practicing for a spelling bee and came upon a word she had only read, never heard - calliope, which she pronounced “cal-ee-ope”. It was very cute!</p>
<p>I drives me crazy when people pronounce “jewelry” as jewel-ah-re.</p>
<p>Ahhh, me,too, razorsharp! There’s a radio commercial on all the time here for a jool-ery store. Makes me cringe!</p>
<p>Also, Realtor when it’s pronounced real-a-tor.</p>
<p>One that drives me crazy is when someone prounces crayons “crowns”</p>
<p>^^^my kid did that for years, I thought it was cute! Of course, he grew out of it.</p>
<p>What drives me nuts is when my m-i-l adds the word “the” to things that don’t have a “the.” For example, she says one of her favorite movies is, “The Ghost” with Demi Moore & Patrick Swayze. THERE’S NO THE!!! But if that’s the worst thing I can find to complain about my m-i-l, I guess she’s a pretty good egg.</p>
<p>My aunt in the South told me she got a great deal on an Agner purse. I said, “A what?” She said, “An Agner.” I finally figured out she meant Etienne Aigner (an-yay).</p>
<p>“…for all intensive purposes…” That drives me nuts! Especially when I hear broadcasters saying this!</p>
<p>Lol! Some of these are great.</p>
<p>natmicstef-- when I read “facade” I say “fah-kade”! Hahaha. I now realize it’s a facade (fah-sawd) they were talking about.</p>
<p>My mother always used to put the EM-pha-sis on the wrong syl-LAB-le. Annoyed the hell outta me.</p>
<p>Axe (ask) troubles me too, as I put in a post just like this a couple months ago. Funny thing about creek. I’ve always said creek, but according to my dictionary <em>krik</em> is an acceptable pronunciation.</p>
<p>I say App-uh-latch-an Mountains while apparently it’s supposed to be App-uh-latche-un. :(</p>
<p>^^ What ever happened to it being app-uh-lay-shun? It seems to have switched pronunciations about a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>Auntie (ON-tee) vs. Auntie (ANT-ee). I prefer the latter.</p>
<p>Galwaymom - you’re probably right – the only time I ever heard sahn-ti-meter was from an old HS teacher. </p>
<p>Pet peeve: people who get annoyed at how non-southerners pronounce New Orleans. I’m not from “Nawlins,” and don’t really give a hoot.</p>
<p>My kids thought I was an idiot for pointing out the Cue-lin-ary Institute in Hyde Park on a recent college trip. They assured me it’s cullin-ary.</p>
<p>And am ambivalent re: putting the accent on the 2nd vs. the 3rd syllable of Caribbean. Have used both, though prefer the latter (Care-ih-bee-in).</p>
<p>I grew up saying thee ate er - emphasis on the thee (theater) and sy reen (siren). That changed very quickly after arriving at college. My boyfriend in college - from NJ - said rad e a tor with a short a. In Maryland, the Severn River is pronounced se ve rin and the Patapsco River is pronounced Pa tap si co.</p>
<p>…and shouldn’t the football player’s name be pronounced Brett Favre, and not Farve? I wonder how Brett pronounces it?</p>
<p>irregardless</p>
<p>drives me nuts, but then I wonder what am I saying incorrectly?</p>
<p>And I think the “t” is silent in often.</p>
<p>I agree - the t is silent in often. Recently, I heard someone pronounce “foliage” as foilage. I don’t like “fo le ige” much better.</p>
<p>Considering the wide variety in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar in the various Englishes spoken around the world, it truly is a wonder that we manage to understand each other most of the time. For some fun reading, see [Phonological</a> Atlas of North America](<a href=“http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html]Phonological”>Phonological Atlas of North America)</p>
<p>As to English spelling vs. English pronunciation, I tell my adult ESL students that English spelling is more like a set of guidelines, than hard-and-fast rules. The ones who have seen “Pirates of the Caribbean” usually fall out of their seats laughing.</p>
<p>Myself, I speak US Midlands with an overlay of Suburban Mid-Atlantic. I try to limit my pronunciation corrections to the classroom, and to Happydad when whatever he has said resulted in me not understanding his meaning. Last night he was screaming “bring me the glove, the glove, THE GLOVE!” While I could have guessed he was missing the English B (most native-Spanish speakers do), his choice of a short “o” rather than a long one really threw me.</p>
<p>Happykid, in the shower the whole time where she shouldn’t have been able to hear our altercation, once again commented, “You know guys, other people don’t fight over words.”</p>
<p>wadder - like it is a ‘d’ instead of a ‘t’. I have adjusted to many US pronunciations such as tomayto. Just can’t bring myself to say wadder.</p>
<p>The funniest thing my kids find with my accent is that apparently when I say ‘pawn’ shop, it sounds like I am saying ‘porn’ shop. Cracks them up - not sure how it even came about as I don’t know why I would have even been talking about pawn shops. I still can’t figure out how I say it differently despite them both trying to get me to say it ‘right’.</p>