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Pedants' corner

‘A’

(54 Posts)
Lizzie66 Tue 24-Sept-19 09:43:49

the letter A is a small sound. why then do otherwise well spoken people decide to make it into a big important word. Newsreaders state ‘Ai row broke out’ or ‘There is ‘Ai long wait’
For goodness sake, they sound as if they are just learning the language and haven’t got it quite right. I say this because it’s how small children say ‘A’ when reading aloud. When I was reading my Janet and John book at primary school I would most certainly been corrected had I read ‘A’ instead of ‘Uh’
What’s the matter with ‘em? It’s quite a new thing and sounds strained to me as it interrupts the flow of the sentence
I have more, but as I’m new here I’ll shut up for now I case I sound TOO pedantic.
Oh, incidentally,
Hello everyone.

Tris68 Tue 24-Sept-19 13:10:59

My pet hate is when people don't sound the letter T in the middle of a word. My eldest DD is called Natalie & the amount of people that call her Na-a-lie. Drives me insane! I always correct them & say its Na-Tuh-lie! Same with any word with the letter T in the middle, I will always correct DH, DD's & DGC!

grandtanteJE65 Tue 24-Sept-19 13:13:40

I didn't hear the news, so I may have misunderstood you,Nanny27, but "prior" means "previous" and you can well be warned of something before it actually occurs, so no, I don't think "prior warning" is a tautology.

Nanny27 Tue 24-Sept-19 13:16:10

OK I stand corrected. It just seems to me that a warning by its very nature has to come before the event. But I'm happy to be wrong. ?

oldgaijin Tue 24-Sept-19 13:37:58

Don't get me started on the HAITCH!!!

Grannyrebel Tue 24-Sept-19 13:48:36

I've just been to see Downton Abbey and all the above stairs people speak beautifully. I loved it!

NotSpaghetti Tue 24-Sept-19 13:48:48

oldgaijin ?

Paperbackwriter Tue 24-Sept-19 14:26:10

I haven't noticed any problems with "A" but when someone pronounces "H" as "Haitch" instead of "Aitch" it makes me growl.

Pantglas2 Tue 24-Sept-19 14:35:16

Went to see Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap and the pronunciation of the word ‘room’ was strange to our Welsh ears! ‘Rum’ is what we heard whereas we’d say ‘rwm’ - but then we say ‘bath’ not ‘baath’!

4allweknow Tue 24-Sept-19 14:42:20

I am sitting here Ai ing, uh ing and A ing. Basically I think I don't know what I say when now.

madnanna Tue 24-Sept-19 15:43:02

What about newsreaders and media calling it "Bregsit",when it should be "Brexit" !!!!!

Shinyredcar Tue 24-Sept-19 15:47:10

Oh, go on, then. What about plitical, compluhcated or even complercay-id?

I was always taught that missing out 't' in words was scruffy and the result of rushing. But it's much harder to say si-ing than sitting. And Nick Robinson's Mancunian time-checks make me laugh - it's haff pust seven.

(Isn't is hard to persuade your spell-check to let you write these weirdies?!)

Legs55 Tue 24-Sept-19 15:50:45

I think a lot of pronunciation is down to regional accents. I am from Yorkshire but when I lived in Surrey I picked up the baath instead of bath. Happily now I'm in the West Country I've reverted to bath againgrin

I always say a as in apple or at least I think I do , not sure where uh comes from but I've never knowingly used that pronunciation for a confused

Lizzie66 Tue 24-Sept-19 16:03:07

Well pantglas2, that gives a whole new meaning to the command ‘Go to your rum’ . I’d say ‘Certainly, ‘Bye’.
I think you’ll find though that aristos and the ‘Top’ layers of society pronounce room as ‘Rum’ Just as they do ‘Rarely’ for ‘Really’ and ‘Sinjun’ for ‘St John’. To name but 2..
I’ve seen ‘Mousetrap’ in the theatre and loved it.Amazing that after all these years the audience was still asked not to reveal the murderer to anyone. (I never did)
Bit daft, but fun.

Chezabella Tue 24-Sept-19 17:08:30

My pet hate at the moment is that woman who interrupts everything I listen to on the car radio with "Chaffic updates". The awful weather today made driving conditions very difficult for people around here with slow moving 'chaffic' and 'chaffic' congestion on the motorways, grrrr!

Booksnbeer Tue 24-Sept-19 18:24:02

Seriously....I wish I had this much time to waste on such a discussion ???

rubysong Tue 24-Sept-19 18:57:46

Welcome Lizzie 66. What gets my goat is when the word sixth is pronounced sickth. Sixth is not difficult to say.

kircubbin2000 Tue 24-Sept-19 19:08:49

In N I only Catholics pronounce the H. Don't really know why but easy way to know where you went to school!

Barmeyoldbat Tue 24-Sept-19 19:23:12

My biggest bug bear is a certain female newsreader who pronounce year as your. Drives me mad.

kircubbin2000 Tue 24-Sept-19 19:35:49

We were debating when the clock goes back and we lose an hour, pronounced R here. An English friend was very confused until the penny dropped.oh, he said condescendingly, you mean an ow eer!

Bathsheba Tue 24-Sept-19 19:49:31

Another thread on a specific topic in Pedants' Corner that just degenerates into a litany of the same old same old 'pet hates'. Read one thread in this forum and you've read 'em all <sigh>

CanadianGran Tue 24-Sept-19 20:27:41

I believe I say 'ah', but of course my Canadian 'ah' would be different from someone from London. It may be different from someone on the other side of Canada.

If I said ' I have a cat', the sound in 'a' is less sharp than in 'cat'. A slight difference, but there.

One thing I have noticed is the pronunciation of Graham. I live on Gray-um Avenue, but have notice some younger generation pronouncing it gram. It's an American pronunciation.

justwokeup Tue 24-Sept-19 23:13:11

Oh but Bathsheba it's lovely to have a rant! I hate to hear 'draw' instead of 'drawer'. It has 2 syllables! I've even seen it written 'draw' in a furniture catalogue. I have to agree with 'uh' by the way, sounds right to me, although I have to admit I pronounce it both ways (as in 'have a rant' and 'a furniture catalogue') confused.

grannybuy Tue 24-Sept-19 23:31:44

Here, in NE Scotland, it's a very definite 'a' as in cat

Purpledaffodil Wed 25-Sept-19 07:40:39

justwokeup I have seen an advertisement on.FB Marketplace for a “chester draws”.?

Nanny27 Wed 25-Sept-19 08:24:18

Aah the good old 'Chester draws'. We could buy it to go with the 'free peace sweet' (honestly)