Mispronunciations That Drive You Nuts

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Car-dee-ya-zem.

It's car-di-zem. Or dil-ti-ya-zem.

Cardiazem isn't a real thing.

Can I get an amen?!

Specializes in nurseline,med surg, PD.

I detest it when people say "cut the light on or off". You're not "cutting" anything people. We TURN lights on or off.

I used to work with a nurse who always said BP cup instead of BP cuff.

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My sweet mom says "prostrate" (prostate) and "menopulse" (menopause). I don't bother to correct her.

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Specializes in psychiatric.

Anyone who makes an 'SH' out of an 'S'.......like shtrict instead of strict, or shtreet, instead of street. Drives. me. bonkers. What's worse is there is a radio DJ on the local station that talks like this with every 's' word. ugh. It's the little things that will get me in the end.

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Specializes in Patient Safety Advocate; HAI Prevention.

How about Carpin Tunnel syndrome?

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New an older lady who took her husband to get dialysis but pronounced it like "di-al-is"

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Car-dee-ya-zem.

There have been a couple of threads similar to this one, and I one of them I mentioned how much this pronunciation drives me nuts!

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
you must always pronounce the 't' in often.

What about the first 'c' in "arctic?"

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
What about the first 'c' in "arctic?"

Are there people who do not? Who are these people?

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
KelRN215 said:
NO, call Suzy or ME.

And some people are so obsessed with saying "Suzy and I" (for example, Suzy and I are going to the store), they will even use it as an object ("He is going with Suzy and I"). I admit, however, I am guilty of this mistake too. 

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
OMG I want to kick puppies when apostrophes are overused!!!!!

There was printed sign at work that read "Employee's Only." Thankfully someone took a black Sharpie and wrote a giant X over the apostrophe.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
I've always said it um-BIL-i-cus but a professor used to say um-bil-LI-cus and it irritated me.

I once overheard an attending ask a student "so are an um-BIL-i-cus air um-bil-LI-cus kinda guy?" So apparently the latter is acceptable. For the record, I go with the former.

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As long as you're pronouncing letters that are actually IN the word, I don't think there's a "right" way to say some of these terms, just a more common way of saying it.

I ABSOLUTELY agree with this post. I live in a city that is a cultural melting pot. I work with people from Russia, different parts of Asia, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, South America, people from various parts of the USA south, and many people pronounce words differently. I've heard vitals pronounced V-it-als, but does that make it incorrect? Absolutely not! That is how the word is pronounced in her home country.

Someone had made the comment earlier that pronouncing arthroscopy Arthro-scopy was incorrect. I think that is a very IGNORANT and close-minded comment. Good lord, we had a saying in nursing school, "Fl-ay-tus, flat-us," just like the saying "Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to."

Anyway, right on Mr. Murse! :-)

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