You're Saying It Wrong: A Pronunciation Guide to the 150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words--and Their Tangled Histories of Misuse

For word nerds (like me), this short book is a tasty lagniappe. For normal folks, it is an entertaining little book that tells you how to pronounce words that are often mispronounced. Think of it as preventive medicine -- something that keeps you from a linguistic faux pas when you want to sound erudite, or at least educated.For word nerds, you probably will find about 25% of the book revealing, as you undoubtedly know the pronunciation of many of the entries. But there is value in knowing you've been right all along. And, most of the entries have interesting historical or etymologic notes that make them entertaining and educational, even if you already know how to pronounce the word. You may already know that geoduck is pronounced GOO-ee-duhk, but the salacious origin of the word may have escaped you.For normal folks, are you tired of not knowing if the file extension .GIF is spoken GIFF or JIFF? Problem solved. Want to avoid embarrassment on a trip to NY City? Learn why "Houston" is not pronounced as in Texas (HEWS-tun) but HOUSE-ten. Bump up your vocabulary from "lazy" to "lackadaisical" and say it correctly (in other words, do NOT say LAX-uh-day-zi-cal). Some words you will rarely encounter; others you will encounter all the time. All share the connection that they are commonly mispronounced. Some examples are: asterisk, boatswain, bruschetta, claddagh, crudites, Dr. Seuss (not Dr. SOOSE after all), draught, haute couture, poinsettia, prerogative, Thames, Tolkien, Wednesday, and yarmulke. You'll learn how to say gyro correctly when you order one. And for those with a supernatural bent, there is an entry on the pronunciation of H.P. Lovecraft's lovechild, Cthulhu.The book goes beyond individual words and includes some commonly misspoken phrases such as "I could care less" and "daylight saving time" (often misstated as "daylight savings time"). There are sidebars such as "How to sound like you're from across the pond" (British English pronunciations) and "How to sound like a gourmet" that are fun to read.In sum, a nice little book that will help those who wish to make proper pronunciation their forte. (Which, by the way, is pronounced FORT, not for-TAY. Who knew???)

The book is written by a brother sister combo Ross and Kathryn Petras, who say they are word nuts. I have been fascinated with words for a long time but I have a problem with pronunciation so thought this book might help me. I purchased it as an e-book as no audiobook was available. This book would be great as an audiobook so we could hear the correct pronunciations.The author uses humor, puns and word play along with a broad knowledge of language history to make the book fascinating. The words are in alphabetical order. The word that surprised me the most as being mispronounced frequently was “anyway”; according to the authors many people say “anyways”. The book will make a good addition to my reference library.The book is 172 pages and was published on September 13, 2016. I read this using my Kindle app on my iPad.

I had most of the pronunciations correct--I'm a word nut, too. But some I had no clue & others were a real surprise--they required notation. But the best part of this book is the research into the origins and evolution of the spellings, meanings, and pronunciations of the words.

OK, I really giggled over the puns. It was so much fun to find out the words I have been mispronouncing in my zeal to be correct. Certainly not of interest to the masses (too bad), but I certainly enjoyed the book. I’ll be referring back to it many times, I’m sure. I can’t wait to tease my sister about her mistakes...word nerds run in the family.

Humbling and delightful! I've been saying more than a few things wrongs - all of these years - who knew? Well, now, I do - thanks to this great book by the incredibly talented brother/sister writing team of Kathryn and Ross Petras. I'm a big fan of their work but I think this one is m favorite! Especially like the "How to Sound" breaks in the book - particularly the "How to Sound Like an Oenophile - The Seventeen Wines (and One Wine Steward) Most Commonly Mispronounced". Kudos!

This is a chagrin-saving book for a voracious reader who is only late-in-life consuming audiobooks.

Very interesting book. There are so many words that I mispronounce. There is a little blurb written beneath each word that explains something about the word and how it came to be mispronounced. Interesting book. Has helped me with lots of words. It can be embarrassing to mispronounce words.

This book is an authentic "hoot." Some of it's a surprise and other parts are an affirmation. I'll keep it as a good reference to support verbal correctness. I'll also be on watch for volume 2 as I imagine there are many other words and phrases in need of accuracy.

The content is really disappointing for anyone else than an uneducated American dummy.The American way of pronouncing even simple words is appalling, so it gets much worse where foreign words come into play. The same goes for foreign words that the English try to pronounce.Absolutely hopeless.I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Great for knocking the snoots out of yer Sneetches. Dr Seuss (whose name most of us mispronounce) told a wonderful tale about the Sneetches, who loved to look down on those they considered inferior to themselves.Location exerts a lot of influence on pronunciation, so if your peeps make no objections to yours, that's great. For times when you might want to boost your credibility in other circles (if you're making a public presentation, for example), you might find this guide helpful. Or you might just enjoy the author's light-hearted commentary, as I did.

Not to be read straight through. That would be too much. Interesting and sometimes unexpected information about word origins.

Quite informative and reasonably well-researched, except for the French!

enjoyed it immensely -- you will too