Hi Stephanie!

I loved this edition of Vox Daily! Correct and proper pronunciation is a subject I have always enjoyed studying. I thought of a few words that were not on this list, but I bet others can come up with even more.

Here's my brief list:

cap’n captain

While this pronunciation sounds cute in war movies, the only time I have used it is when I played a soldier in a video game.

comfterble comfortable

Some people get lazy and drop a syllable in this one.

datta data

This one is “iffy,” but the preferred pronunciation is data with a long ‘a.’

famly family

Somehow, some of us miss the middle syllable in this one.

Pennsavania Pennsylvania

Even Pennsylvania’s governor has been heard mispronouncing the name of the state that he governs. The name Pennsylvania literally means “Penn’s woods“ or “Penn‘s woodland,” a tribute to the state’s founder William Penn. Sylvania (not savania) is Latin.

poh-leece puh-leece’ (police)

I once knew someone who corrected me when I pronounced this word with a short ‘o.’ The only way that I could prove that he was incorrect was to open the dictionary.

Also, the reference to the word “often” is both correct and incorrect. “Often” was originally pronounced with a hard ‘t.’ In the 15th century, many words began losing consonant sounds (like handsome). It wasn’t until the 19th century, with the rise of public education and literacy, that people began pronouncing the word off-ten. Another example of this is the word “chestnut,” which also lost a ‘t’ as people pronounced it chess-nut. Even though I often say "offen" myself, I would be prone to allow either pronunciation of often.

Thanks for the great reading every day!

Scott "Scooter" Fortney

• Posted by: Scott Fortney
• March 26, 2008 9:24 AM

Just one ironic example. It's very common here in the UK to mispronounce the word 'pronunciation'. Many people say 'pronounciation'.

• Posted by: Peter Stern
• March 26, 2008 1:22 PM

Stephanie!

This is a GREAT resource! I've bookmarked the page for those times when I need to be assured I have the right word. And Scooter, thanks for those valuable additions! I'm sure we can all probably come up with a few of our own to add to the list.

Larry Wayne

• Posted by: Larry Wayne
• March 26, 2008 2:18 PM

Hi Scott, Peter and Larry,

Thank you for commenting and I'm happy to hear that this list has been elevated to the status of resource by our VOX Daily family :)

Scott, thank you also for adding more hard to pronounce words. Peter, thank you for giving us a British point of view ;)

Larry, thank you for the encouragement :)

Best,

Stephanie

• Posted by: Stephanie Ciccarelli
• March 26, 2008 4:01 PM

I notice that these lists always seem to leave off the word jibe (to be in accord with) which I hear some people pronounce as jive! Also, a friend recently tried to correct my pronunciation of poyn-set-tia, the flower, to her incorrect poyn-setta.

• Posted by: athea marcos amir
• January 21, 2009 1:21 PM