As a change of pace from featuring word usage and general writing hints, this month’s column focuses instead on correct pronunciation.  In fact, because the list of words we mispronounce is such an extensive one, a future column may again feature additional commonly mispronounced words.  For ease of reading, the following list is arranged alphabetically.

Athlete: Before adding an extra sound that causes us to mispronounce this word, we need to note that the word only has two syllables, namely: ath-lete, not ath-A-lete.

Diptheria: We mistakenly apply a “ph” sound instead of a pure “f” sound to this word.  Instead, pronounce it DIF-theria.

Disastrous: This word has three syllables, not four.  Pronounce it as di-ZAS’-trus, not as di-zas-ter-us.

Electoral: Many of us are accustomed to accenting the third syllable when we should instead accent the SECOND one and pronounce it this way: e-LEC’ toral.  (Moreover, the word’s ending does not have an “i” sound.)

Et cetera: That we usually abbreviate this Latin word pair (etc.) probably gives rise in an uncharacteristic way to our mispronouncing et cetera with an “x” sound instead of a “t” sound.  Pronounce and use it in your academic writing as two words (et means “and”; cetera means “the rest”). 

Err: This word should rhyme with “fur,” not with “air” or “error.”  Nothing gets more perplexed faces in my classroom than does the adage “To err is human, to forgive divine” correctly pronounced with the “fur” sound.  In fact, some students ask me, “Don’t you mean “To air is human?”

Especially: Like the “x” sound we occasionally hear in et cetera, we sometimes hear an “x” sound in this word.  We need to keep the pure “s” sound following the first letter “e.”

Forte: Although this word is spelled "forte,” unless we are speaking of music, we must pronounce it as fort without an “a” sound ending.  (This is another one of those words many of us likely inherited from parents mistakenly believing the word needed a saucy foreign flavor.)

Heinous: Even well-known news anchors mispronounce this word with three syllables and a “he” sound instead of a “hay” sound (he-in-nus instead of HAY-NUS).  Expectations of proper pronunciation notwithstanding, we should not follow their errant mispronunciation.

Height: Unlike the word width, this word does not have a “th” ending.

Hierarchy: Up we go, higher and higher!  This is, in fact, how we may wish to remember that the word is not pronounced HIGH-arky but rather is pronounced HIGHER-arky.

Lambaste: Again, this is a word radio and television commentators frequently mispronounce.  The ending uses the long “a” (baste) as in a recipe’s direction to baste the turkey.

Miniature: We must not forget to pronounce the “a” in the third syllable so that the word sounds like mini-A-ture, not mini-ture.

Mischievous: Unlike the word above, the fault lies in adding a sound not included in the word.  If we think of the word mischief and pronounce it that way, we won’t add an “i” sound after the letter “v.” 

Nuclear: A certain president mispronounces this word as nu-clu-ear, not nu-clear, and sets himself up for public ridicule.  Thinking of “new” and “clear” when you see this word avoids his error.

Often: This word never requires the sound of the “t.”

Prerogative: Why we often replace the prefix “pre” in prerogative with “per” is perplexing; avoid “per-rog-ative.”

Percolate: We need not add a “u” sound in place of the “o” sound in this word, yet we often do just that. (To compound the word’s frequent mispronunciation, we even misuse the word to mean an upward, not downward, direction.)

Prostate: Omit the “r” in the ending to avoid the common mispronunciation of this word.  (We probably have in mind the word prostrate, a word that can mean flat or exhausted, when we misspell or mispronounce this word.)

Supposedly: Perhaps it’s a matter or carelessness instead of a lack of knowledge that leads some to add letters and a “b” ending to this word, but, regardless of the reason, we must pronounce it with a distinct “d” ending.

Zoology: We probably think of a zoo because of the spelling of this discipline and thus mispronounce zoology with a “zoo” instead of a correct “zo” (rhyming with “so”) sound.

As always, I welcome suggestions from students, staff, and faculty for these monthly columns and shall try to use their contributions in future columns. Should you have a topic you’d like discussed here, please write me at jmiller@ccccd.edu . You may also telephone me at 972.881.5981. Students wishing improved writing skills will find useful links to a dozen or so English grammar sites at http://iws.ccccd.edu/jmiller/jmiller.htm .