What words irritate you........

The way Michael McMullan the sports presenter on Today FM pronounces his name - "Moichael McMullan". (I know its his name to pronounce how he likes but it drives me crazy).
 
Courtesy being mispronounced (COURT-esy, rather than CURT-esy).

Laos (the country) being called "Lao" - the name of the country *in English* is LAOS! And, while I'm on countries, people who pronounce Chile (when speaking in English) as "Chil-ay" (as in the Spanish pronunciation) or, more importantly, people who insist on correcting my pronunciation of "Chile" (which I call "Chilly") even though I (a) can speak Spanish and (b) have feckin' been there! Oh yeah, and pronouncing the "TH" in "Thailand" bugs me too.

Then again, I used to think "gorgeous" was pronounced "george-ous" for the longest time. And when George Clooney came along, there didn't seem to be much point in changing my view as the two became synonymous...

Have no problem with "Sah-urday" or "Dunkey" or "Lurry" at all - reckon it's part of our heritage.

Matt Cooper was on today calling pronouncing "atrium" with a short "a", which I've never heard before. He seems to be in his own world as far as pronunciation is concerned mind you.
 
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For me the two most irritating words of all are RACHEL ALLEN

I would rather have an inalways inanyways accent than that.
 
Duncan ??? banging on about "safe-heft-ty" used to drive me nuts. Even before he fell off the ladder!
 
Oh god, just remembered my biggest pet hate, people who say "d'ya know what I mean" after every sentence. Drives me demented. So if I hear it always say, "no i don't know what you mean, please explain it again". Most of the time they don't even realise they have said "d'yaknowwhatImean" (it usually said as all one word)!

D'ya know what I mean?!
 
deedee80 said:
Oh god, just remembered my biggest pet hate, people who say "d'ya know what I mean" after every sentence. Drives me demented. So if I hear it always say, "no i don't know what you mean, please explain it again". Most of the time they don't even realise they have said "d'yaknowwhatImean" (it usually said as all one word)!

D'ya know what I mean?!
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.. or you know ?.
:mad:
 
WaterSprite said:
Laos (the country) being called "Lao" - the name of the country *in English* is LAOS! And, while I'm on countries, people who pronounce Chile (when speaking in English) as "Chil-ay" (as in the Spanish pronunciation) or, more importantly, people who insist on correcting my pronunciation of "Chile" (which I call "Chilly") even though I (a) can speak Spanish and (b) have feckin' been there! Oh yeah, and pronouncing the "TH" in "Thailand" bugs me too.
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Yeah, but .. how to pronounce the capital of France. Paris, or Paree ?
I disagree that non-natives should use the same pronounciation as natives.

There is a Scottish (Barcelona-based) football journalist, regularly on Newstalk, who pronounces the FC Barcelona stadium as Camp Now, when the rest of the English-speaking world pronounce it as Noo Camp.
 
TarfHead said:
Yeah, but .. how to pronounce the capital of France. Paris, or Paree ?
I disagree that non-natives should use the same pronounciation as natives.

There is a Scottish (Barcelona-based) football journalist, regularly on Newstalk, who pronounces the FC Barcelona stadium as Camp Now, when the rest of the English-speaking world pronounce it as Noo Camp.
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Thats Graham Hunter, and you probably have to give him a bit of leeway considering he spends most of his time living in Spain and speaking Spanish, and pronounces the words the same as the natives. Would be hard to switch back to the rubbish pronounciation that the UK/Irish people use.

I was in Barcelona a few times and the 1st time I asked for directions to the "New Camp" they didn't understand me with my rubbish pronounciation. Honestly. One eventually said "ah Camp Now". So you can see where Graham's coming from.

Same goes for the Real Madrid stadium, the Bernabeu. We pronounce it Bern-a-bow, but its really Bern-a-bay-ou, and you get the same type of strange looks in Madrid when you pronounce it our way.
 
I was in Barcelona a few times and the 1st time I asked for directions to the "New Camp" they didn't understand me with my rubbish pronounciation. Honestly. One eventually said "ah Camp Now". So you can see where Graham's coming from.

Same goes for the Real Madrid stadium, the Bernabeu. We pronounce it Bern-a-bow, but its really Bern-a-bay-ou, and you get the same type of strange looks in Madrid when you pronounce it our way.
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Reminds me of the way Americans visitors sometimes promounce Irish place names e.g.

Thurles: rhyming with curls rather than Thur-Les.

Tallaght: Tawl-Act.

Ballina: Bal-Eye-Na

Dun Laoghaire: Done-Lake-eye-re

Youghal: Yoge-Hall

Clondalkin: Clon-Dalke-in
 
there are alot, bai in cork instead of boy, but if you pronouonced it boy then it just doesnt have the same effect!

ya instead of you has to be the worst!
 
Pronounciations of foreign places doesn't really bother me much.People say Par-ee and Milano and sound pretentious imo.

I was speaking to a guy from Derry who spent the weekend in Athy (pronounced Athee) so I asked him if he went to Naas (rhymed with pass).

He didn't know different so no harm to him.
 
I've just heard another one that drives me nuts; 'erbs, what are 'erbs??? It's Herbs you bloody idiot!!
 
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