Copywriting and Talking

Here's a list of the 100 most often mispronounced words. I love this list! Here are a few of the sample words from the list and I encourage you to hit the full link as well.

perogative	prerogative	Even in dialects where [r] does not always trade places with the preceding vowel (as the Texan pronunciations "differnce," "vetern," etc.), the [r] in this prefix often gets switched.
perscription	prescription	Same as above. It is possible that we simply confuse "pre-" and "per-" since both are legitimate prefixes.
persnickety	pernickety	You may think us too pernickety to even mention this one. It is a Scottish nonce word to which U.S. speakers have added a spurious [s].
preemptory	peremptory	The old pre-/per- problem. Do not confuse this word with "preemptive;" the prefix here is per-.
prespire	perspire	"Per-" has become such a regular mispronunciation of "pre-," many people now correct themselves where they don't need to.
plute	pollute	This one, like "plice" [police], spose [suppose], and others, commonly result from rapid speech syncope, the loss of unaccented vowels. Just be sure you pronounce the vowel when you are speaking slowly. Read here for more on the problem.
(probly, prolly)	probably	Haplology is the dropping of one of two identical syllables such as the [ob] and [ab] in this word, usually the result of fast speech. Slow down and pronounce the whole word for maximum clarity and to reduce your chances of misspelling the word.
pronounciation	pronunciation	Just as "misspelling" is among the most commonly misspelled words, "pronunciation" is among the most commonly mispronounced words. Fitting, no?

Comments

[Jim Logan]

A pet peeve of mine is people who use the word irregardless instead of regardless. Even writing it makes want to bite it.

[nettie hartsock]

That made me laugh out loud. I agree!