things said wrong that drive you crazy

[SDALPN]

Ok. So I'll start by saying that when I hear the office or a nurse say "orientate", it is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Its orient, not orientate.

Another one is O2 "stat". Its O2 sat, as in saturation.

Its trach, not "trache".

Or parents who tell me their kid has a trachea...I sure hope so! I want to tell them their kid isn't special for that and that we all have a trachea.

Parents that tell their kid I'll give them a shot if they don't behave. I'm not around to cause pain or scare a child.

And parents that speak Walmart! When they tell me they want to "axe me" I fear for my life or my job and then they just ask me a question.

Incorrect spelling of meds. It can lead to a med error. The med name is on the container. It can be looked up online if needed. I can't stand hearing "Phenergren", its phenergan.

Seeing/hearing yankauer spelled/said incorrectly. Passy-Muir is another.

Formula doesn't always have milk in it. Some patients are allergic to milk/dairy. Calling it milk and saying you don't want your kid to drink milk because its too much milk just sounds silly.

I'll think of more. Any others?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

My Polish grandmother says yoga for yogurt. As in did you get your yoga today?

That and she's convinced if you have cancer and have surgery you are going to die once the air hits the cancer. (To her credit when she was young there was little early detection so often by the time a malignant mass was felt or visible it was often widespread mets, so yes by the time they did an open exploratory procedure/biopsy it was too far gone)

This was a VERY common, widely-held belief when I was a child- in the early 60s.

[danceyrun]

Eastern European?

This person was as American as she could be.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

"prostrate" for prostate, "Altheimers" or "Oldtimers" for Alzheimers

When I was a little kid, I thought Alzheimers was "Oldtimer's Disease". Kind of scary when you hear a grown adult call it that, though...

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

And just to stir the pot:

nuclear: I say nu-ku-lar. Three syllables. I don't care what anyone says, nu-clear (two syllables) sounds wrong and a little snobby. Just about the only thing with which I agree with George W Bush.

According to Merriem Webster:

"Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyə-lər\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers, including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers."

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

This was a VERY common, widely-held belief when I was a child- in the early 60s.

My aunt just told me about this a few months ago! I was like uhhhh?

Biggest pet peeves: people who say "I could care less" that obviously means you care, its "I couldn't care less"

I have a friend who pronounces it "ezactly" and the same friend (although this is backwoods new England and quite common here) uses "weren't" completely opposite of how it should be used. Ie "I was hungry and so weren't davey so we went out to breakfast".

What?!

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

nu-clear (two syllables) Not to be the grammar police, but it is nu-cle-ar; phonetically new-clee-er

Sorry, couldn't resist

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

And just to stir the pot:

nuclear: I say nu-ku-lar. Three syllables. I don't care what anyone says, nu-clear (two syllables) sounds wrong and a little snobby. Just about the only thing with which I agree with George W Bush.

According to Merriem Webster:

"Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyə-lər\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers, including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers."

I say it the same way. Just to be a bugaboo.

We have lots of family ways of pronouncing words just to be funny. And we also remember our kids and they way they said things and it becomes part of the family vernacular.

It's fun!

[Adele_Michal7, ASN, RN]

I've been in the States for most of my life, but sometimes my accent gets the best of me

one of my all time favorite is when i needed to collect a clean catch u/a specimen at this

facility i had just started to work at

i kept asking where the potty hats are kept,

but every one said we don't have any, maybe check with activity dept.,

or who's birthday is it?

it took me a while before i realized what was coming out of my mouth sounded

like party hat

That is too funny.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

I say it the same way. Just to be a bugaboo.

We have lots of family ways of pronouncing words just to be funny. And we also remember our kids and they way they said things and it becomes part of the family vernacular.

It's fun!

I couldn't say nostril when I was young... We still to this day call it a "nozzle"

[pookyp, LPN]

How about 'sonameter" for centimeter; um-bi-LIKE-us an-gin-a vs an-GINE-a. PharnNyx and larNyx drive me nuts. We also had an administrator who dropped the "h" on the front of words "huge" was "you-ge" Some of the differences are regional, I reckon:yeah:[/quote'] My husband says you-ge too. I hate it! And chooseday when he means to say TUESDAY. He's not American though. Lol he's from Canada.

[amoLucia]

When I was a little kid, I thought Alzheimers was "Oldtimer's Disease". Kind of scary when you hear a grown adult call it that, though...

"Oldtimer's Disease". Hmmm....not too far from the truth.

And to Texan56 - it was St. Joseph's grammar school for me.

And to CloudySue - I agree with what you're saying.

[danceyrun]

Another good one- "will you take a pitcher of me?"

"No but I will take your PIC-TURE"