Very frequently we hear words being mispronounced in casual conversation, but more often, unforgivably, this situation is articulated during professional speaking announcements and by announcers on the radio and television stations. Apart from having the effect of creating speech that sounds unpolished, or similar to street language, speech errors can significantly impair credibility. I am certain that speakers and announcers try their best to pronounce words and idioms correctly to get across the meaning; likewise, those responsible for writing the newscasts most likely try their best to impart their idiomatic ability to the speakers and news readers.
The thing about mispronounced words is that until someone corrects us, which most times can be embarrassing, or until we inadvertently learn otherwise, we might very well go through a large part of our lives obliviously mispronouncing words or mangling idioms. There are perhaps scores of words that are mispronounced on a daily basis, and if we have the slightest doubt that we might be mispronouncing a word, or if we want to know what a word means, go to a dictionary. That is what dictionaries are for, and they are compiled by people who spend their lives studying the subject.
Some of the more commonly mispronounced words we might hear on our airwaves, local and international, include:
incidences – the word “incidence” is a noun meaning prevalence, frequency, occurrence of something, and when incorrectly pluralized as “incidences,” implies that the speaker intends to say “incident,” which can be pluralized as “incidents,” meaning individual occurrences or events.
irregardless – this is a word that was coined in the United States in the early 20th century, and that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used mostly in nonstandard speech, or casual writing. In effect it is an erroneous word, etymologically speaking, which means the exact opposite of what it is intended to express, being probably a blend of irrespective and regardless. It has been considered a blunder for decades and will continue to be so, to the extent of sometimes being used humorously. Even though the word “irregardless” can be found in dictionaries (which give its meaning as a blend of irrespective and regardless), the accepted use is “regardless.”
The word hierarchy is often mispronounced as hi-archy, while the correct pronunciation is higher archy.
Since English speakers dislike two [r] s in the same word, library is often mispronounced as libary.
The [t] in often should not be pronounced; therefore ofen.
An example of under-pronouncing is saying asterik, when all consonants on the end of asterisk should be pronounced.
The word potable (which means suitable for drinking) should rhyme with “floatable,” thus pottable is a mispronunciation.
Recur should be used instead of reoccur, to prevent inventing a new word.
Respite is pronounced respit.
The spit of someone means an exact likeness, so spit and image is correct and spitting image is wrong.
A dog is spayed (removing the ovaries of a female dog), and not spade.
A group of rooms occupied as a unit is a suite, and is pronounced as sweet, not suit.
The word sovereignty does not have an extra [i], and should not be pronounced as sovereignity.
Leave off the [s] on ways when prefixing a statement with ‘Any way …’
Remuneration means paying an equivalent for service; while the word renumeration, for which it is often mispronounced, is not in the dictionary.
Like in the use of the word remuneration, some speakers are guilty of transposing letters in a word (metathesis). Other examples are revelant for relevant, and calvary for cavalry.
Utmost, which means situated at the farthest point, is the correct use of the often mispronounced upmost, which is not a word in itself but rather should be uppermost.
The non-word nucular is often wrongly used for nuclear.
As a result of fast speech probably might be wrongly pronounced as probly.