Any to add ?

FannyCornforth

tictac how should weight be pronounced, if not 'wait'?

'weyt'

And

DH always pronounces weight as wait! Drives me round the bend.

What are you people talking about?
I've never heard weight pronounced differently from wait.

Bernard Shaw had this to say in his preface to Pygmalion:

”The English have no respect for their language and will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot spell it because they have nothing to spell it with but an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants – and not all of them – have any agreed speech value. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him”.

I agree that many people find spelling a challenge. There is such a mismatch between the spoken and written word.

DH always pronounces weight as wait! Drives me round the bend.

Alex Beresford (he of weather and Piers Morgan fame) insists on calling Wales, wells.

Sorry to say this but my adult son a father himself , says “free” instead of three - his late father did too.
I have told him ( not in company) that I stopped saying free for three when I was about 3. My mother was a serious CORRECTOR on all matters related to speech - even mid flow, maybe I should have corrected him earlier it’s just that I have always believed that it’s what you say that matters. He went on to achieve highly in education and has a successful career

Axe for ask seems to be creeping in also all the fick and fin which my husband cannot abide !

"Prie-vacy" for "Privacy". One of the many horrible Americanisms that have crept in.

FannyCornforth

tictac how should weight be pronounced, if not 'wait'?

'weyt'

Just remembered another. When something is going faster than usual and, instead of saying 19 to the dozen, they say 10 to the dozen, which is slower.

It does drive me nuts when people say lock for loch.
If they can't say the 'ch' sound, why not use a 'h' - so law+h - rather than a loudly articulated 'ck'?

tictac how should weight be pronounced, if not 'wait'?

Textses foe texts. All my other issues have already been mentioned.
Apart from one my husband uses. He will insist on calling the car windscreen the windowscreen. Arrrgh!

sloe gin yup, 'r' should definitely be pronounced in pattern, but sometimes it moves around a bit and becomes pattren.

Wait for weight as in “Trying to lose wait.” Also, when people think it’s upper class to say kinema ( not using the sibilant c sound in cinema) and saying think instead of thing in the word something.

On property programmes, ménage instead of manège. As a French teacher I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Skydancer

And when did Kenya get pronounced Kenya? In my day it was pronounced "Keenya".

Since it became independent.

'free' instead of three (3).

Sloegin

'rs' not 'rrs'! That's Devon me dear!

My brain is addled today- even more th usual! I meant one 'r' of course!!! I think it must be all you English folk not pronouncing 'pattern' properly ( to my ears) that has me over emphasising the 'rs'! ?

The one that drives me mad is congradulations for congratulations , also acrosst when it should be across!

Draw for Drawer, Northern Island for Northern Ireland, Might of for Might have …and anything that comes out of Priti Patel’s gob e.g. Somethin’, runnin’, speakin’ etc …I shout at the telly every time she’s on, she drives me nuts

Sorry, haven't had time to read the full thread, but simply had to add my pet hates which are - angular instead of Anglia and
it never ceases to amaze me how many policemen on TV say burgalry instead of burglary.

BJ drives me crazy when he says ter instead of to. He does it all the time and we are supposed to believe he is educated. Good post and I have got this one off my chest.

widgeon3

I had thought it was from a cricketing analogy but my local garage man always says ' I did it off my own back. Is that ok,?'

It should be "off my own bat" but people don't understand the cricket analogy so say "back" instead of "bat".

EXcept instead of ACCept.

Pammie1

I absolutely hate the Americanisation ‘normalcy’ for normality.

Me too!