I’ll admit to violating this and didn’t even realize it till I went to PSU. So I ask my college age son what he would say given the two options. His reply....”the grass needs cut”.
Words that are mispronounced that drive you crazy .........
- Thread starter Thus Spoke Mainer
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Good point.
In the coal region criks often flow through town and are a curious shade of brownish orange. Another version is the runoff from sewage treatment plants which are universally known as “the shit crik”.
Now that I think about it, I drop the "t" sound in the middle of many words and I'm in my mid 50s. I don't think it's a mispronunciation as mush as it's dialectical. Others listed in this thread are flat out mispronunciations. Asterick for asterisk, expresso for espresso, etc.
I think a crick is smaller than a creek. Although I don’t think I ever used the word Creek growing up. Sometimes I throw it in there now to look sophisticated.
At least two presidents, one of who was a nookyaler engineer, were guilty of that.
Not necessarily a mispronunciation issue, but my all time favorite pharma marketer norm crosbyism was this senior guy who kept going on and on about wanting to implement a "parody pricing" strategy.
I was like, "you mean pricing that lampoons the other pricing?"
I was like, "you mean pricing that lampoons the other pricing?"
Unless you are from Warshington, Bawlmore, or maybe Phiwadelphia. I believe the linguistic lineage of that traces back to some highly localized scots-irish thing.
Reflecting my local roots, the Conodoguinet Creek is not pronounced as if you are asking if you can go in it.
I'm from the Harrisburg area, and that is how that is said there. I was also a 'redd up' guy. No change all through college, even with a bunch of NY state guys in the fraternity. About half were from Pbgh, and most of the rest were Central PA, eastern PA, NJ/NY.
So first job out of school has me moving to Princeton NJ and working in a dept. of mostly young guys about my age, and all native NJ. They immediately begin busting on me for the way I talk and the expressions I use... they went nuts over 'red up'! So I take it for a while, not even understanding what they were teasing me about. One day at lunch I said, 'how come a bunch of guys from Jersey of all places can make fun of the way anyone else in the world talks?!' We all got along well, so we all laughed. Later, the guy I shared a cubicle with said to me, 'so... wtf is 'redd up'?' Then the light went on for me. I caught on to 'needs to be done' vs. 'needs done' soon after.
On a trip home soon after I asked my Dad what 'redd up' even means. He wasn't sure, but had said it all his life. 'Get the (room) ready, maybe?' was his guess.
I always thought it was PA Dutch. I've since learned though, that when fish fan their tail back and forth over their spawning site its also called redding. So "cleaning up" makes a lot of sense.
I try and use the mother-tougue English since they invented the language.
i.e. "My VAL-it (valet) came and brought me my VIT-a-mins (vitamins) just before I started watching the Kentucky DAR-bee."
A couple of Philadelphia-isms I though of: fill-im for film, and picks-shur for picture.
i.e. "My VAL-it (valet) came and brought me my VIT-a-mins (vitamins) just before I started watching the Kentucky DAR-bee."
A couple of Philadelphia-isms I though of: fill-im for film, and picks-shur for picture.
Supposably instead of Supposedly
Moot and Mute bug me but I think it is because most people just don't know there are two words and just misuse the word to begin with.
Funny grew up south of Pittsburgh. I never say crick unless I am referring to a certain body of water in my home town. I say Spring Creek, Spruce Creek, even Mingo Creek but I always say Pigeon Crick. Weird.
Moot and Mute bug me but I think it is because most people just don't know there are two words and just misuse the word to begin with.
Funny grew up south of Pittsburgh. I never say crick unless I am referring to a certain body of water in my home town. I say Spring Creek, Spruce Creek, even Mingo Creek but I always say Pigeon Crick. Weird.
Not a mispro, but the word "Canceled, cancelled", how in the hell should it actually be spelled??? I see both all the time..
I’ve ALWAYS had that problem with that pronunciation, especially in reference to that town in DC. When I was student-teaching so many years ago in a high school in Kansas my students actually called me out on it.
Wholesale = “hole sale” // in NY you hear “ho sale” - which is a completely different thing in most cases. And, “a whole ‘nother”.
Height -- it's a hard 't' at the end, not 'th'. Sorry, but there's no 'th' in the word height. Don't put one in it.
Less v. fewer -- it's a grammar thing, but still, e.g., it's less cloudy v. there are fewer clouds; less time v. fewer days, etc.
Less v. fewer -- it's a grammar thing, but still, e.g., it's less cloudy v. there are fewer clouds; less time v. fewer days, etc.
I used to think it was PA Dutch as well. However, I read awhile ago it's actually from elsewhere in Europe. Apparently it's still used in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
REDD UP
Rule of thumb... If you can physically count it, use fewer. If you can't physically count it, use less.
"The fox got into the hen house now I have two fewer chickens."
"There is much less love in the world than there used to be."
A person can get by with interchanging the words in the former but not so in the latter.
Clearly soda if you want a drink with ice cream in it...when I worked in a restaurant and people asked for soda I always asked them if they wanted chocolate or strawberry.
Grew up a Yinzer, so crick & yinz & pop & Worshington are all deep “root”-ed in my lexicon. That said, when I lived in Ohio, some friends were going to a movie and asked me if I wanted to “come with” (no us/me). Also, when I lived in Chester County, I was always amused by how eastern PAers say H2O - “wooter.” And finally, up here in new england, my wife always suggests we have to be somewhere “for” a certain time - as in “we have to be at church for 9:00” (instead of being there “at 9:00” or “by 9:00”).
Probably the same girl that I ran into who could not pronounce "with" . I asked her if there was any chance we might have sex and she said "not wit you".
