Good point. I saw the "internal dialogue" used in reference to it, but delved into it any deeper.

One of the most annoying this to me is people who say "verse" when they actually mean "versus." (vs.)

If it's something you are paying attention to you will notice tons of people do it and it really grinds my gears.

"I got it all in preflop Queens verse Aces"

Yeah that is one those things that annoys me too.

That reminds me of something that was brought up in this thread before.

I think someone's kid was using versus as a verb or the like. (i.e. He is going to versus me in a hockey game."

This is really just a variant on people saying they "should of" done something. They've heard it spoken, couldn't tell exactly what was said so made an assumption (almost certainly unconsciously), then applied that assumption when writing. This bothers me much less than the many ways in which people consciously, intentionally abuse the language.

It's either that or people slurring the final syllable, so the two "s" sounds become one. "Versus" becomes "Versss" due to dropping the schwa sound of the last vowel and when spoken quickly "versss" is just "vers" or "verse."

When I pronounce it, the first s is an "s" and the second one is a "z" sound so the "ver-siz" is distinct, but others don't use the "z" s.

I used to hang with a guy during a period I was using the word "fiasco" a lot. He started saying it, too, but after a few uses I noticed he was pronouncing it "fiaskle" (fiascle? fiascul?) No idea how he would have attempted to spell it but I know it would have been funny.

Can't remember if I mentioned this, but my freshmen students do this.

"Who do were versus tonight?" OR
"Who do we verse tonight?"

They'll use either, and they both drive me bonkers.

Right, the "who do we verse" usage is what I usually hear, and I can only assume that when they hear something like "Dallas versus Miami tonight" on TV, kids think they're saying "verses" as a present-tense noun meaning "to play against". It's just what happens when you hear stuff and don't read enough to see it in print, obviously a common problem with kids.

Is it possible to be an "underrated superstar"?

That's a very unique way to answer a question.

Does pronunciation qualify for this thread?

For some reason it really annoys me when people say the possessive "our" and pronounce it exactly like "are", especially when they are a professional speaker or performer of some kind. I think Keisha does it in every one of her songs, but she's pretty annoying anyway, so that's just an example.

And I don't mean just a lazy pronunciation, I mean saying the word just like saying the letter r. It should be a 2-syllable word that sounds exactly like "hour" and rhymes with tower, no matter what regional accent you have. I think it's acceptable to soften the second syllable just a bit as long as it's there.

False

On the pronunciation front, a guy I work with says "asterick". This wouldn't be so bad, but we actually use it fairly often as part of a running joke - whichever of us is losing at disc golf will find some bull**** reason the winner has cheated or whatever and say the result gets an asterisk.

He doesn't say them, but "canidate" and "satistics" are pretty annoying and are regularly said by people on TV.

The vowel sound in the word "hour" is not just a diphthong, as the terminating "r" makes it two distinct syllables. The vowel can be pronounced without the diphthong and still be 2 syllables. But this word can't be pronounced as one syllable, as a monophthong. And neither should "our".

On a show I'm working on, the host just said "ree-la-tor" twice in one hour. I think ree-la-tor and new-kyoo-lar are two of the worst common pronunciation mistakes.

I take it that this is a troll for grammar nits.

I have never pronounced 'our' as 2 syllables - and never will.

I was looking forward to the rebuke.

I'm not an expert in phonetics, but whoever wrote the Wikipedia page seems to disagree with you - "The diphthong /aʊ/ becomes the monophthong /a/ in some environments including before nasals (e.g., downtown), liquids (e.g., fowl, hour)." (emphasis mine)*

In any case, I can assure you that it is very common in Pittsburgh for people to pronounce "our" as a monopthong. I think an overwhelming majority of born-and-raised working-class Pittsburghers say it that way and it's probably more dramatic in the smaller towns of the surrounding area.

According to the article, that trait is unique to the region, within the US, so overall you've got a point. I'm mostly nitpicking, as is appropriate for this thread.



* I feel like my punctuation is pretty brutal there. I'm not sure what to do with the "emphasis mine" bit.

Our, are, hour, the letter r. All pronounced exactly the same by me.

Comments can go in brackets. "[Bolding-for-emphasis¹ mine.]"

^{1 Instead of the original, because some might not immediately realize what are referring to.}

I know, those are the ones who irritate me.

Madness provide several examples here of the way that I would pronounce 'our', as in our house, our street, our Mum, our castle and our keep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqn5AIdd-9k