Turquoise - the only acceptable pronunciation is turr-coys. Things that will get you slapped: torr-coys, turr-kwarr. And dictionary.com agrees with me on that... well not the slapping.
One that's been winding my Dad up lately. He wants to know "since when did quarter become 'kortor'??" It was probably around the same time Nike became Nikey, Adidas became Adeeeeedass and Porche became Porsha...
Actually the two-syllable pronunciation is correct seeing as it's a German name. Same with Mercedes and how that's pronounced differently to how it would be if it were an English word. Sam
But my point was, in this country everyone said poor-shh. Then suddenly one day it changed. Like Nestlé stopped being nestles and became nesslay. Yes, that's how it should be pronounced in France, but no-one here did. Names are always a pain as there aren't any true ways of pronouncing them, it's up to the person whose name it is. I have a friend whose surname is Moriarty, his entire family get annoyed with being called "Morry-art-ee" as they pronounce it "Mor-eye-ar-tee".
I think Jeremy Clarkson is to blame for everyone saying Porshe with a "sha" at the end, sorts of makes the the car more girly tbh.
Ah sorry, misunderstood you there You do make a valid point though. Actually talking of mispronunciations, did anyone see Masterchef last week where the guy with black hair said "yoghurt" the American way (with the long o, as in oval)? I want to punch that guy. Sam
I hate people who say "Yeah, nah [insert rest of sentance]." (Even this is a lazy way of saying "Yes, no.") It can only be yes or no. If you are unsure then say "maybe". EDIT. I thought of 2 more annoying abreviations more than mispronunciations. People I work with insist on using the abbreviation MT when they mean empty and B4 instead of before. I mean how hard is it to type 3 or 4 more letters?
Also, using abbreviations such as these are inappropriate in a business evironment. What annoys me is when people say axe, instead of ask...... oh and also Y'ALL. e.g. Y'all know what happend to me this morning? Y'All aren't goin' ta believe it!!!! I got beaten for saying Y'ALL too much. Y'All Understand? Y'ALL!!!!!
That's also my pet hate. It's even worse when you see it in print and you have to wonder what the editor was doing that day. Mc is pronounced Mick or Mac, I've never heard it pronounced Muhc, remember the old wrestler Mick McManus and the earlier example of Jon McEnroe
Well OK, mick to you, but I'm from Berkshire so I say Muhc, almost an oo sound, not an iii sound. God this is hard to explain in text. Also remember my comment that names don't count as they are only correctly pronounced when you pronounce them the way that particular person wants it pronounced. Argh. Yes! A bloke at work does that all the time. Although he says arkssss with a long emphasis on the sssssssss. He also says assept instead of accept and talks a bit like Ali G... can drive me mental. Oh yeah another of his is tooken (taken or took), "I just tooken it, OK?" gaah.... "Give it me back" is another that gets me really angry. It's "give it back to me... please" for crying out loud!
<rant> This stuff makes me want to reach through the screen and strangle someone. A text message from one of my mates: did u want 2 go 2 the bar b4 the parT [pronounced party, I'm told] 2nite? WHAT?! THAT IS NOT ENGLISH!!! Even on cell phones we have NO EXCUSE anymore...T9 people...it types the word FOR you!!! How hard is it?! </rant>
Don't get me started on T9. I hate that stupid, stupid thing! First thing I switch off on all my phones. The amount of times I've been informed people will be late because they've missed the cup, or they're still at the cup stop. I actually have no problem with the txt spk thing for short notes or on texts. My family have used little abreviations like that on notes to each other ever since I can remember. I just don't like it on e-mails or official stuff and can't for the life of me understand why anyone would do that?!
One that has me confused is how people say 2005. I've heard 'two thousand and five', 'two thousand five', 'twenty o five' - which is it? Oh aye and 'skedule' gets my goat, too.
I think it's officially "Two Thousand Five", if you look at all the of the official US government documents that is the format used, but it think it is often down to user preference, but that's the format I use, and I think more and more are starting to.
Actually when I went to school it was "two thousand AND five" but that was a long time ago. Again we're comming back to "if enough people start to do it - that's the way it is."
Removing the "and" sounds like an American thing - I say the and as does everyone I know. Come 2010 everyone will probably say "twenty ten" etc anyway.
I say two thousand and five, as do most other people I know. However, "twenty-ten" is a logical continuation of our previous system (e.g. "nineteen ninety-five") and as such I'd expect most people to use it, not least because it's shorter than "two thousand and ten". I think that people saying "two thousand" mostly comes as a result of the hype that occured over the year two thousand rather than any sort of logical construct; you wouldn't refer to 20th-century years in the same way. One thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven? Can't see that catching on
I think it is an American thing, I first noticed Leo Laporte saying it but everyone I know over here says the "and" in the year. EDIT: The single most annoying thing in the world is 2moz instead of tomorrow
yeh my slang gets on some peoples nerves i say fff instead of th in words like one, two, free, forr, etc people that get very upset by that i usually tell off right away. i grew up around people (poor people lol) that spoke like that, overly posh toffs pronounce a LOT of things wrong but you dont hear anyone else correcting them its just cos its the toffs that have such an 'issue' most of the time (just so they can maintain their own insecure status to themselves)
