Mispronunciations That Drive You Nuts

Updated:   Published

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 Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
ixchel said:

Did you read the one about the Pa-arp?

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.
Did you read the one about the Pa-arp?

Nope! Do share!

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
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

.

OH god flashbacks of the chest tube video. They must have said sont-i-meter at least 50 times while explaining how to set up and use the chest tube. And I've been forced to watch that video about 5 times.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in TBI and SCI.

lol my RT said nurses I work with say "stats are fine"? What? Statistics? Math? Lol

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in TBI and SCI.

So I pronounce metoprolol as "meta-PRO-lol".... it sounded right in the beginning. But then I heard it differently and to confirm I went to drugs.com and used the pronunciation button hahaha.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I avoid the whole thing and say Lopressor cause I hear it pronounced so differently from so many people. I personally pronounce it as meh-TOP-pro-lull (emphasizing the last L) but I hear people say meta-pro-low, metro-pro-low, meta-polo.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

I used to work with a nurse that pronounced Mepilex and MepipLex. Drove me nuts.

Another older nurse would say extree instead of extra. She knew her **** though, so it didn't really bother me, just made me chuckle.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU,CTICU,PACU.

a CNA i work with says the pts are incubated instead of intubated! i love it.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
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.

Now, what really bugs me is people adding letters that aren't even in the word. Like metoprolol, which has already been brought up. I can't count the number of times I've heard people put a whole extra syllable in it like "metatoprolol". Or people love moving the r around in the word like "metropolol".

Another really commonly mispronounced word is "peripheral". I hear "peripheeal" all the time.

Oh, and one of my favorites, I was getting report from a nurse talking about a groin incision, and she kept pronouncing it strangely so I looked at her paper and sure enough she had it written "growing incision". Ha. Those crazy growing incisions are tricky to dress.......

my region says growin' for Groin.

drives me bonkers.

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.

Not so much a mispronunciation, but I hate it when people say lady parts when they mean vulva.

So much is this a pet peeve of mine that I want to slap the offenders, but alas, there are too many.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
ixchel said:
In middle school, I was in choir, and one of the first things we were told was that pop artists pronounce Ts followed by the word 'you' as 'ch'.

As in, "I can't live, if living is withou-choo."

Now I can't unhear it.

I'm annoyed by the name Martin as well. It's commonly pronounced all "Britishy", Mar'in.

I just now heard my daughter say "ea'en", as in, eaten.

The letter T is dying a terrible and painful death. This gives me a sad.

I'm sensitive to that one because in show choir this was verboten.

In fact, to fix that we were instructed to put the t at the beginning of the next word "I can't leeeve, I living is withow tyou."

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

I was teaching a home health aide how to change a leg strap for a Foley.

She kept saying "scraps" instead of "strap."

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion