Words commonly mispronounced

mikenostic said:
One word I commonly find mispronounced is mischievous. It's supposed to be pronounced mis-cheh vus with the emphasis on the first syllable.
It is often pronounced mis chee vee us with the emphasis on the second. For some reason it makes me cringe when I hear it like that.
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Me too, although I've never been entirely sure which one is correct. From looking at the spelling I've always assumed it was "MISS-chih-vuss", but even so I often say it the other way without thinking about it.

Actually, one mistake I make frequently is pronouncing "says" phonetically rather than as "SEHZ". My mom tells me I didn't say it that way until I learned to read when I was three years old. I still haven't been able to rid myself of it.
 
Intriguing... Fraggle's on-line reference that he mentioned in a slightly earlier post doesn't even list maintainance. (And neither does the Firefox spell checker!)
But I've seen the words used interchangeably, in fact so much so that I can never remember which, if either, I normally use. :)
But AFAIK they're both pronounced main tuh nuhns.
 
Signal said:
How to pronounce 'maintainance'? Or is it spelled 'maintenance'?
:bugeye:
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It's definitely not "maintainance", but I don't know the correct spelling off the top of my head. I always pronounce it "MAYNT-nuhns" but I think it's supposed to be "MAYN-tih-nuhns"
 
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