Mispronounced words matter. Speaking tip: Improving Communications

Words have power.

But it is not only the story that they tell. How you say them can have more of an impact than you may realize.

And it has nothing to do with an accent.

Correct pronunciation tells your audience that you’re smart, careful, and that you know what you are talking about. Mispronouncing a familiar word can convey to a listener that you are not as knowledgeable as they might think you are.

Tell Your Ex- About It

These mispronounced words (written incorrectly here to emphasize the error) all begin with the “es” sound.

“Excape”
“Expresso”
“Expecially”

Try to escape, especially to have an espresso!

Missing R’s

People have been known to drop letters from words and say them wrong as a result.

“Febuary”
“Liberry”

Go to the library during February.

Other Gaffes

Nucular – One leader made this word very well known. It’s “new + clear” (nuclear).
Supposably – this means that something is able to be supposed. For something that is supposed, we say “supposedly.”

Which are your pet peeves?

Pronounce words correctly to maintain and enhance your own credibility.

Say	Don’t Say
Arctic	Artic
Ask	Axe
Business, isn’t, wasn’t	Bidness, idn’t, wadn’t
Button, Latin	Budden, Laddin
Cardsharp	Card shark
Drawer	Draw
Champ at the bit	Chomp at the bit
Converse	Conversate
Dog eat dog world	Doggy dog world
Drowned	Drownded
Escape	Excape
Espresso	Expresso
Et cetera	Excetera
Especially	Expecially
February	Febuary
For all intents and purposes	For all intensive purposes
Height	Heighth
In parentheses	In parenthesis
Interpret	Interpretate
Regardless	Irregardless
Library	Liberry
Nuclear	Nucular
Often	Off-ten
Orange, Florida	Arange, Flarida
Orient	Orientate
Prerogative	Perogative
Sneaked	Snuck
So	Soze
Supposedly	Supposably
Theater	Thearter
Utmost	Upmost
Verbiage	Verbage