26-05-2025
The commonly mispronounced words that infuriate Brits... so, are YOU saying them correctly?
In a country famed for its love of queuing and tea, mispronunciation is a breach of etiquette known to ruffle feathers.
Britons have taken to Reddit 's r/AskUK forum to share the linguistic blunders that drive them to distraction.
'Which words do people say incorrectly that really bother you, British edition?,' one user asked.
The responses ranged from phonetic mistakes to spelling blunders, with some regional snobbery thrown in.
Among the most irksome offenders is the mistake of saying 'pacific' when the person actually means 'specific.'
One user quipped: 'Nothing Pacific comes to mind,' highlighting the issue in an amusing way.
Others bemoaned saying 'incinerating' in place of 'insinuating,' prompting more than a few grumbles from users with the same language dislike.
And then there's the seemingly American phrase 'I could care less.' One commenter vented: 'They're saying the literal opposite of what they mean!'
Others on Reddit were particularly scathing of that example, arguing that it completely undermines the speaker's intended indifference.
The pronunciation of 'ask' as 'arks' also drew criticism, though not without sparking a broader cultural debate.
One user grumbled that the variation made them think of 'toddler pronunciation', only to be swiftly countered by another pointing out that 'arks' has roots in Caribbean English dialects.
'Don't abandon your heritage because some people are up their own a**e about "proper" English,' one person wrote, defending the linguistic variations.
Other grievances leaned toward the typographic rather than the spoken. 'Could of,' 'should of,' and 'would of' came under fire for their grammatical inaccuracy.
The difference between 'lose' and 'loose' similarly had tempers flaring, with one person noting: 'My wife's a stickler for this one! It's horribly widespread and irritates me no end.
'In a similar vein, "litterly" seems to be usurping "literally" as the preferred spelling.' 'Can I get a shot of expresso?' one user wrote, mocking the common mispronunciation of 'espresso.'
Spelling seemed to strike the most sensitive nerves, with people mentioning their annoyance at others for mistaking 'weary' for 'wary,' or 'brake' for 'break'.
One person complained about the use of 'defiantly' when they mean 'definitely' and 'then' when they mean 'than'.
