20 MOST MISPRONOUNCED AND ILL-USED WORDS.

And indeed I will! This morning one of my friends mispronounced 'bury' and when, I proceeded to correct him like the Grammar Nazi that I am, he insisted that he was correct. What was worse was that he was joined by another one of my friends. Two against one, I was losing badly and common sense suggested that their pronunciation was indeed accurate but, I was more than certain that my pronunciation of the word was correct since, my mother had drilled it into me ( for which I am more than grateful). See, the correct pronunciation of 'bury' would be similar to 'berry' whereas, the incorrect one and the most often misused pronunciation is rhymes with 'curry'. 

I had no choice but to 'bury' the topic for the moment ("Humorous play on words." *Sheldon laugh*) and wait, to strike back when I had more evidence. The moment I returned home, I logged on to the computer and furiously googled the correct pronunciation of bury. Satisfied that I was right, I, then, forwarded the links to them which resulted in a severe mocking in relation to my interests. Friends are cruel. However, I did not have any time to pay heed as I came across links that led me to a variety of the most commonly mispronounced words. It was a learning experience but I felt that some words could not have been as "commonly" mispronounced as the links claimed due to the nature of the words themselves. For instance: Chimera which is word hardly anyone uses in day to day vocabulary. Anyway, as a result, I decided to create my own version which is - 20 MOST MISPRONOUNCED AND ILL-USED WORDS.

1) INTERESTING: It perhaps the most ill-treated word in the English language. Unfortunately, I find that people decide to skip the first 'e' of the word resulting in an odd sounding 'intrasting' instead of the appropriate pronunciation - 'Intresting' [ˈɪntrəstɪŋ]. The vowel is short and sharp.

2) TRUTH - It should be pronounced rhyming with the 'Luth' of the name Luther. There is only one vowel, keep it short. 

3) ATHLETE - Here, I have noticed that often an extra 'e' is added to result in the incorrect pronunciation as 'Athelete'.

4) ESPECIALLY - Lots of people struggle with moving from 's' to 'c' in the word. The 'c' is actually pronounced as 'sh' so, the word is 'e-spe-shially' in contrast to what I commonly hear which is more like 'espesially'. 

5) TOOTH - There is a trend of excess vowels being adjusted in words, again in the case of this ill-treated word. It is not 'tuth', it's "Too-th'

6) PRONUNCIATION - Ironically, the word 'pronunciation' is both misspelled and mispronounced as 'pronoUnciation' with that extra, unnecessary 'u' in the middle...wot? why?

7) MISCHIEVOUS - There is only 'vous' at the end, not 'vious'. Be careful!

8) MAYONNAISE - A word that three-fourths of the mayonnaise eating population struggles with like I once did. When in doubt, remember, the abbreviation 'Mayo' is indeed the first part of the word completing to form 'mayonnaise' not 'mannaise'.

9) HERO - The whole of India is guilty of this particular mistake. It is pronounced something like 'Hiero' rather than 'Hee roh'. Let's get it right!

10) ESPRESSO - Not 'expresso'.

11) BLUE - As in 'blu' not 'biloo'. 

12) PEAR - The one which rhymes with 'Pair' not with 'Pier'.

13) BOWL - There is no such thing as a 'bowl' (almost but not completely like 'bowel') but if you're saying 'boul', I know what you're talking about. 

14) VOWEL - Do not say 'vau-well', it is absolutely wrong. Try ˈvaʊəl' though.

15) ALMONDS - Pronounced with the 'l' silent just like the 'k' in knight. Would you like some 'a-monds'?

16) DEVELOP- If you're going to say, 'dee-velop', you're fine but, if you have been saying 'deyvelop'

17) COMFORTABLE - Is pronounced 'comftble' rather than 'come-for-table'...honestly...

18) PIZZA - So often used, so often wrong. Correct pronunciation is 'piːtsə'; neither 'piz-za' nor 'pit-za'

19) FINDING-  'information that is discovered as the result of research into something.' As a result, the sentence - 'I am "finding" my notebook' is grammatically incorrect and sounds absolutely awful. A mistake almost every single person I know makes. The better word to be used here is "look for". Please do continue 'looking for your notebook.'

20) SEEING - '(not used in the progressive tenses) to become aware of somebody/something by using your eyes' which makes the sentence, 'I'm not used to of seeing you everyday' correct but, you cannot 'see' a movie because, the action stops as soon as the sentence finished. 'I saw you'. Stop. However, I was 'watching' a movie and 'I was watching you' indicates continuous action (and also, stalker-like capabilities) but, for heaven's sake, get this right.

Lastly, I also learnt that the word 'respite' is actually pronounced 'respit' and everyone has it wrong including me. The word 'forte' too is pronounced as 'fort' and not 'fortay' as we do except when you're talking in context of music. Such exciting discoveries. I, of course, did not mention 'your' and 'you're', the most common mistake in the world so much so that there are internet memes based on it. Anyway, I hope you found this fun and enlightening. This is my longest post ever.

Till next time, #Thanksforreading #keepreading #lotsoflavh