Learn To Say It Correctly!!

[SheriLynnRN]

Doesn't it just drive you insane when someone tells you that Mr. Smith's O2 STAT is 96%?

It's O2 SAT people! Sat, short for saturation. I even hear respiratory therapists saying this. I am sooooo tempted to say something next time, but I know it's just petty, so I needed to vent here. Thank you.

[Becster]

I think that there is a big difference between different pronounciations d/t regional differences and people just plain making a new word up. O2 stats is a good example of someone just not getting what they are trying to say. Sats is short for saturations not for statistics.

I am a transplant from the South but have spent long enough away to not have a recognizable accent. There are a number of words that I say the way that I learned them and get teased because apparently the people in the NW speak more proper English. I would like to remind all of the folks in Washington state that since Des Moines is a French word, it is pronounced Da Moine, not Des Moines or Da Moines, as many people here pronouce it. But yet, I am the Southern hillbilly that gets laughed at when I say

"ornery" rather than "ahnry". I'd never met an "ahnry" person until I left NC.

My biggest pet peeve is when people who have never seen a mountain chain east of the Rockies call it the Appalashuns. I have hiked all through them and the folks living up there all called them the Appalachian Mountains just as they are spelled. Makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I hear it.

So if in England, it is pronounced orientated, then roll with it. It is nice to keep a bit of home with you rather than constantly having to conform because locals have not traveled enough to realize that there may be other ways to say things. I for one refuse to quit saying "dagummit" and "I reckon" or complain about my coworkers "lollygagging". And although many of the people that I run into believe that they live in Warshington, I refuse to change my tongue.

On a side note, it's/its, they're/their/there, your/you're are not regional....major pet peeve. 

[morte, LPN, LVN]

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/enormity

[rn/writer, RN]

morte said:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/enormity

https://www.answers.com/redirectSearch?query=enormity&filter=all

[rn/writer, RN]

Thanks for the welcome, by the way. I'm a medical transcriptionist (MT), and to be good at this work you need to care about language. An MT friend of mine once described us as being the kind of people who would ask "Does anal-retentive have a hyphen?"

Hilarious, Scooter, just hilarious. And too true.

[rn/writer, RN]

Lots of valid points, RN/writer. With me, there is a difference between the language we use every day with family/friends and the language we use in a professional setting. I don't care if someone "Done did went to the groshrie store yestidday" if they are not in a professional setting. I do wish people would try a little harder than that, but you get my point (I hope!). But if you're at work and talking with other professionals, you should be putting a little bit of effort into correct grammar, pronunciation, and word usage.

So basically, if I am on the street and you say something blatantly wrong, I might :icon_roll. If you're a medical professional and you start talking about someone's prostrate troubles, my skin will be crawling down the hall.

(And of course, I mean "you" in the general sense!)

I totally agree. Proper language skills are important, but they shouldn't be used as weapons to bludgeon others. Kindness and courtesy matter, too. My gripe is with people who ought to know better. Print journalists, news reporters, teachers, anyone who is functioning in a professional capacity and wants the respect due their position. This includes medical folks whose charting is read by other professionals and may, at some point, come under further scrutiny.

I know some very intelligent people with high-responsibility jobs who, for the life of them, kant spel. In almost every case, they have made it a point to proofread, have someone else double check their work, and use reference tools to add yet another layer of protection so that their written words don't trip them up. I respect that kind of diligence and dedication.

The education system bears some of the blame for dumbed-down language ability. In this culture of not hurting anyone's feelings, teachers have been encouraged to shy away from correcting "irrelevant" matters such as punctuation and grammar, focusing instead on content only. This was the reverse pendulum swing from concentrating overmuch on the form and ignoring the content. Neither extreme is healthy. As in most matters, balance is best.

[batgirl23]

Intreresting thread!

As was mentioned already - its, it's and they're, there, their being misused drives me crazy too.

But a pet peeve of mine is pronouncing the word foyer with an "r" at the end. It is a French word we have adopted as English. I don't think it should be pronounced "foy-er." It is "foy-eh." Do you say "ron-dez-vewz" or "fee-ance?" No, you say "ron-day-vue" and "fee-on-say." Why is foyer different from rendezvous or fiance? (BTW fiance is the correct spelling for the man and fiancee for the woman.) Someone mentioned Des Moines - another good example.

For the record, it is spelled: centre, colour, neighbour, favourite and programme. :wink2:

And Cajun, came from mispronouncing "Canadian" when the Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia to Louisianna...

Cheers!

[azgirl]

batgirl23 said:

Intreresting thread!

As was mentioned already - its, it's and they're, there, their being misused drives me crazy too.

But a pet peeve of mine is pronouncing the word foyer with an "r" at the end. It is a French word we have adopted as English. I don't think it should be pronounced "foy-er." It is "foy-eh." Do you say "ron-dez-vewz" or "fee-ance?" No, you say "ron-day-vue" and "fee-on-say." Why is foyer different from rendezvous or fiance? (BTW fiance is the correct spelling for the man and fiancee for the woman.) Someone mentioned Des Moines - another good example.

For the record, it is spelled: centre, colour, neighbour, favourite and programme. :wink2:

And Cajun, came from mispronouncing "Canadian" when the Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia to Louisianna...

Cheers!

I had always heard it was the mispronunciation of Acadian that made Cajun.

[miko014]

RN/writer said:

My gripe is with people who ought to know better. Print journalists, news reporters, teachers, anyone who is functioning in a professional capacity and wants the respect due their position. This includes medical folks whose charting is read by other professionals and may, at some point, come under further scrutiny.

You said it!! The last two days I have read the newspaper, there have been typos - and I only read about 2 stories each day! The first mistake was "top" instead of "to", and yesterday "althought" instead of "although". Makes me so annoyed I can't even finish reading it! Also, the last 2 books I have gotten from the library have had typos in them as well - both were new releases. One had 3 mistakes, the other had 1. That is when I really flip - I can't believe they could make it to publication with errors in them! I don't remember what they were now, except that one of them was one of our favorites - "their" instead of "there"!

I used to get so irritated in nusring school when they would hand us a test full of errors. Not only did I take the tests, but I corrected grammar and spelling, haha. My favorite test was the one about the "kidbeys". That one was full of mistakes. The thing that made me angry was that if I had turned in a paper like that, they would have ripped it apart. But they had no problem giving us a test full of mistakes! 

[egomaniacal1]

Risperdal being pronounced "risper-i-dal" chaps my butt.

resperidine is the drug name, so maybe they are mixing the two, or maybe you are missing the 'done'.

[vandermom]

Here is one I have heard only in upstate NY.

In response to someone saying something like " I like ice cream" we get the answer "So DON'T I". No one would think that person did not like ice crean when, in fact, they do like ice cream. I am amazed at the otherwise intelligent people who use that phrase. I want to shake them (is there such a thing as shaken nurse syndrome?)

How about the use of Got and Have. 

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I'm guilty of this. I watched too much ER growing up.

[suespets]

MY cnas at work have laughed when I pronounce foyer correctly. Also having cajun blood, I had researced the culture; the word cajun was said to derive from acadians(say it 6 times fast,see what I mean)