Even the most educated people sometimes have egregious errors in their spoken language. Here are a few that you should avoid if you don't want other people to sit there silently thinking what an ignorant fool you are.
mischievious the word is MISCHIEVOUS (MISS chuv us); there is no i before the final syllable
heinious same deal: the word is HEINOUS (HAY nus)
supposably the word is SUPPOSEDLY; there is no b in it anywhere
nucular the word is NUCLEAR (NEW clee er) and it is perhaps the most commonly mispronounced word in the language (which does not stop those of us who know the right way to say it from looking down our noses at those idiots who mispronounce it)
laxadaisical the word is LACKADAISICAL; there is nothing in it which could be pronounced with an x
heigth this is a simple transposition: the word is HEIGHT (hite); it has an ht, not a th. (Oddly, I have often heard this word pronounced "hiteth," which makes no sense at all.)
expecially this is, of course, ESPECIALLY--no
x--and is another one of those mystifying transformations like "laxidaisical"
Know any more? Send them to me!
These pages copyright Karen Kopriva 2002;
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