Are you aware how MANY people say "Valentimes"? And not just children! A host of adults think this is the correct pronunciation of the holiday, perhaps misunderstanding the name to mean "It is time to give out valens". Blessed little Junie B. Jones does what she can to correct this error, but I have known children who continue to say "Valentime" even after reading the book (hee hee, Lauren).I bring this up not to mock the poor, unsuspecting misspronouncers of the world, but because I truly think it is unbelievably hysterical. In fact, mispronunciations are some of the funniest things of all time to me, and I've been known to laugh so hard that I tumble to the ground. Hearing someone seriously say "that's a good dill" when they mean "deal" somehow makes my knees give way. I nearly bit it the other day when my co-worker Bill mentioned that people around here often drop the "L" out of things and then demonstrated this by saying "can I put you on ho'd?"
Misspellings can be nearly as funny, particularly when they make hilarious new words when read aloud. Often misspellings just make me cringe (and I'm a horrid speller), but sometimes when I read what kids wrote, oh my word! I utterly love to decipher it! For example, on my fridge right now I have a fantastic drawing of two people (well clothed) standing happily by a tree. The artwork is labeled "Adom and Ave". Precious! One night at church I sat by Stevie (age 6, learning to read) and Heidi (age 12, extremely bright). They kept passing back and forth a paper to one another with lavishly illustrated insults. I could not contain my hysterics! The best part was that Stevie was sounding out every word in his little messages. What resulted was something like this: "Hide neds the pope" (Heidi needs to poop), to which Heidi responded "Stevie needs the Pastor." (I realize now that I just burned a bridge to any children sitting with me during church in the future because I let these things continue, but you just can't quash genius like that!).
Maybe I'm the only one with this sense of humor, but somehow I doubt it. Holla back if you have a good mispronunciation/misspelling story!
Oh, and Happy Valentine's day!
25 comments:
Haha! I loved this post. A couple of my favorite mispronunciations are "supposebly" instead of "supposedly" and "pacific" for "specific". I used to get really annoyed when I heard those, but now I just think they're funny. Happy Valentine's Day!
That is so funny! The other day at church, this little boy was talking about Valentime's Day. I started to laugh and I said to the Dad, "isn't that cute when they say valentimes" He just looked at me like, "what's wrong with that!"
I agree with you! Mispronciations and misspellings kill me! I also, get a kick out of people who use ALMOST the right word. My good friend does this all the time, and he I have a hard time keeping a straight face so often!
---- I am reading my post over and over again hoping I didn't misspell anything! How do you spell misspell?
One that ALWAYS kills me is when people sing the phrase "Let angels prostate fall". HELLO!!! It's prostrate!!! HUGE difference! LOL! I'm sure I'll think of more, but that one gets me every time! I'll have to show Lauren she made you blog again tonight. She'll be thrilled. :)
LOL! I recently heard of multiple people who thought the "wind chill" temperature was the "wind SHIELD"! Frankly, I don't care what the temp of my windshield is, I just want to know what the temp is with the wind figured in!
And Dan said the other day, "They borrowed it to me!" I instantly went into English Teacher mode and chastised him for not using the correct word ("lent" for anyone else who has made this mistake). To his credit, he says he knew it was wrong as soon as it left his mouth - I still gasp to hear it though!
I, too, cannot spell. I guess it comes from relying too heavily on spell check! I used my dictionary more when I taught elementary than I ever had before! My greatest fear was that I would send a note home to parents with terrible misspellings and ruin my reputation as a competent teacher!
It bothers me when people say "whenever" when they really mean "when". Like this: "I bought it whenever I was at Target yesterday." Or: "I got it whenever I turned twenty-five."
This little grammatical germ is spreading too. I've noticed that a lot of kids teen-age and younger have contracted it.
PS: Happy VALENTINE'S Day, Gretel!
Love,
Joshy
Ha ha ha!!! Your comments are cracking me up!
Sharon -- I try to use "pacific" if possible simply because it is so funny to mock.
Sar -- see what I mean?? Ha ha!
Tancy -- You did pretty well, but mispronunciation is spelled, well, like that! Ha ha! I am making myself obsessed with correcting my grammar. Just kidding, I wouldn't have noticed it unless my husband pointed it out! :)
Brit -- your comment got my comment screen blocked by the campus screening service because of questionable content! Ha ha!
Nett -- NO KIDDING! I am super afraid of doing that, too, especially with the kids I tutored. I just thought if a parent got a not that had errors on it, it would be the end of my job!
Josh -- hey, whenever I was at Pandora bread I ate the best mill!
I thought of another. This is common for people who have lived in Wisconsin their whole life.
When they go to someone's house and are telling someone else about it later they say, "I was by John's house yesterday." Not at, by their house. I always want to ask, "So, you mean you were at their neighbor's house then?"
Drives me crazy, along with people pronouncing the "s" in Illinois!
Instead of "except," my younger son says "becept" and insists he is right. When kids sing "I'm in the Lord's army" they often sing "I may never ride in the calvary" instead of "cavalry."
My mom has a book called "Non Campus Mentis" that's full of this kind of stuff, all quoted from real college students' essays. My favorite one said, "Magellan circumcised the globe with a hundred-foot clipper."
oh my gosh...Stevie needs the Pastor?! that's hilarious! so I found your blog...neato! I just have a xanga like the old school folk but I don't write much anymore. See ya at work girl!
At church tonight, I heard "Febuary" instead of "February" and on Sunday I heard "err" pronounced "air" instead of "er."
In my public high school, my math teacher mispronounced "organism" for a similar sounding word, which I will not repeat here. :)
What about people who say "booger" instead of "burger"? I was at McDonald's once and this guy asked his wife what she wanted and she said, "A hambooger."
Gretchen has a great story about a guy who offered to bring "deerbooger" to a Sunday School class party.
Nettie -- when I was a kid in Green Bay I was so BUGGED by people saying that! WHAT ON EARTH! Were you only NEAR their house, or did you actually go in? That is a poor use of a preposition.
M.R. -- "becept!" ha ha ha! That's so cute!
Kev -- that may be the best one YET! Except "I lik sno bekas I lik to fro snobls" HEE hee hee hee!
Heather -- YEA!! You read my blog!
Jeish -- Want to go to Booger Chef with Mr. Rouse after Nursing Home? He is supposebly buying ice cream cones for everybody.
My mom is the queen of mispronunciation and I might say she is one of the smartest people I know. (Mom, if you read this, you know I love you). Just yesterday we were over at her house and she was telling us about this really hard level on a computer game that she really likes. The level is "aggamemnon" or to the rest of us armegeddon:)
When Delani was little she used to ask me to sing "Heavenly Peas" as a bedtime song-otherwise known as "Silent Night" (sleep in heavenly peace. That took a little while to figure out at first! She also loved to sing with our Veggie Tales CD in the van and one of her favorite songs was about a "chopper-woppery" better known as a chocolate factory:)
I'm sure I have more, but I'm just not thinking of them right now.
But I do know that if you go down to the reever you might be able to wrassle up about a hunnerd feesh:)
Staci,
Could Gretchen and I borrow Delani for eight or nine years, then return her just in time for you and Greg to pay for college?
I almost spit my lunch out when I read "Pandora Bread"!!!
Oh, well see, I'm from Texas and here are a couple:
"I'm fixin' to go to the store."
"I'mmunna tell on you."
And I'm SURE the list could go on and on, but those are the first to spring to mind :)
My father-in-law is highly educated, so at first I could hardly believe my ears when he said "Happy Birfday!". I've come to find out over the years that he is NOT joking - he really believes that's the right way to pronounce it! This use of the "th" sound also transfers to words like "Norfland".
I just had to laugh out loud! Some of these were so funny! I used to could remember all kinds of these types of mistakes, but right now they are slipping my from my memory. Since we have lived in a lot of different places, it always cracks me up to hear how people say things. Yes, here in Louisville area (properly pronounced by Louisville natives as "Louaval" when everyone else says "Lou-e-ville"), you eat mills and get good dills, and use an "il" sound for anything that is spelled "eal". In the Carolinas, I often hear the phrase "used to could" (instead of used to be able to) or "might could" (for might be able to). Not really too hilarious, but they are rather amusing.
My mistake~ the comment I was referring to when I saw your earlier is on my blog, not on yours, heehee :)
I am always correcting people with their grammar or pronunications. For instance, my husband always says "desposit." It drives me crazy!!! And his mom always says warsh or Warshington! What in the world?!
caleb has a little boy in his preschool class with the last name of asbury. caleb insists that his name is "raspberry"!
caleb has a little boy in his preschool class with the last name of asbury. caleb insists that his name is "raspberry"!
James read this post and all the comments and laughed his head off for about 15 minutes. Thanks to all for the entertainment!
ok, not sure if this counts but,
remember that one night when Nancy passed that note to the boy at HP club, and it was something like "what are you guys doing?"...to which he wrote back, "Nunya"...
LOL---That was soooo funny I honestly will never forget it!
Also, there is the PITCHER rather than Picture, and the Mirra, rather than mirror...both said by my bestest friend, Daniel...though I am attempting to break his habit..;)
---oooo and one more---Brock says "OR-ready"...instead of Already....now you know why it didn't work out..;)
-emma
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