Commonly Misspoken Words and Phrases…
February 13th, 2007 by Matthew Jabs
This is a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a long time!
How funny is it when you hear someone misspeak? You want to correct them so bad, and in your head you’re laughing so hard, but you’ve got to hold it in! Well…consider this your symposium to let all that pent-up frustration out! My request is this: after you read, please list any words or phrases I’ve missed, in the comments section.
I’m really looking forward to hearing from all of you, I think this is going to give all of us a good laugh!
Okay, here goes…I’ll start with my all time favorite:
- “Supposably” or “Supposively” rather than “Supposedly“- This is probably the word I hear misspoken more than any other. It is my favorite because of the stress people use when saying this word (…well…SUPPOSABLY…he didn’t know), etc.
- “For all intensive purposes” rather than “For all intents and purposes“
- “Irregardless” rather than “regardless“
- “I would just assume” rather than “I would just as soon” - This is hilarious because my wife busted me on this one! How funny!
- “Fer” rather than “For“- I’m sure you use this, I know I do. When you’re saying a sentence you’ll say, “I have lived here fer twelve years.” Instead of, “I’ve lived here for twelve years.“
Okay, that’s as deep as I’ll go, now it’s up to all of you to add to the list! Enjoy, & please keep it clean!
Also, researching the following title, led me to this book, which I’m sure is hilarious!
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Number 3 is actually a word in the dictionary. But it still shouldn’t be used.
Add “dey” instead of “they” and “dem” instead of “them”. Lazy speakers, like my younger son, say them that way.
Using “despite” instead of “to spite”. My mother is guilty.
RT is correct.
This is the definition of irregardless in the modern dictionary: “probably a blend of irrespective and regardless”
“Ain’t” is in the dictionary, too, but that doesn’t make it correct. I always thought “irregardless” was a Mid-Western dialect aberration, but I’ve also heard it in the Central Atlantic area of the US.
There is a woman at my work who says “flustrated” instead “frustrated” and it DRIVES ME CRAZY.
Does it make you “flusterated?”
This is just as relevant in the blogging world Matthew.
If I see ‘could of’ instead of ‘could have’ one more time I’m going to scream, and don’t get me started on the correct uses of ‘their’, ‘they’re’, and ‘there’…
How about using “it’s” when they should be using “its”. Annoying as all H - E - double hockey sticks.
“orientated”….now come on! I am in the medical field and there is nothing that makes me curl my toes and squeeze my butt cheeks like “orientated” instead of “oriented”. Why do people want to make a long word longer than it already is????
Wouldn’t you love to have this guy as your college prof? Getting marked down for spelling wouldn’t be a problem. THis is a quote from his blog.
“But, I know I am smart. Smart enough to go through school, again, and smart enough to be able to teach, at probably any level, even collegete.”
Past vs. passed
i.e.:
My cubemate is one sick fella, he “past” uhmmm(passed) gas and it’s a choking aroma.
Where in h did “COLONEL” come from?
Pronunciation: “kernel”?????
What similiarity does it share with corn “kernel” but pronunciation? The worst, I know it’s off topic but still a huge pieve of mine.
“Colonel” was originally pronounced in French as “coronel”. The americanized version is very similar to the French version in pronunciation.
Oh, there’s another one for you: People saying “pronounciation” instead of “pronunciation”.
This one bugs me
Wrong: I could care less
Right: I could not care less
“Loose” instead of the correct “lose.” I see this everywhere now. “The FBI can’t keep track of their laptops, they are loosing hundreds every year.”
I totally agree with #12.
Also, my girlfriend says “seen” when she should be saying “saw” and it drives me absolutely nuts.
I see these two quite frequently:
“prolly” - instead of “probably”
and
“thot” - instead of “thought”
#7, Wendi — thank you!
#12, Joe — this one doesn’t bother me so much. In my mind, this phrase carries with it an unspoken qualifier: “Well, I *could* care less… (but that would require considerable effort.)”
And one of my own pet peeves… when, exactly, did “license” become plural?
Actual conversation:
Grandmother: My driver’s license expired, and I’ve got to go to the courthouse to get ‘em renewed.
Me: How many do you have?!?
One of my misused word peeves is when people say (all the time) “disinterest” to mean “lack of interest”. Disinterest means lack of bias. Uninterest means lack of interest.
A couple that really bug me:
“Chomping at the bit”. The correct word is “Champing”.
“Nukular” in place of “Nuclear”, al la the incurious GWB.
‘Chimbley’ instead of ‘chimney’.
‘Youse’ instead of ‘you’, NB- the plural of ‘you’ is ‘you’, unless you’re talking about sheep.
I agree with you. I just wonder why they slam the poor Northerners for saying, “youse,” but never the Southerners for saying, “you all?”
LOL…thanks for all the comments!
I’m really glad someone pointed out “Nukular”. Thanks James #18.
Let’s not forget about the all famous “Smorgasborg” rather than “Smorgasbord”
Matt
I use to say Illinois (with the s) when referring to that State. It would drive my wife nuts. Now I just say it wrong because it still drives her nuts. Just our little joke.
Humm. . . Nukular Vessel — sounds like something I heard in a Star Trek movie, LOL
My Grandma says “ompen” instead of “open” and “confernce” instead of conference.” I laugh ever time I hear her.
If you’ve ever looked for housing online you will know what I’m talking about. Landlords or tenants that are subletting, use “quite” instead of “quiet”. This drives me up the wall. I’m curious as to what word these people use when they mean to say “quite”?
I hear this from younger people (18-25): “I quitted it”. Also, “I broked it”.
This from people who were born and raised in the U.S. What are the schools teaching?
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I hate when people say “warsh” instead of “wash” and “warshington” instead of “WASHINGTON” when did people start putting an “r” in the mix?
Thank you Corrina!!
I was wondering what took everyone so long to list this ever-prominent, though incorrect use of our English language!
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Some folks substitute “sell” for “sale”
“Do you have any apples for sell?”
Drives me nuts.
And I’ve heard “applicate” a few times. I guess just cause everyone is so used to the word “application”
#15 - I don’t think it counts if they know the correct spelling and pronounciation. I don’t know anyone that really thinks “prolly” is an actual word. Everyone knows that it’s “probably.” I wouldn’t let it get to you.
I say “Queso” because its funny instead of “Ok so…” when starting a sentence. All of my friends do it to eachother and we get a kick out of it every time, but since we know we’re being silly, it’s all good. I would think the same holds true for “prolly” just not on a level as humorous as “queso.”
*pronunciation. darn.
How about “You’ve got to…” instead of “You have to”? This one bothers me.
“You’ve got to..” (you have got to..) is normally used in spoken English as opposed to “You have to…” which is the normal usage in written English. The form - have got to (do sth) - is the accepted spoken form in English.
It’s better than the spoken, “You gotta . . .”
I never say fer for for, but I have called a sink a zink.
I have quite a few pet peeves when it comes to misuse and abuse of our language. One is “unique.” There is no such thing as “most unique,” but you hear it all the time. “Unique” means one of a kind, so you can’t have anything more uniquer! Also, “too” instead of “to.” And also “cause,” as a lazy form of “because.” I’ve also heard “pacific” (not the ocean) used in lieu of “specific,” “et” for “ate,” and confusion (cornfusion) between when to use “imply” (which is what the speaker or writer does), and when to use “infer,” which is what the listener or reader does.
How about when people are writing & use “cuz”. And thanks be to Al for someone finally mentioning “pacific” in lieu of “specific”!
In general Americans have butchered the English language. It doesn’t help that our education system is failing. How is it that the majority of high school graduates can barely read?
But to add to this list, “same difference” drives me nuts.
I really get annoyed when people say:
“I’ll try and do better.” when they mean “I ‘ll try TO do better.”
Also, the common misuse of immigrate and emigrate as well as imply and infer grate on my nerves
It really bothers me when somebody is telling a story about another person and they say “and then she goes……” I want to ask where she went!