The Crazy Rants of Samantha BurnsLearn Just How Much You May Suck At English
Here's a dictionary of the 100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English.
My admissions:
I always thought it was card shark, not cardsharp.
And, I still can't get used to staying barbiturate. I've always pronounced it barbituate.
Gotta love the Heineken remover part.
I must, however, disagree with their "forte" vs. "fort" commentary. That's up to the discretion of the speaker, in my opinion, since some dictionaries suggest such.
But, I do like their Marge Simpson addition: Foilage vs. Foliage, as well as Nucular vs. nuclear.
Comments
Pool hustlers are sometimes called 'sharks'. Maybe that's how the term for a card hustler - card sharp - became card shark.
Posted by: lyle | November 16, 2006 04:18 PM
For speakers of English, 'mauve' is pronounced 'mawv'. We'll confiscate their words and pronounce them any damn way we want. They'll take it and like it.
American writers should use the colloquially prevalent 'spitting image' rather than 'spit and image'. Otherwise they'll stop their readers dead on the page. They'll seem pedantic and persnickety.
Posted by: lyle | November 16, 2006 04:27 PM
Thanks very much for pointing this one out! It inspired a post of my own. (Is that grammatical?)
Posted by: Wahrheit![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.samanthaburns.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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November 16, 2006 05:20 PM