How Nonsensical is Your Speech? Some Commonly Mispronounced Misused Words and Phrases
Some of the stuff that passes for normal acceptable speech never ceases to perplex me. Here are three words/phrases I hear misspoken all the time. They are misspoken so often that you can even find dictionaries that cater to these alternatives.
I could care less: What sense does it make to say I could care less? That means you actually care. That isn’t sarcastic, it is just logically confusing. If you are trying to be sarcastic, be sure to also be smart. The correct use of the phrase is, I could not care less.
Q-pon: What is a q-pon? I know what a coupon is, but not a q-pon. How do people get q-pon out of coupon? Do they use q-pons to buy cans of shuep? Really weird.
Sherbert: Sure Burt, I’d like some ice cream. The actual word is sherbet (shur-bit), with no second r. Sherbet comes from the Arabic sharbah, meaning drink. Although sherbert has seemingly become acceptable spelling and pronunciation, I personally make a point never to eat anything called sherbert, because it sounds like the concoction of some sort of pervert.
If you are someone who has been misusing any of these words/phrases, opt for what makes sense next time. Even though some dictionaries these days cater to alternate spellings and pronunciations of words like sherbet and coupon, it still makes more sense to go with the original. Who needs more variants of the same old words? All it does is inhibit good communication. Peace.
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2 Responses to “How Nonsensical is Your Speech? Some Commonly Mispronounced Misused Words and Phrases”
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That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Other gems include:
‘I’ll be with you momentarily’ - oh only momentarily, why not stay a while? You should say ‘I’ll join you shortly’, or ‘presently’, or ’soon’.
‘I can’t be asked to do that’ instead of ‘Can’t be arsed’
Ooh, there are millions…
This is very late. Just discovered your website through your Youtube videos.
One of my pet peeves (and I have enough of those to fill a medieval scroll!), is the expression that I find to be commonly misunderstood/mispronounced is: “for all intents and purposes. . . ” So many people make the error “For all intensive purposes . . . ” I get it! It’s only for intensive purposes—less weighty purposes just don’t make the grade. And just forget about whimsical, light-hearted purposes. Ok, I’m done.
And can I just say that the next person who asks, “can I ax you a question?” I will have to strike hard and Repeatedly for at least an hour.