Thursday, March 15, 2007

Words Gone Wild

My mom often gets mad when I correct her speech or grammar. I’ve been doing it since I was 13, and I just can’t stop. I think it is the writer in me. Lately, I’ve noticed that other people’s mispronunciation of words or JUST PLAIN MAKING WORDS UP drives me a little nuts.

So, I’ve decided to start a little list of annoying “Words Gone Wild.” Here are the first few contributions:

Correct: Wash
Incorrect: Warsh, as in “Go warsh your hands.”
Incorrect Variation: Warshington D. C.

Correct: Supposedly
Incorrect: Supposably – it’s NOT A WORD, people

Correct: Impact (NOT used as a verb!)
Incorrect: Impact used a verb.
Correct usage: His speech really had an impact on me.
Incorrect usage: His speech impacted me.

Correct: Gourmet
Incorrect: Gore Met (as pronounced)

Correct: Debut
Incorrect: Dee Butt (as pronounced)

Correct: Valentine’s Day
Incorrect: Valen T
imes Day

Correct: Toilet
The way my mom says it: Tahlet

Do you share my frustration?!

2 comments:

Heidi said...

My being from WASHington state, I hate it when ignorant people call it Warshington. Do they usually take out the WARSH?

Jennittia said...

You should try being around true New Englanders for a time!! They do not believe in the letter "r"- unless a word ends in an "a." I still cringe every time I hear someone say something like, "here's an idear, Jennitter." And you might as well get a translator to understand anyone from Boston!!