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

ReviewThisWeek: Inferno (No Spoilers)

This month saw the release of Dan Brown's latest addition to the Robert Langdon series. For those of you unaware of this series, please do go ahead and settle yourselves down with either : The Da Vinci Code, Angels&Demons and The Lost Symbol. If not, you might also enjoy Deception Point or Digital Fortress which are equally good. Now, I am a huge Dan Brown fan but, I want to make it clear at the outset that Inferno was disappointing to say the least.

The book begins with Professor Langdon waking up in Florence with no recollection of the last 48 hours. The first half is nail-biting and a real page-turner. The suspense is beautifully maintained as the reader joins Langdon in his journey of discovery. The arrival of Dr Sinskey, however, in the main story line spelt disaster; from there the books commences into a downward spiral. The story unravels almost dashing the hopes and desires and expectations of the reader. Instead of something incredible, the suspense unfolded as a case of, what can be named, as a less well-thought of end. Inferno has tons of information that makes the reader marvel at the author's in depth knowledge as well as his ability to blend comfortably into the flow of the story. It seems, around halfway, that Brown lost the plot or grew to tired of finding links back to all the incidents and separate pieces of knowledge. The end is extremely anti-climatic and almost makes the entire book seem pointless.

Moreover, the editing of the book acts like the incessant buzzing of a fly; floating about at the back of the reader's minds and providing as a source of constant irritation. It seems that large chunks of absolutely unnecessary information is spread out throughout the book which could easily have been edited out had the editor done his job properly. Furthermore, the grammar and the overall structure especially of individual sentences were both lacking and juvenile. Standards, that had been set very high with the The Lost Symbol, a book which I thoroughly enjoyed, fell drastically; enough to make me want to pull out my hair at the inadequacy of specifically the first few chapters. (Or better, smack the silly editor's face with the ginormous hard bound book.)  Had the editor focused himself, the book needn't have been as thick and long as it was.

I had expected so much more from someone so accomplished as Dan Brown himself. He has established himself as one of the few authors who still take into consideration a wider audience which includes the young adults, a group seriously lacking quality material to read. The plot of Inferno stagnated and the story became as unappealing as the cover, which to be honest - I am not a huge fan of. On the bright, the first half of the book was indeed incredible, sending chills down my spine as I hurried through page after page. The concept of the book was one that was very interesting and had huge amounts of relevance in today's world.
Still, the faults of the book far outweigh the successes, and so I will give it only a total of 1.5 / 5 stars.

Till next time-  #keepreading #lotsoflavh #believe

Do people even read?

I almost feel like I'm conforming to the norms of society as I type out my first blog post. Why? All my friends have blogs! Okay maybe not all but a majority of them and I feel no different yet here I am typing out my question for the day - Do people even read? I continue to type out this in hope that some of you who surf the internet, actually take time out to read what we write on these blogs. I only hope. I mean, I sure don't read blogs except those of my nagging friends but in my defense, my room is overwhelmed with books.

With the invention on pinterest, instagram, facebook, tumblr & twitter, I feel that people prefer to upload pictures rather than write or read. And slowly, our patience to sit and follow the lines of an unchanging book is rapidly decreasing. Which brings me to my next dilemma. So, the other day, after much contemplation, I decided that I wish to be a travel journalist and promptly announced it to my mother. While, watching Travel and Living on television, she pointed out the advertisement of a fairly new show in which the contestants are required to travel and click pictures to win the contest, and asked me whether I was going to become a photographing journalist and it is at that moment that I realised the biggest, most humongous and glaring flaw in my future plans - who reads travel?

If I wished to travel somewhere I would not search for articles relating to it but pictures of my desired destination. Moreover, more popularly, the shows on television that have beautiful women traveling to exotic locations are more attractive ways of finding out about your dream destinations. So who reads at all?


I do feel slightly old and out dated as I reflect on the kind of hobbies I keep. I am in a process of advancing myself but if you have any views at all, do share with me so that I have somewhere to start.

That's all folks! #keep reading



P.S: Leave a comment to tell me how you felt about this update. #lotsoflavh