Fun Pet Peeves - Word Pronunciations and Others Issues - Helping Better Communication!

This is just for fun, but I have noticed common and not-so-common mispronounced words over the years, so I wanted to document some for fun. I have noted the word, the correct pronunciation, and the common wrong pronunciation, plus I have noted some famous violators! Be careful and take note or the Word Police may give you a citation too! ;)

It was scary that the guy in charge of the US "nuclear" arsenal for eight years couldn't even pronounce the word! Accepting constructive criticism was not one of George's strong points, so he just ignored anyone that corrected him. Two other possibilities are that nobody had the courage to corrected him or maybe he surrounded himself with people that pronounced it the same way.

Mr. TsouKalos is a featured speaker on the "Ancient Aliens" program on the History Channel and he is constantly mispronouncing the word "Extraterrestrial" - he also pronounces it "X-A-TER-EST-REE-ALL" and "X-O-TER-EST-REE-ALL" - this guy is supposed to be an expert on this subject, yet he can't even pronounce the word - sheesh!

As far as "TERLET" and "SAR" goes - what the hell is that? People that mispronounce these words must be confusing that southern efficiency with northern charm! ;)

Many of us "PRAZE" the Lord, but how many of you "PRIZE" the Lord?

The newscasters on the BBC have enough respect for America to say "America" and not "Americer", but they are always talking about "Chiner" instead of "China". I am not sure if they have any respect for Argentina, but I will look for whether they say "Argenteener" or not!

Here's another pet peeve for fun.

Can I ask you a question?

This is pushed by Hollywood and television programming constantly, but think about it. It's like someone is asking your permission to ask a question - they are asking a question without your permission, which defeats the purpose of asking the question. When someone asks me "Can I ask you a question?", I always say "NO" or "You just did!" I always say, "Let me ask you a question." - Asking questions generally requires an answer, right? So, instead of preparing you for a question, they request an answer, and usually launch into the second question without your permission. Why even ask permission if you are going to ask the damn question anyway?

This is so petty, but at the very least, it is quite amusing. I had someone point these issues out to me about 20 years ago and it made me aware that I wasn't communicating effectively. Pronouncing words correctly and NOT asking people if I can ask a question helps.

I have also noticed that many people listen less to words and focus more on gestures and facial expressions to get the meaning of what is being said, or they focus on themselves and think what is being said applies to their specific situation without listening to the words. These are signs of laziness and self-absorption, and most people including me do this to some extent, so it's important to use words that are easy for everyone to understand, as well as visual communication ques.

And for US citizens that speak just one language, we should give a lot of leeway to people that speak our language as a second or third language. Most of us can't speak ONE very well!

I always encourage people to correct me and I most frequently get tickets from the Word Police for "AINT" and ending ING words with "IN" like endin'. I have always had a great interest in languages and have studied many, but in the end, I can barely speak just one!