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Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘It's shed-ule, not sked-ule': The mispronunciations that annoy us the most
When Susie Dent, Countdown 's etymology guru, declared on Wednesday that the common mispronunciation of 'mischievous' as 'mischiev-i-ous' should now be considered acceptable, she caused a stir not just at the Hay Festival but among traditionalists across the country. The reaction to her intervention highlights the extraordinary capacity of mispronounced words to irritate the listener – and how everyone has their own particular bugbears. Here, Telegraph writers and editors identify the pronunciations that grate the most – and confess to some of their own errors. 'Haitch' – Christopher Howse, assistant editor In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the heroine is obliged by American Puritans to wear a big red A to show she has been caught in adultery. I'd like to see a capital H worn by anyone caught pronouncing it 'haitch'. Admittedly 'aitch' is a funny name for a letter. Q and R are funny too, but you don't hear people saying 'rar' instead of 'ar'. 'Haitch', though, is a case of hypercorrection and genteelism. It's like saying 'to my wife and I' because it sounds more polite than 'to my wife and me'. Children used to be told not to drop their aitches. The mistake is to think an aitch belongs at the beginning of 'aitch'. Last year I was impressed by the bravery of Amol Rajan, the Today presenter, who, after 40 years alive and a Cambridge degree in English, announced he was now going to start pronouncing 'aitch' correctly. Bravo. In 1862, Punch, in its class-conscious way, mocked the aspiration of 'aitch': 'She could not bear hoysters until there was a haitch in the month.' But I'm afraid it's a class-marker still, and we condemn our children to a life of social degradation if we let them say 'haitch'. Jeremy Butterfield, the editor of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, thinks 'haitch' will prevail, 'unspeakably uncouth though it may appear'. Against this final assault by Chaos and Old Night, Amol and I will die in the last ditch, in which we may find room for you too. 'Wrath' – , royal editor The royal world is full of words ready to trip you up, from the lord lieutenants ('left-tenants', of course, rather than 'lew-tenants') to equerries. Even Princess Eugenie has to explain she is a 'YOO-jenny' with the handy comparison to 'use-your-knees'. That's before you even get to the aristocratic titles, names and homes. Cholmondeley pronounced 'chumley'; Belvoir Castle pronounced 'beaver'; Buckingham Palace without stressing the 'ham'. Earl Spencer has largely given up the struggle for the traditional pronunciation of Princess Diana's childhood home Althorp. The old 'áwltrop' has now been overtaken by 'all-thorp', the version commonly (and understandably) used by visitors. If you haven't grown up in that world, you haven't got a hope. So I try not to be snooty about people getting things wrong, as I've done quite a few times myself. There is only really one word that I notice every time: wrath. In 2004, when I was a bright-eyed young fresher, a clearly better educated young man at university corrected my misuse of 'wrath' in the middle of a story I was telling. I had said the American version, rhyming with 'Cath' or the northern UK pronunciation of 'bath', rather than the correct British version, 'roth'. It has annoyed me ever since – mostly because he was right. I always notice it in others and have been known to gently, privately point it out to spare others the same social embarrassment. It's a good job I changed my ways. That fresher who corrected me? Reader, I married him. 'Harassment' – Lisa Markwell, head of long reads My mother has always had a lot to say about pronunciation – or rather, mispronunciations. It's definitely rubbed off on me. In my youth, a boyfriend was quickly dispatched (by me, I should add, not her) because he said 'hyperbowl' rather than 'hi-per-bol-ee'; it was his second offence after 'epy-tome' rather than 'ep-it-o-mee'. In adulthood, what I have trained myself to do is never to correct, but to try and use the word with the correct pronunciation as soon as possible in the conversation. It's kinder that way. It comes from an annoying waiter sneering at me ordering scallops. 'Do you mean scoll -ops?', he intoned, snootily. But the creeping Americanisation of words really grinds my gears. The changing from noun to verb is now, appallingly, well established – but that's a rant for another day. The way in which words become their most base selves in the way they are spoken just feels wrong. Yes, British English (if we can call it that), is full of idiosyncrasies, but it's always been like that. Take lieutenant: who knows why it is pronounced 'left-tenant' but it very much is not 'lew-tenant'. See also, 'har-ass-ment' when it should be 'harass-ment' – that's one of the words my mother still gets exercised about to this day. Then there's 'schedule' which, for the avoidance of any doubt, is 'shed-ule', not 'sked-ule'. Any number of YouTube videos and US dramas will not change my mind. But if I'm honest, 'privacy' is the one that catches me out and I am furious that it turns out I've been getting it wrong all this time. It's 'prih-vacy', not 'pry-vacy'. Please respect my 'prih-vacy' at this difficult time. 'Espresso' – Kamal Ahmed, The Daily T presenter and director of audio An admission. I am a self-hating mispronouncer. And my big one is ' espresso ' – which I pronounce 'expresso'. Just like most other people. When it should of course be 'e-spresso', as there is no 'x' in the word – literally (a word I insert into sentences for no apparent reason, another bugbear). But if you do actually say 'espresso' with an Italian flare you sound a bit ridiculous. Like saying 'panino' in an Italian deli when you want one sandwich with prosciutto (try pronouncing that properly) and buffalo mozzarella. And no-one says Paris like they are French, do they? Unless they are, literally, French. 'Twenny' – Poppy Coburn, acting deputy comment editor The resurgence of the regional accent has a lot to answer for when it comes to linguistic bastardisation. Familiarity breeds contempt, and so I reserve my deepest distaste for the Essex drawl. Born in Southend and raised in Braintree, I experienced the full breadth of the cockney-ish interpretation of the English language, from 'shut uppp' to 'innit' to (oh God) 'reem'. Words would become needlessly elongated by a refusal to vocalise 'er', and so 'proper' became 'propaaa' and 'water' turned to 'wor-arrrrr'. But by far the most objectionable trend was the dropping of consonants, with 'twenty' morphing into 'twenny'. I once made the mistake of saying 'twenny' to my grandmother, a Norfolk-born ex-headteacher who took great pride in her parents having arranged for her to take elocution lessons. I soon found myself an unwilling pupil in her pronunciation lessons. My sister and I now have completely diametric accents and articulate words so differently that we often seem to be speaking other languages. I may have been mercilessly teased at school for sounding like the Queen, but I've come to appreciate my slightly posh voice. It certainly helps when I'm trying to be understood over the phone or talking to a non-native speaker. 'Archipelago' – Mick Brown, features writer A friend of mine has a singular way of pronouncing the word that describes a group or chain of islands within a body of water. As we all know, the word is 'archipelago' – pronounced 'arki-pel-ago'. She pronounces it as 'archie pel-ago', as if she's talking about a 1930s music hall act. This is a result of pronouncing a word as you read it, not as you hear it said. I can understand that. Archipelago is not a word you hear in everyday speech. And who am I to correct her? For years I pronounced 'epitome' as 'epi-tome', rather than the correct pronunciation, 'e-pit-omee'. And I still struggle with the word hummus. Although I don't think there is consensus over the correct 'British' pronunciation, I do know that Delia Smith and I are both wrong. Delia was once caught on camera for a cookery show, standing at a supermarket shelf apparently buying something called 'who-moose', as if it were a subspecies of the large North American mammal. While, for some reason, I got it into my head a long time ago that it was pronounced 'hommus', and I still can't stop. That's the problem with mispronunciations, they're like earworms. Once they're lodged in the brain it's almost impossible to get them out. I don't think I'm alone in stumbling over the word 'mispronunciation' itself. A common complaint is that American pronunciations have infiltrated the English language. To hear Americans talking about 'erbs', with a silent 'h', is like fingernails screeching on a blackboard. And who is this famous artist they are constantly referring to as Van Go? A friend in America recently sent me a list of the three hardest things for an American to say: 'I'm wrong', 'I need help' and 'Worcestershire'. Just keep them guessing. What mispronunciations annoy you the most – and which are you guilty of? Let us know in the comments.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
TOM UTLEY: Susie, the serene goddess of Countdown, has thrown in the towel - but I'm still manning the barricades against the language louts!
Et tu, Susie? Just as Julius Caesar thought his friend Brutus was the last man on Earth who would betray him, so I imagined Susie Dent would defend to her final breath the correct pronunciation of common English words. But no. This week, the serene goddess of Countdown's Dictionary Corner appeared to throw in the towel over the widespread mispronunciation of the word mischievous. So many people get it wrong, she declared, that it no longer bothers her to hear it pronounced 'mischievious', to rhyme with 'devious', as if it were spelt with a third 'i' after the 'v'. True, she was not saying the mispronunciation had now become standard English. Nor was she endorsing it as 'acceptable', as one or two mischievous headline-writers have suggested. But she did seem to regard the mistake with a certain detached, academic resignation, as if it were merely an interesting illustration of the way language evolves. My own instinct, by contrast, is to man the barricades against assaults on our language and 'rage, rage against the dying of the light'. Speaking at the Hay Festival, where she was promoting her new murder mystery, Guilty By Definition, Dent said: 'Something which used to rile me was people pronouncing mischievous as mischie-vi-ous. But now it's everywhere and there is a very good reason why people do. 'It's the way English people have always pushed out a pronunciation that is no longer familiar to them. We don't have any 'ievous' words any more, and they're pushing it to something that they do know, and that's 'evious'. 'So I have now decided it's a fascinating snapshot of how language works and it doesn't really bother me – not any more.' Well, all I can say is that it bothers me a lot. Indeed, far from becoming more tolerant as the years go by, I find that the older I get, the more such petty crimes against our language irritate me. Oh, I know that in this vale of tears, with wars raging in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere, and our own country plunging headlong into bankruptcy, there are far more important things to worry about than the mispronunciation of a common English word. I know, too, that Dent, who is a far more distinguished student of words than I will ever be, is quite right to say that living languages evolve with the passage of time. After all, it's not only pronunciations that change, but spellings and even the meanings of words. To take one frequently cited example, the word 'silly' went through a whole range of meanings – including happy, holy, rustic, weak and lowly – before it settled on its modern definition as a synonym for daft. Meanwhile, I'd hate to think I'm becoming as pedantic as my late grandfather, a classics scholar, who insisted on pronouncing 'margarine' with a hard g (apparently it comes from the Greek word for a pearl, which is spelt with a gamma) and cinema as 'Kye-knee-ma', because its ancient Greek root begins with a kappa. As I may have mentioned before, he was also such a stickler for correct grammar that when my mother asked him if he'd like more spaghetti, he replied: 'Well, perhaps just a few'. (The word spaghetti, you understand, is the plural of spaghetto; strictly speaking, it's therefore wrong to speak of 'just a little spaghetti'.) But there must be at least some trace of my grandfather in me, since I constantly find myself wincing over common mispronunciations and grammatical mistakes. It sets my teeth on edge, for example, when I ask almost anyone under the age of about 35 'How are you?', and the answer comes back: 'I'm good'. Indeed, I have to bite my lip to stop myself from saying: 'I wasn't asking about your morals. I just wanted to know if you were well!' In the same way, it irritates me like anything when people ask at the bar: 'Can I get...', when the traditional form, on my side of the Atlantic at least, is 'May I have...' And why do so many of the young insist on starting every other sentence with the word 'so'? (Ask them what they do for a living, and the chances are they will give some incomprehensible answer, such as: 'So, I'm a local government project outreach manager.') Won't somebody teach BBC reporters, meanwhile, that singular subjects take singular verbs? I've lost count of the number of times I've switched on the news to hear sentences such as: 'The collapse in shares are sending shock-waves through the financial world.' Are it really? Or take the way in which many who are confused or ambiguous about their sexual identity like to be referred to by the plural pronouns 'they' and 'them'. What bugs me quite as much as any other consideration is the way this mangles English grammar. As for quirks of pronunciation, I suppose I should admit that some of my objections are merely snobbish. For example, nobody on BBC London seems able to say the word 'hospital' in the way I was brought up to pronounce it. Asad Ahmad and most of his colleagues give it three equally stressed syllables ('hosp-it-tool'), instead of rhyming it with little or skittle. (Mind you, some of them say 'littool' and 'skittool' as well.) It annoys me, too, that Sir Keir Starmer seems to have trouble pronouncing his own job title, rendering it more often than not as 'Pry-Mister'. And don't get me started on the Chancellor's hideous, grating pronunciation of the name of the kingdom she's bringing to ruin, which she insists on calling the 'Yew-Kye'. But some common pronunciations are just plain wrong. I'm thinking in particular of words we get from the French, such as restaurateur and lingerie. Again and again, you will hear the former pronounced as if it had an 'n' in it, and the latter as if it ended in -ay. Mind you, my late father regarded it almost as his patriotic duty to mispronounce French words. I'll never forget his rebuking me once for pronouncing Marseilles the French way, as 'Mar-say.' 'Mar-say, boy? Mar-say?' he spluttered. 'The word is Mar-sails! You don't pronounce Paris 'Paree', do you?' Other examples of common mispronunciations that are just plain wrong include 'Joo-le-ree' for jewellery, 'Feb-you-airy' for February and 'amen-o-knee' for that admittedly tricky tongue-twister, anemone. Meanwhile, Dent herself cites the widespread mispronunciation of nuclear as 'nucular', saying it understandably irks a lot of people, while observing with her lexicographer's detachment that she thinks this is influenced by such words as molecular and secular. She tells me: 'I'm certainly not saying 'anything goes'. Language needs to be fluent and articulate (and wherever possible, beautiful!) in order to be effective, and when we deviate from the standard it can affect the quality and comprehensibility of our writing or speech.' All she is pointing out, she says, is that pronunciations have evolved for centuries, as we have adjusted sounds that no longer seem familiar to those that are. 'It can be irritating of course, and many will believe it is a degradation of English, all of which I understand,' she says. 'But there is perhaps reassurance in the fact that this is nothing new.' Ah, well, I'm sure she's right on every count. But may not an old man rant?
The Journal
4 days ago
- General
- The Journal
How do you pronounce ‘mischievous'?
IT TURNS OUT that the word mischievous – meaning 'bad behaviour that is annoying but does not cause any serious damage or harm' – is one of the most commonly mispronounced words in English. While it's meant to be pronounced as mis-chuv-vuhs, a lot of people throw in an extra syllable and out comes mis-chee-vious. Advertisement But this pronunciation is now widely accepted in casual speech, says lexicographer Susie Dent , who has appeared in Dictionary Corner on Channel 4′s Countdown since 1992. Only two words in English end with 'ievous': mischievous, and grievous. So in fairness, it's an easy mix-up. So, tell us (be honest): How have you been pronouncing 'mischievous'? Poll Results: Mis-chee-vious (369) Mis-chuv-vuhs (299) I don't know – I'm questioning myself now... (33) I say it a different way (19) Mis-chuv-vuhs Mis-chee-vious I say it a different way I don't know – I'm questioning myself now... Vote
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Mispronouncing mischievous is now acceptable, reveals Susie Dent... but do YOU know how to say it?
Countdown's Susie Dent has claimed that the common mispronunciation of mischievous as 'mischiev-i-ous' is actually now acceptable. Despite the pronunciation being deemed 'non-standard' by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Dent believes it is a good example of how language evolves. In the English language, only mischievous and grievous end with 'ievous', while at least 10 words end in 'vious', including commonly-used words like 'previous' and 'devious'. Dent, who has been working on Countdown since 1992, put the mispronunciation down to a confusion or mimicry of the words 'devious' and 'previous', reports the Times. Speaking at the Hay Festival, Dent said: 'Something which used to rile me was people pronouncing "mischievous" as "mischiev-i-ous". But now it's everywhere and there is a very good reason why people do. 'It's the way English people have always pushed out a pronunciation that is no longer familiar to them. We don't have any "ievous" words any more, and they're pushing it to something that they do know, and that's "evious". 'So I have now decided it's a fascinating snapshot of how language works and it doesn't really bother me, not anymore.' However, the mispronunciation is pet peeve for many. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Richard Dawkins wrote: '"Mischievous" has no third "I" and is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. 'But a mutant 'I' + stress on 2nd syllable is spreading. As a mischievous memeticist, I'm curious about the selection pressure driving it. Is it easier to say? Or is some celebrity being copied?' Also taking to social media to share his frustration last week was author and children's laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce. He shared a post that read: 'Even people on Radio 4 can't pronounce "mischievous" now.' The pronunciation and spelling of 'mischievous' dates back to the 16th century, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. 'Our pronunciation files contain modern attestations ranging from dialect speakers to Herbert Hoover,' it added. During her talk, Dent also revealed the words that she loves but are no longer used as much. This includes the word 'respair', the word opposite to 'despair' and commonly heard in the 16th or 17th century, meaning fresh, hope or recovery. She also included 'ipsedixitism', which means a dogmatic assertion that something is true without providing supporting evidence or proof. The Countdown star went on to say that she believes people are afraid of dealing with her in case they take her of a 'a bit of linguistic pedant'. She revealed she once had a builder tell her that he 'could never bring himself to text me' because he thought she 'needed semi-colons in my text messages'. Dent previously spoke to MailOnline about the historic words she wants to see back in the English language. One of her many favourites is 'nodcrafty' which, despite being from the 19th century, is perfect 'for any Zoom meeting'. 'To be nodcrafty is to have the knack of nodding your head as if you're really following along but actually you tuned out ages ago,' she said. 'I think that's quite an important skill.' Another little-know word, 'apricity', describes 'the most perfect feeling' – the warmth of the sun on your back on a winter's day. 'There's only one record of it in the dictionary, from 1623,' Susie explained. 'It's almost like a linguistic mayfly – it just survived for a day it seems and disappeared. 'But weather forecasters are beginning to use it which is brilliant.' Commonly mispronounced words in English This list outlines an array of terms that people often find themselves stumbling over, or incorrectly pronouncing, according to literacy expert Mubin Ahmed. Mischievous Mispronunciation: mis-CHEE-vee-us Correct pronunciation: MIS-chiv-us 'Many people add an extra syllable, pronouncing it as 'mis-CHEE-vee-us,' but the correct pronunciation is 'MIS-chiv-us,' with only three syllables,' said the literacy expert. Schedule Mispronunciation: SKED-yool Correct pronunciation: SHED-yool Mubin said: 'In British English, 'schedule' is traditionally pronounced as 'SHED-yool.' However, the American pronunciation 'SKED-yool' is becoming more common due to cultural influences.' Pronunciation Mispronunciation: pro-nounce-ee-A-shun Correct pronunciation: pro-nun-see-A-shun 'Ironically, the word 'pronunciation' is often mispronounced. The correct form is 'pro-nun-see-A-shun,' not 'pro-nounce-ee-A-shun,' insisted Mubin. Espresso Mispronunciation: ex-PRESS-oh Correct pronunciation: es-PRESS-oh 'There is no 'x' in 'espresso.' The correct pronunciation is 'es-PRESS-oh', said the literacy expert. Arctic Mispronunciation: AR-tic Correct pronunciation: ARK-tik The literacy expert claimed: 'The word 'Arctic' has two 'c's,' and both should be pronounced. The correct pronunciation is 'ARK-tik'. Nuclear Mispronunciation: NOO-kyoo-lar Correct pronunciation: NOO-klee-ar 'The word 'nuclear' is often mispronounced as 'NOO-kyoo-lar.' The correct pronunciation is 'NOO-klee-ar', said Mubin. February Mispronunciation: FEB-yoo-air-ee Correct pronunciation: FEB-roo-air-ee 'Many people skip the first 'r' in 'February,' but the correct pronunciation includes it: 'FEB-roo-air-ee,' explained Mubin. Quinoa Mispronunciation: kee-NO-ah Correct pronunciation: KEEN-wah 'This superfood's name is often mispronounced. The correct pronunciation is 'KEEN-wah', insisted the literacy expert. Often Mispronunciation: OFF-ten Correct pronunciation: OFF-en 'While both 'OFF-ten' and 'OFF-en' are technically correct, the traditional pronunciation in British English is 'OFF-en,' where the 't' is silent,' explained the literacy expert. Zebra Mispronunciation: ZEE-bra Correct pronunciation: ZEB-ra 'In British English, 'zebra' is pronounced 'ZEB-ra,' with a short 'e' sound, unlike the American pronunciation 'ZEE-bra',' said Mubin. Library Mispronunciation: lie-BERRY Correct pronunciation: LIE-brer-ee 'The word "library" is often mispronounced as "lie-BERRY," but the correct pronunciation is "LIE-brer-ee"', Mubin explained. Salmon Mispronunciation: SAL-mon Correct pronunciation: SAM-uhn 'The "l" in "salmon" is silent. The correct pronunciation is "SAM-uhn",' revealed the literacy expert from UK-based Awesome Books. Almond Mispronunciation: AL-mond Correct pronunciation: AH-mund 'The "l" in "almond" is also silent. The correct pronunciation is "AH-mund"', claimed the expert. Debris Mispronunciation: DEB-ris Correct pronunciation: de-BREE 'The correct pronunciation of "debris" is "de-BREE," with the "s" being silent,' insisted Mubin. Controversy Mispronunciation: con-TROV-er-see Correct pronunciation: CON-tro-ver-see 'In British English, "controversy" is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable: "CON-tro-ver-see."', explained the literacy expert.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
It's fine to mispronounce ‘mischievous' now, says Susie Dent
It is one of the most mispronounced words in the English language, causing purists to despair. A sizeable percentage of the population pronounces 'mischievous' as 'mischiev-i-ous', with the mistake even making its way onto the BBC. And now these grammar miscreants have found an unlikely champion in Susie Dent, the Countdown star and lexicographer, who has declared that 'mischievious' is now an acceptable word and we should accept the extra syllable. At the Hay Festival, Dent said: 'Something which used to rile me was people pronouncing 'mischievous' as 'mischievious'. But now it is everywhere and there is a very good reason why people do. 'It's the way English people have always pushed out a pronunciation that is no longer familiar to them. We don't have any 'ievous' words any more, and they're pushing it to something that they do know, and that's 'evious'. 'So I have now decided it's a fascinating snapshot of how language works and it doesn't really bother me, not anymore.' Purists who do object to the mispronunciation include Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the author and Children's Laureate. He shared a social media post last week which lamented: 'Even people on Radio 4 can't pronounce 'mischievous' now.' Other people annoyed by the usage include Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, who asked on social media: ''Mischievous' has no third 'I' and is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. But a mutant [sic] 'I' + stress on 2nd syllable is spreading. As a mischievous memeticist, I'm curious about the selection pressure driving it. Is it easier to say? Or is some celebrity being copied?' Dent also spoke about words she loves, but have fallen out of use. One is 'respair', a word that was used in the 16th or 17th century meaning fresh or hope or recovery, and the opposite of 'despair'. Another is 'ipsedixitism' – the dogmatic insistence that something is true because someone else said it, despite a lack of any other evidence. Dent, who joined Countdown's dictionary corner in 1992 and combined the job with working for the Oxford University Press, said people worry about dealing with her because they mistake her for 'a bit of a linguistic pedant'. She said: 'I did have a lovely, lovely builder once say that he could never bring himself to text me because he thought I needed semi-colons in my text messages. Which is completely untrue.'
