Mispronunciations That Drive You Nuts

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2015

ixchel said:

OMG I want to kick puppies when apostrophes are overused!!!

I have come very close to printing this How To Use An Apostrophe - The Oatmeal and leaving it on coworkers' desks more than once.

ixchel · Feb 22, 2015

KelRN215 said:

I have come very close to printing this How To Use An Apostrophe - The Oatmeal and leaving it on coworkers' desks more than once.

I just printed that beautiful display.

ICURN3020 · Feb 22, 2015

Not mispronounciations, but I've noticed regional differences in word choice. I'm in the northern US but have family in many different regions of the country.

We say "push" / they say "mash"

(as in push the button)

We say "quit misbehaving or quit acting up" / they say "quit being ugly"

(as in reference to a child's behavior)

We say "you all" or "you guys" / they say "y'all"

We say "couch" / they say "sofa"

We say "pop" / they say "soda"

mariebailey, MSN, RN · Feb 22, 2015

I hate it when someone drops the serial comma in a sentence. Only in journalism is that the standard. BAD EXAMPLE: The patient experienced symptoms of flu, including fever, myalgia and cough. CORRECT WAY: People most commonly experience soreness, redness, and swelling where the flu vaccine is given.

klone, MSN, RN · Feb 22, 2015

Ah, Oxford comma.

ixchel · Feb 22, 2015

Ah, Oxford comma.

You can pry the Oxford comma from my neurotic, cold, and dead hands.

MunoRN, RN · Feb 22, 2015

If we could do away with "sont-i-meter" I'd learn to live with everything else.

Personally I'm pro-Oxford comma, although I don't necessarily disagree with

.

Red Kryptonite · Feb 22, 2015

How about my nursing instructor who pronounces pharynx as "far-nix" and larynx as "lar-nix."

I had to grip the desk and grit my teeth every time to keep myself from saying something extremely rude, since this woman does grade me, after all.

Red Kryptonite · Feb 22, 2015

ICURN3020 said:

mispronounciations

Awkward.

anh06005, MSN, APRN, NP · Feb 22, 2015

Had a patient ask for incompetence pads.

Had to stifle laughter.

anon456, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2015

Say the T in Often but not the T in Soften.

blah_blah_blah · Feb 22, 2015

Do you guys say due-odd-in-um or duo-denim when referring to the duodenum? I always said it the first way (it's the way I was taught in a survey of A&P class I took in high school) but i feel as though most people pronounce it the second way.

my pathophysiology teacher in college said matt-oor instead of mat-chur (mature). She may have been saying it properly, but she is only one of two people I've ever come across to pronounce it that way.