Okay, fine. I just made that word up.
But basically, I’m referring to someone who has trouble correctly pronouncing certain words.
For me, this person is my mother.
And you wonder why I gave up the hooch.
It’s been an issue her entire life, but I notice it getting worse as she ages.
When my brother and I were kids, she would try to get in on our “Ew, that’s gross!” banter, by interjecting “Yes, that’s gross-ling.” And when we would shudder at her lack of coolness, it would just spur her on. Kind of like when I say “totes” (for ‘totally’) around my 12 year old son, just to watch him flinch.
She also used to take us clothes shopping for special occasions at a Pittsburgh store called Kenny Kardon, which she pronounced “Kinney CarDAW(ng)” (rhymes with croissant). And she wasn’t trying to be funny like when we refer to Target as Tarjay. She truly thought it was pronounced all Frenchy-like. She does that. I have no idea how the store was really pronounced (it’s closed now), but knowing Pittsburghers like I do, my guess is a French accent isn’t correct.
We were visiting with my mom recently and decided to make a big spaghetti dinner. She only bought one box of spaghetti for 7 of us, but had a back up box of “pen-NAY” (penne) in the pantry. Pen-NAY? The hell? (Bless her tongue-tied heart.)
But the real clincher for me occurred when we were at a Japanese restaurant the other night. She had a hankering for some of those steamed soybeans in the shell, or edamame as they are universally known. The waiters and waitresses always pronounce this dish “EH-duh-mom-MAY,” but that has never stopped my mom from ordering “Eat a Mommy.”
And she’ll ask everyone else at the table if they would like some “Eat a Mommy” when it arrives, because she’s thoughtful and generous like that.
“Jim?” she’ll ask my husband, her favorite son-in-law, “Eat a Mommy?”
Under his breath {heh heh heh} “Yes please, Jan. That would be great! I love Eat a Mommy.”
Then Bucket Head has to get in on it. “Eat a Mommy?! No, EAT ME! Hey guys, EAT ME! WHO WANTS TO EAT ME?”
People at neighboring tables are rubber necking to see who is shouting “eat me.” I smile and wave. “He’s five,” I politely excuse on his behalf. I find myself doing this a lot lately.
But back to my mom, no matter how many times I try to correct her and teach her not to say “Eat a Mommy,” her mouth simply cannot perform this action. You should hear how she butchers “sashimi.” And for the love of God, never discuss Chincoteague Island, Virginia, within her earshot.
This prompted me to ask my Facebook friends if they have anyone in their life who is a chronic mispronouncer, and boy-oh-boy did they respond! Here are some of my favorite replies:
Barbara Jeanne: I have an older friend who is always going shopping at “Walmarks” not sure where the marks are on the wall… but thats where he goes…
Lerner: My step mother always call it Tommy Hif-flinger. And chipotle is chi-pol-Tay. Drives me nuts.
Megan: My grandma used to watch “That Ofra” every day on tv. Sigh.
Rubber Chicken Madness: My grandmother used to say “oblituary”
Abbie: Ohhhh….no one over fifty can say prostate…they say prostRate.
Jane: My mom never says Whoopi Goldberg’s name right. She always makes the Whoop part sound like someone’s having a party.
Ninja Mom: My mother, an educated, worldly woman, says, “FRA-hee-TAHS.” Woman, they are FRAH-GEE-TAHS. Stop embarrassing me at Taco Bell.
Oh thank God I’m not the only one.
(And yes, Ninja Mom is always that funny.)
I know I said I was going to keep my comments closed for the summer (which has been bittersweet), but this is too good to not open up for more discussion. So tell me, who in your life has Mispronunciationitis and what do they say that cracks you up (and/or makes you want to jam a chopstick into your eye)?
-Leslie
How could I forget this one? This one makes me want to scream, and I hear it all the time: Real-a-tor. Or Real-a-ty. Where are those extra As coming from? Or are they being stolen from the back and put in the front–Realtor, Relator? Is that what they’re doing? I’m friggin’ hoarse on that one.
OMG THAT DRIVES ME NUTS! We are in the process of trying to buy a house and holy heck it is enough to make me want to kill someone when people ask me which “real-a-tor” I’m using.
I love that when I read this.. I heard your voice! Friggin’ hoarse.
Oh GOD, I think I’m guilty of this one! So, no A in the middle? I’m just supposed to say REAL-TOR? Because that sounds weird. Help! (Oh the shame)
Alert! Alert! I think I figured this one out! Real Estate–Real Uhstate. Realtor–Realuhtor! Yeah? Yes, Ma’am, pretty sure that’s how it happened!
You are frickin’ brilliant Jenna. That makes perfect sense.
Our babysitter used to call them Mandaranian oranges. Like they came from a place called Mandarania. Drove me nuts.
LOL! Mandarania sounds like a lovely place though. I want to go to there.
My friend had a couple she had trouble with, dolphin became dol-i-phin and guacamole was gRacamole. The worst part was, she had no idea for years that they weren’t really pronounced that way.
They never do…they NEVER do.
My last name is Kotrlik. EVERYONE I love mispronounces it. The most popular version is Cooterlick. Ha.Ha.Ha. So.Funny.
LMAO! How DO you correctly pronounce it? My guess is “COT-er-LICK,” but Cooterlick is totally perfect for you and what I’ll call you from now on. Thank you!
It’s pronounced COT-er-lick…. But I have heard everything… I love getting telemarketer calls and they try to say it. 90% of the time, they sigh deeply before attempting it and the they say “Hi Mrs. Uhhhhh…Ko..clit…” I usually correct them and then say “Nope. wrong number.”
It is definitely the best part of having a unique last name: having a prescreening device for whether or not to take that phone call. If they can’t say my name, they don’t get to give me their pitch. Period.
Kristen, your comment reminded me of something I’d completely forgotten about! My friend’s grandma suggested that she try to dress more fashionably, and that she should get her one of them “Juicy Cooter” outfits that says Juicy on the butt. Bless her, she had no idea how funny it was, my friend and I were crying, we laughed so hard!
Oh thank God, we get to talk. I was bursting with this one.
My mother-in-law has Or-TOD-ics in her shoes.
My best friend’s grandmother drinks a “Peps” (no i)
And I stumbled over “sarcophagus” (yes, we’re geeks in my family) until my 8 year old cornered me with, “It ends in “Cough-ugh!-us”, like you don’t want somebody to cough on you. It’s NOT sarco-fay-jus, Mom.” And I could tell some teacher had been forced to correct HER pronunciation by the way her voice adopted its repetition of facts tone. And it wasn’t like I didn’t know that. It just isn’t one I say a lot, so it comes out W-R-O-N-G-O.
Crap! Now I’m not going to be able to pronounce this because I’m highly suggestible and they BOTH sound right, like when Homer Simpson said NU-cu-lar instead of nuclear, or when drunk people say OSS-i-fer to the cops who pull them over.
Aw – I love that you are happy to get to leave a comment, JQ! Sorry I’ve been so asocial this summer. (But actually, my kids are on their 3rd hour of TV this morning while I attempt to reply to all comments, so don’t get too comfy.)
No worries – I tend to lurk anyway over here. I’m feeling grateful for the comments off, because it eliminates a lot of my guilt about only commenting once in awhile. This one just had me feeling all “Oh GOD I want to talk”.
I know a few people who pronounce pronunciation as pronounciation. They pronounciate things.
Oh crap. *races for dictionary*
Damn spell check. I blame Al & Bill.
Oh yes, my mother and my sister have a hard time with the word hate. Somehow they manage to put an ‘n’ in there so it comes out as ‘haint’. Mother could never pronounce Toyota (calls them Ty-otas) and Nintendo was ‘Entendo’. The random dropping and adding of letters used to drive me crazy. My father and I used to speculate that this was part of some Swedish dialect that was passed down and never corrected.
Haint reminds me of TAINT, which is funny. I was dropped on my head as a child though and can make anything dirty. It’s a mixed blessing.
OH LAWD! I always bust out at the word taint! That’s shiz is funny! Taint and cornhole -I’ve been told folks “play cornhole”, as if a cornhole is a game?!?!
p.s. my husband doesn’t believe that my being dropped on my head can possibly account for my ability to make anything dirty or “out gross” him. He swears I’m really a 13 year old boy.
Lea, brace yourself honey, but cornhole really IS a game! I know. It’s actually super fun…and not just because of the dirty jokes you can make while playing it!
BwahahahahahaHA! Yeah..I’m running a little late these days and having a buh-LAST reading all these old posts. Lea, we MUST be related. I suh-WARE that I have a form of voluntary ter-RETTEs because some of my fave words are “shiz”, “cornhole”, “jackhole”, and “vajeezis”. It is comforting to know that there are more of “us” out there…like a twin universe or somethin!
My niece shared your post! I love them by the way. My mother used to mispronounce so many things, but the one that sticks in my mind the most is hiatal hernia . She always said “high herny”.
“High herny”!!! Love that!
Thanks for stopping by Carol! And thanks to your niece too for sharing me with you! XO
Ha! When we taught together at Roosevelt High School, my friend always said “Rose-uh-vell”. She also said “ast” instead of “ask”. My sweet hubby says “southmore” instead of “sophomore”. We live near a town called “New Braunfels”, and people everywhere say “New Brownsfells”. And “Santone” instead of “San Antonio” drives me nuts!! (Picture me with my eyes rolling back in my head!)
Oh man, deep in the heart of Texas, (clap clap clap clap)…are a lot of people with mispronunciationitis! I’mma pray for you, sister.
OH! Does anyone else make this mistake? I thought “Ryobi” was pronounced “Rye-o-bee”; customer service at the company says “Ree-o-bee”! News to me!
WHAT?! Guilty.
same here
Oh, so true Iris. My dear Mum (bless her soul) was guilty of so many. She pronounced roTTweiler as a roTHwEEler. And don’t even get me started on the misidentification. If she saw someone on TV, she’d say “isn’t that so so and from that so and so show?” and we’d so “no Mum” it’s not. She’d be adamant it was. I also can’t stand the “aks” instead of “ask” but that’s a mispronunciation of all ages. And also don’t get me started on Yankee speak! You guys are in a world of your own over there. It’s vehicle, plain and simple not Vee-hic-ill. You should hear my son try to say it (the Yanks taught him to speak through too much TV watching). So cute. But then again, us Aussies are probably guilty of a few mispronunciations, ay mate? Good onya!
Anne xx
Hahaha! Aussie accents are so beautiful though! I could listen to you talk forever.
Vee-hic-ill is just redneck, not Yank. I pronounce it VEE-ha-kuhl. Do you have different accents within Australia like we do here? For instance, someone from Boston sounds totally different from a Pittsburgher or a southerner. And in the south, someone from Atlanta might sound very different from someone from the hills of Kentucky.
I work at a school for the Deaf, here in Texas. The students are all deaf and the staff is a mixture of deaf and hearing people. I was once at a conference with a deaf colleague when a woman cam up and started speaking to him. He pointed to his ear and shook his head (the universal gesture for “I’m deaf”.) The woman turned to me and said, “oh, is he death?”
Sadly, I hear this mispronunciation all the damn time. “Do you work at the school for the death?” or “how do I know if my child is death?”
I don’t get it…and I’m a friggen’ Speech-Language Pathologist! : )
Ugh!! That one is a nightmare. It must drive you batty being a Speech-Language Pathologist! Actually, I bet this whole topic drives you nuts. You could probably write a whole book on it, LOL!
This whole theme has left me laughing and cringing. I thought I was alone with the fingernails on the chalkboard sensation over “real-a-tor”, “fra-hee-tahs”, and “Wemble-tin.” I can’t get over how many people buy “Sher-man” Williams paint Have you heard of “twiced” as in “that has happened once or twiced”? In Texas, there is a huge country side antique show in Warrenton, genereally referred to as “Warr-ing-ton” by so many. On another tangent, what casued the somewhat recent epedemic of people asking, “Where are you at?” or “Where did you find that at?” The list goes on, but I have to say thanks for opening this can of worms. It is hilarious.
“
Oh no, I have never heard “twiced”…I think I would poop my pants if I did. Whenever someone says “Where you at?” I always say “Before the preposition at.” I don’t mean to sound so snobby, I just really like words.
I’ve heard twiced, too. two? twice? I’ve heard people ask “Where do you stay at?” instead of “Where do you live?”. It’s a small south central Texas thing, I think.
mercry for mercury
bleetin for bleeding
chicken pops for chicken pox
chimley for chimney
kitchen zinc for kitchen sink
banage for bandage
conversate for conversation
bronical ammonia for bronchial pneumonia
axed for asked
damnblade for bandaid
huntington park ave for hunting park ave
the town of warminister for warminster
I’ll touch bases with you later
and of course the really young ones say:
He can be the “polar bear” meaning the “ring bearer”
Look Nana, Mary Puffins is in that cloud.
Wow – great list!
“Touch bases” is wrong? Is it supposed to be “touch base” instead? Please advise! When I play softball I like to touch all the bases, not just one.
Ha! When my daughter was young, she took a phone message for us about a death in the family. She told her dad that they wanted him to be a polar bear; she’d never heard the term “pall bearer”!
Ugh! My MIL says ” prob-ly” for probably. Early in our marriage, I helpfully corrected her…and got the death look. It’s been 18 years and she still says it oh-so-wrong. It’s like nails on a chalkboard for me!
You corrected your MIL? And lived to tell the tale? And are still married? That takes some serious ovarian fortitude girl.
My MIL drinks cum-o-meal tea. It just makes me snicker. I asked her about it once because I say “CAM-o-meal” and she said that’s how they say it in Italian (her mom spoke Italian).
And don’t get me started about the great SHUNT vs. STINT vs. STENT debate of 2004.
I knew this gal who mispronounced her name “Leslie” as “Iris!” It was just CRAZY!!!
Hilarious post and love seeing all your comments! You’re a rockstah…(that one was intentional)
Haha, Stacey! Usually people mispronounce Leslie as BITCHFACE.
I’ve been missing you, sister! BIG BOOBIE HUG!
A coworker consistently says ambalamps for ambulance (I hope she never falls ill at the office; ain’t nobody gonna know what the hell she’s asking for!) and thilthy for filthy THE HELL? Who mispronounciates filthy? The kicker, though, was in Soho, an eat-in or takeout joint in the area whose prices are high as a giraffe’s ass (you have to weigh it). Overheard a guy say, mockingly, of course: Look, fry-casey. Who would eat fried casey? (He and the people with him laughed because one of them had on a nametag that said Casey, but he seriously though that was how one pronunciated FRICASEE!
Oh, wait: kinneygarten and nown (not noun, but now with an n: nown and then) UUUUUUUGH!
I hope her ambalamps isn’t thilthy! A bitch could get that flesh eating disease in a thilthy ambalamps. (LOL!)
My MIL is the best. Italian is eye-talian. Chamomile is chah-moley. Tortilla is tor-tillah. And many others.
God love the MILs of the world! I’m starting to think they say these things just to get under our skin.
The other day the pronunciating (shut up! that’s a WORD in these here parts) part of my brain completely shut off and I said me-LEE for melee, you know, saying it exactly how it looks, and my son said incredulously, “Do you mean MAY-LAY?” and all I could say was, “Yeah, some people say it that way, too.”
Oh, yes’m. We always have to cover our tracks when the kids catch us in a woopsie, right?! That word melee has always bugged me. Always. I avoid it whenever possible.
I work at Chick-fil-A, in Atlanta, and our store is a Dwarf House. I HATEHATEHATE when people answer the phone or say over the drive-thru order headset, “Welcome to the DORF House” And our regular hosts say this many, many times a day. I cringe constantly.
Oh, and I can’t say ROY or TROY. The combination stumps me, and I avoid saying those words at all costs. There was a Troy in my class K-12 and he always had a nickname from me. He thought I liked him, really I just couldn’t say his name. Ever.
What the heck is a “Dwarf House”? I have never heard of that!
That is so cute about giving Troy nicknames because you couldn’t say his name! He probably felt so special!
The very first Chick-fil-A restaurant was so small in size that it was nicknamed the Dwarf Grill, later to become the Dwarf House. In the Atlanta area (well, extended to Newnan and Rome), there are 9 Dwarf Houses, in honor of the original. Instead of being a fast food restaurant, we also have a full service dine-in side with an extended menu. We even serve beef (burgers and steaks) as well as an extensive breakfast menu.
Here’s a link about the Dwarf House in Rome. From blogland as well.
http://www.deepfriedkudzu.com/2009/05/rome-georgia-and-hamburger-at-chick-fil.html
My husband called the Lego King & I ‘Grammar Police’ when we cringed at his ‘fLustrated’…. Hello? It’s fRustrated!!
It also drives me nuts when my Dad says ‘Chim-ley’ (chimney) and ‘Ong-yuns’ (onions), but he’s almost 80 – so you’re not changing that ol’ dog!!
How about when you’re reading someones blog/post/etc. and they write ‘your’ when it should be ‘you’re’…. or ‘there’ instead of ‘their’ or ‘they’re’…. aaacckkk!!
WORD! Hate that. Here’s my favorite blog post about that: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling Hilarious!
Here in the fine state of U-Tar (Utah) we have a long list of mispronounciationitis. People “supposably” walk “acrost” the street. And if you live in Layton, locally is called “LaaUn”. T before a vowel is silent. For more check out sisterdottie.com of local humor on this subject! “sa much” “technalogically”.
In fact on local radio show has coined “Utonics” to describe the unique phonics! Of course as I’m originally from GreenBay, WI -I can’t escape the way the nort folks butcher the mother tongue. From “yah, you know and so heh” to “paper or plastic BEG?”, “up der in da UP” ( UP is upper pennisula of Michigan). The list goes on, and on.
I LOVE the accent up there! I could watch Fargo over and over just to hear those people talk.
My step-mother always says “VENGtables”, bless her heart.
Hahaha! I like to say VAGtables. Just because. Also, VAGetarian. It’s just funny.
I once worked with this woman who could not pronounce anything correctly. This guy would bring in cassata cakes for birthdays and she would tell me, “Ronnie brought the Secada cake…” to which I would respond (every single time), “I actually like the Ricky Martin cake better.” Then there was the time that she told me about the “babies breasteses” in the wedding bouquet. The bandaners (banners), underwears, CVB player (DVD), the BOU-ffet (buffet)… pretty much everything was wrong. She was Puerto Rican, and I assumed that English wasn’t her first language. Then I asked another co-worker (who emigrated from Guatamala when she was 17, and had been in the US 17 years and spoke perfect English) if her Spanish was better than her English, and she said it was just as bad. I should have written down all of the “Ruth-isms”, because they were hilarious!
Oh! One more!
Isn’t there always just one more?
The worst for me is “nu-cue-lar” for nu-cle-ar. Just can’t abide that one.
Keep ‘em coming!
My grandma, bless her heart. I love you, grandma. She “warshes” the “deeshes” and eats “feesh”. She also played (and caught “feesh”) in a “crick” when she was young and gather eggs from the “cheekins”. We all giggle when she starts, but I’ll miss it someday.
Ohmygosh my Grandma was the same way. I loved when she gave me CAYSH for my birthday. Sometimes she went to the bank for some FRAYSH CAYSH (crisp new bills). Miss that crazy broad!
My best friend says “Pin-Interest” instead of Pinterest. If it is said enough times in one conversation my head explodes.
And since I’m from the country, I hear plenty of things that sounds like “runt”and “Rrrr-int” instead of “ruined”. There’s no “T” in that word! And it’s an actual word, not a sound you make, lol.
Oh man, when I read this, I was all like, I have to write a post like this because I have so many morons in my life that mispronounce things. One of the morons is my stepmother, bless her heart. She calls overalls over HAULS, drives me freaking crazy. And my dad who had colon cancer a few times has to have fairly regular colon os STOW PEES, instead of a colonoscopy. Oh I want to mash a taco in her mouth every time I hear her say those things. Also, my mom says TRAWMA instead of trauma and calls a compass a COMP ass, which is hilarious. She insists she is saying it right. Apparently, for my whole life I have been saying BASK wrong, I was just informed. In order to verify it, I googled the pronunciation and even made sure to listen to the googler translator guys say it before I could actually admit to possibly saying it wrong for like, ever. I always thought it was BAYSK. Kind of like bake. Who knew? Maybe I’m the moron. Shit.
OK, I must go on. I’m on a roll. PACIFICALLY instead of specifically, SUPOSUBLY instead of supposedly, FLUStrated or FUStrated instead of frustrated. OMG, I could smack someone when they say that. TOOSH for touché, DALLER for dollar and WARSH for wash. Somebody better stop me here. I’m out of control.
Folks also say New Braunsfels. Drives me nuts to hear that extra “S”. And my mom is also the worst at Mispronunciationitis!
My step mother used to say Warshington, or do a load in the warsher, as well as libary, instead of library, my mom cannot say my fiance’s last name (Sahbaee–SAH-BA-EE) or various other ethnic words, and my friend’s daughter says aks, instead of ask. My boss slips up occasionally too but her errors are usually grammatical (like wrong verb conjugations).
Have you ever had “Philadelthia” cream cheese? My mom has, and my dad likes it on the sandwiches he buys at”Queezmo’s”(Quizno’s)!
My mother in law (bless her heart) rarely pronounces anything right. We have learned to use big words,just to hear her version later.
Catawba (that Southern tree with the orchid-like flowers)-Pawtonkin
Semolina (a flour I use in bread and pasta)-seminolian
piano-pieanner
and the standard ‘nookewler’ (nuclear) and ‘hairicane’ (hurricane)
oh, and ‘popslickers’- those frozen treats on a stick.
Oh! And then there was the fellow who worked with my husband. He came to our house and said “Oh cool! you have a simonized cat!” This is the same fellow who had a laboratory receiver dog.
My mom says ROLL-EEEE-Coaster. lmao and WINDUH for window, Yellah for yellow….ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I work with a guy that says Cuddie-sack for culd-e-sac, jinniecullijist for gynocologist, Haaaaarse for horse, Jerrrjahh for Georgia, omg, we laugh when he talks.
AND, I can still hear the Kenny Karden commercial in my head. Kennnnnnnnnnnnnnny Karrrrrrrrrrrrrden, the young I D E A! (clothes for is you wanted your ass kicked at recess).
OMG – I totally remember those commercials now!! YES! And oh hell no, I would never wear that shit to school! My mom only dressed us like that once a year when we went to church for Easter. (Creaster alert.)
I’m so glad you opened the comments for this one! My mom says “tah” for “tar.”
“Don’t get the *tah* on your feet, now!” she always used to tell me. What the frack? It’s a three-letter word with an “R” on the end of it – how hard can it be to say? But no matter how many times I correct her, it still comes out “tah.”
Then again, I’m not one to talk considering that up until last week I thought “marnier” (as in Grand Marnier) had three syllables.
“Eat a Mommy” CRACKED me up.
CLASSIC! Mmmmm, Grand MARN-ie-er.
Is your mom from Boston? WTH?
Hey, lady. Thanks for the lovin’ up in he-yah.
In fairness, to me, not my mom becuase tough toogies lady, I can pronounce fajitas. Fa-hee-tas. I needed to clear up any concerns about my Mexican restaurant ordering prowess. I can order a mo’-fo’ right out of their sombrero.
Now, I probably mispronounce stuff, but I’m more likely to avoid words I’m uncertain of, like naivete. WTF is with that word? Naive-tay? Naive-uh-tay? According to Dictionary.com: BOTH. Well, how does that help a bitch?
So, instead of using naivete, I say “dopey.”
OMG! I can ‘t believe I forgot this one. ” Masturbate” instead of “exacerbate”. For real. In the boss’s office. By the boss.
I live in Georgia, so there are MANY people suffering from mispronunciationitis. I could be here all day. I’ll refrain and only mention 2 that are unusual, even for Georgia. My grandmother used to call Iowa I-o-way. We lived there when I was a kid and she told everyone we had moved to I-o-way. A coworker refers to overweight people as being obeast (obese). I thought it was just a slip of the tongue the first time I heard her, but no. She used it regularly.
Hilarious! I’m in Georgia too, so I hear you loud and clear. OMG, your grandmother! LOL!
So I just want to start by saying, that this is the first time I read this blog, I happened to see it in the sidebar somewhere else and since mispronunciationitis is a huge pet peeve of mine, I just had to read this. I love words so to me, this is great!
I am from Boston, so I won’t even get into the fact that every time I watch a movie or TV show that is based out of Boston and watch some actor butcher our accent, (I swear I do NOT talk like that!) I cringe. (I can not watch Good Will Hunting, really Ben and Matt, you do not really talk like that, I have seen you in interviews. And don’t even get me started on Robin Williams) I do actually park not pahk my car not a cah.
Some friends and I were actually just having this conversation not too long ago and some of the favorites were:
hoss instead of horse
fahk instead of fork
and my husband who is the biggest offender (I really feel like I am constantly correcting some word) granGulated garlic and viniKar (he is a chef to boot)
I am sure there are more, but I am out of coffee and my brain needs a refill.
Thanks for a great post!
Hi Nicole and welcome! Too funny about the Boston accent thing. We have the same issue in Pittsburgh. Some people have a really heavy accent that is HILARIOUS! (“Go dahn tahn and watch ‘em Stillers an’ at.”) But not EVERYONE sounds like that. I don’t. My mom doesn’t. But some of my relatives? Yup. I always wondered if the Boston thing was the same deal.
Thanks for stopping by!
My mother-in-law pronounces words horrible. What’s really sad is that she is educated and reads a lot.
She says Cambry instead of Camry. She uses a Swifter instead of a Swiffer. She eats Kwesadillas not Quesadillas. And, I won’t into how she butchers peoples names. And it doesn’t matter how many times we correct her. She still does it.
Bless her heart.
Both my parents call Montreal Mont-REEL. It drives me nuts. They’ve also taken to pronouncing the word blossom as BLOW-some. The worst and scariest part is that they will argue that those are the correct pronunciations. I know they didn’t used to speak this way, so I’m worried because they are both in their mid to lade 50s and that this might be some kind of age-related neurological issue. My dad is much much much worse but the fact that they are similarly afflicted and support each other in this rubbish is scary to me.
I’m dyin’ ova here! Too funny. Both my mother and my dear friend Holly are stricken with mispronunciationitis. Really unfortunates cases indeed. Sad.
Combine the sound you make when the Doc asks you to “stick out your tongue:” “Br” + say “aaaaahhhhhh = braaaahhhhh. Imagine shopping with your dear Mother getting your first trainer (embarrassing enough) and her announcing very loudly for all at Sears and Roebuck to hear that you need a new “braaaaahhhh.” Pardon me while I go hide under a clothing rack. Another classic Momism is “Juan.” Not the cute Mexican boy who perhaps bagged our groceries… but, you know, like they “Juan” the game or who “Juan” the game. It’s “won” Mom. “Won.”
Holly is special case and mispronounces and misuses most words. We have come to love this about her and we all affectionately call her “our special friend.” I have created a phonics course just for her and am proud to say that do to my tutelage she can now say “sushi.” It took some time but she went from “shoe-she” to “Sue-she.” Patting myself on the back. I did good. Really good!
Too funny! Holly and my Mom should go bowling. My mom says shoe-she and sha-see-me. Hilarious!
The first inaugural “Fun with Phonics” Bowling Night. I’ll get on this!! I haven’t heard Holly attempt “edamame” yet. I won’t forget the Depends that day… incontinence and mispronunciationitis seem to go hand in hand… at least for me they do.
When my husband said that he was going to stop at the local grocery, my mother said: “Oh, no. You don’t want to shop there- they will jack you off!”
Before I could explain that my mother meant “they will rip you off”, my husband was burning rubber out of her driveway.
Kerry at HouseTalkN
Bwhahahaha! He’ll be shopping THERE every day now. I hope he remembers to get OFF.
WHAT? I’m talking about bug repellent!
First of all, I am recovering from herni surgery and I about busted a gut reading this! I cannot NOT comment about my mother-in-law who does not get mammograms, but gets mammy-ograms. As in Gone With the Wind Mammy?
My pet peeve is people pronouncing jewelry as jool-ery.
P.S. Thank you for the laugh/cry/almost-falling-out-of-my-chair moment. I needed it today. Robyn
I loved this so much that I was inspired to make a vlog of the “Funny Shit Mom Says!”
Our moms would be a great team!
Kerry at HouseTalkN
Just found your blog. Here’s my contribution: my dad waRshes the car and drinks sodY pop . Former boss says suposably (hate, hate, hate that but I could not risk correcting her). My mom will graV a sanGwich for lunch (to be fair, english is her second language). MIL doesn’t have any, but we disagree on the meaning of LA (Los Angeles to me, lower Alabama for her). Anyway, you have a new follower.
My mother has mispronounced ‘tortilla’ and ‘Italian’ as long as I can remember. It’s always ‘EYE-tay-lee-un,’ like an alien landed in the delicious land of pasta. And ‘tor-TILL-ee-uh.’ OMFG mother! You worked at Taco Time in high school!
And my husband says ‘volumptious’ to describe a curvy woman. Really? Where’s the ‘m’ come from, babe? He also says ‘ant-ANN-uh’ for antenna. Drives me bonkers.