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 critical care.

Mid-Atlantic says mersa.

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Specializes in hospice.

I've only worked in health care in Arizona, and I've never heard MRSA said as anything BUT "mersa."

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
Here in the South there is phrase/word and I have no clue of the etiology for it: "T-Mortal-Hell" There is no "T" in Hell! (Probably no water either!) In context it might be something like...."It/He/She scared the T-Mortal-Hell out of me!"

I don't get it, but after 26 or so years down here, I am used to it and do recognize the vehemence behind it and what it is trying to convey.

Maybe it was originally "immortal" hell and it was morphed into t-mortal????

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
No Stars In My Eyes said:
Local accents in Nashville, for a true Nashvillian have folks pronouncing Murfreesboro as Muhfsbro, and Smithville as Smiville. When I first moved south, sometimes I'd have to ask someone to SPELL something If I couldn't seem to hear/understand what they were saying. 

My first in-laws were from Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I was in that family for two whole years before I realized that "Lovell" (LUH-vul) was actually Louisville (LOO-ee-ville)! (It probably doesn't help that there is a Lovell Street in my town, so my brain was pre-programmed to recognize that name.)

I used to love picking on my MIL's accent (lovingly, not mean-spirited!). I'd ask her what you call a baby horse: "a fole" [foal]. Then I'd ask her what you call that metal stuff you wrap around leftovers in the fridge: "aluminum fole" [foil]. So then I'd ask what the difference was.... "one is *fole* and the other is *fole*!!" She could totally hear a difference in her head! 

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Specializes in critical care.

My first visit to Cali, a family member from there asked me to pronounce "Sepulveda". Totally butchered it. SEH-pul-VEE-dah. Sounded ridiculous!

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
My first visit to Cali, a family member from there asked me to pronounce "Sepulveda". Totally butchered it. SEH-pul-VEE-dah. Sounded ridiculous!

I can pronounce that one (at least I think my pronunciation is correct) if I say it really slowly. If I see it in the middle of a sentence and I am talking quickly…forget it!

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

My step-dgt. used to ask my mother to say the number 44. My mom was born and raised just south of Boston and pronounced it "fawty-foah". That tickled my step dgt so much. However SHE talks with such a fast cadence in a very "country" southern accent, that my mother could only pick out a very few words, and when step-dgt finished her sentence, my mom could only tell because she stopped talking. My mother would raise her eyebrows and give a baffled smile and said, "I'm sorry, but I didn't understand a thing you just said."

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My first visit to Cali, a family member from there asked me to pronounce "Sepulveda". Totally butchered it. SEH-pul-VEE-dah. Sounded ridiculous!

I grew up in So. Cal so I learned the right way to say that word.

Here in Northern Cal there is a county called Siskiyou. It is pronounced "siskyou" without the "i" in the middle. But when people visit, they say "sis-KI-you".

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There is Houston, TX (HYOU-ston), and Houston Street, NY (HOUSE-ton).

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MeTOprolol, NOOOOT meTROprolol

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Specializes in ED; Med Surg.

I asked a nurse in NC for a yank-ow-er for my father, and she didn't understand. I explained what I wanted and she laughed at me and said..."oh you mean a yank-er"!!!

Po-tay-to, po-tah-to I guess.

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Specializes in CMSRN.

Still laugh when any older patient asks for cootermin (Coumadin)!

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