Commonly Misused and Mispronounced English Words and Phrases

Posted on August 9th, 2008 in Grammar by keyboardologist
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In this computer age that we live in, it seems that the English language is being reformed; and taking a beating on a daily basis. List updated August 21, 2008.
Please note: The grammatical errors in this here essay article are intentional.

I decided to write this article after listening to a radio show, where the topic of misused words and phrases were addressed. Here are some misused, mispronounced, and misplaced words and phrases that grate my nerves:

  1. Irregardless. This word I feel, belongs at the top of the list. I don’t really see it as a word. If it were actually a word, the definition would be; “not regardless.” The word that should be used is; “regardless.” (Regardless of what you thought before reading this). I hear this word abused by some people that have college degrees in English! Here is a typical example of what you will commonly see regarding this word: “We continue to use gas in our cars, irregardless of the fact that the price is skyrocketing.” The correct example would be:“We continue to use gas in our cars, regardless of the fact that the price is skyrocketing.”
  2. “Care less.” We probably have all been guilty about using this phrase improperly, for example: “I could care less about the score of the game last night.” The correct example would be: “I could not care less about the score of the game last night.”
  3. “Intensive purposes.” This one should be: “Intents and purposes.” I have also seen it incorrectly as: “Intense and purposes.” You get the idea though- for all intents and purposes.
  4. Supposibly. This is just plain wrong. The correct version is: Supposedly. For example: “Supposedly you are reading this article out of boredom.”
  5. Got and gots. I grew up in the South, so I have heard quite a bit of language impairment with “got and gots.” Here is an example of the wrong use: “Your boss gots your paycheck for you.” The correct version would be to eliminate “gots” altogether, and you would have: “Your boss has your paycheck for you.” Here’s an example of a misuse of the word “got:” “I got a bag groceries for you.” Again, you can eliminate the word “got,” and you get: “I have a bag of groceries for you.” Got it?
  6. “Opposed to” I have seen this one confused with “supposed to,” and I have also seen it spelled as: “Upposed to.” No wonder it’s so hard for some people to learn Engrish. (I mean English).
  7. “Philharmonica orchestra.” I have played in many country bands, and on more than one occasion heard my drummer refer to the string sound of my keyboard, as sounding like a “philharmonica orchestra!” For those who don’t know, the correct use would be: “Philharmonic orchestra.”
  8. Hotness. I have heard this used instead of the word heat, like so: “You can feel the hotness in the room with the hot heat.” (I am not making this up. If I only had a voice recorder with me all the time.)
  9. Electricianist. I have heard this used by someone to describe my occupation as an “electrician.”
  10. Kleenex, Xerox, Coke, and Clorox. I am including all four of these to illustrate the point, that not all face tissues-or wipes, are Kleenex. Kleenex, Xerox, Coke, and Clorox, are brand names. Not every photocopy is a Xerox, all soda is a Coke, and not all bleach is Clorox. 
  11. Hot water heater.(From the department of redundancy department….of redundancy) why would you want to heat hot water? How about just plain “water heater?”
  12. Worser. This of course, gets abused along with “worse” and “worst.
  13. Klein’s, Channel Lock’s, and Vise Grip’s. These are all brands of pliers. Lineman’s pliers are referred to by electricians as “Klein’s.” “Channel Lock’s” usually refer to adjustable pipe pliers (sometimes called water pump pliers). “Vise Grip’s” refer to various locking type pliers. Once again, great examples of advertising genius.
  14. Libary. Yes there are still people who go to the “libary,” as opposed to the library.
  15. Binded, as opposed to bound.
  16. Drinked instead of drunk or drank.
  17. Unless. Regionally used in place of “or else.”
  18. Itching in place of “scratching.” i.e: I was itching my arm.
  19. Warsh. I think this is a regional thing, but there is NO “R” in wash.
  20. Sawl. You “saw” a piece of wood in half, as opposed to sawl.

I’ll probably ad more to the list as I think of them, and I am sure there are a lot more. Thanks for reading, and please be nice with the comments. This is for “info- tainment,” a combination of information and entertainment, well, you get the idear.

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18 Responses to “Commonly Misused and Mispronounced English Words and Phrases”

  • Laura
    August 9th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    I only disagree with 2 and 10. “Could care less” and “could not care less” mean the same thing. It might not seem to make sense, but English doesn’t always make sense. And number 10 is just an issue of generic brand names. We all refer to gelatin desserts as Jell-O and bandages as Band-Aids, simply because that’s how our society has become.

  • Johnny
    August 9th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    Actually the fact that we use Kleenex, Xerox, Coke, and Clorox is quite an amazing thing. These four companies have outdone themselves in product recognition. The fact that no one uses the terms, tissue, copy, pop (soda, soda pop, etc), and bleach just goes to show how much control the advertising industry has over the human mind. Another great example of this happening is Tylenol or Ibuprofen.

  • Exe
    August 9th, 2008 at 11:56 am

    Laura, no they are opposites. It does make sense; you don’t. =-p

    Johnny, Tylenol is acetaminophen. Maybe you’re thinking of Motrin?

  • bimble
    August 9th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    I have to agree with the original poster, “Could care less” is most definitely incorrect.
    I would allow number 10 though. The most obvious use in British English is ‘doing the hoovering’ rather than ‘doing the vacuum cleaning’ It is a common way for new words and usages to get into common acceptance. (I know common usage is a big factor in new words being accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary)

  • Amanda
    August 9th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    I also agree that “could care less” is not usually what people are trying to say when they use the phrase, but that doesn’t mean that it is incorrect grammer. It just means that they ar not saying what they mean. For example “I could not care less about football.” “I could care less about the computer. I’m on it too much!”

  • James
    August 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    you should pick on the original case of 1. “oven” and “hoover” are both brand names that have become general nouns.

  • keyboardologist
    August 9th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Thanks for all of the comments. To: #6, thanks for the information. I am sure there are a great many more I have yet to discover. I do know “Hoover” is a brand name. Another one I left out was “Ansul system,” which a lot of people use to refer to a restaurant fire system.”Ansul” just happens to be one of several brand names of fire suppression systems.

  • GRAMMAR KING
    August 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    supposably is a word, it is the adverb of supposed- It means capable of being supposed. So we are supposably all enlightened by your post.

  • Garrett
    August 9th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    Laura: They don’t mean the same thing. When you say “I could not care less.”, you mean to indicate that you do not care AT ALL. “I could care less.” implies that you could still not care to a greater degree. (And even if that doesn’t make sense, I suspect your philosophy on accepting nonsensical English will allow me the victory anyway).

    GRAMMAR KING: I do believe you’re correct. Kudos.

  • Doublechk
    August 10th, 2008 at 8:48 am

    I just checked Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.com and supposably was listed as an adverb under both. However, it was not found on AskOxford.com. Also when supposably is typed into Microsoft Word 07, word suggests changing it to supposable. Interesting…

  • Aequitas
    August 11th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    I’ll take your advice on language when you learn why “in this computer age that we live in” is grammatically abhorrent

  • Sarah
    August 11th, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    My goodness!
    I so previously thought no one else caught these little mistakes made by people all the time!
    My 8th grade grammar teacher not only used ebonics, but also said pretty much all of the aforementioned. But the thing on this list I possibly hate most is the ‘could care less’/'couldn’t care less’ topic. Drives me mad, that it does! (the whole time typing this, I must say I am super frightfull of making a silly or obvious grammatical error, so forgive me if do!)

    Thanks for your post!
    -Sarah

  • keyboardologist
    August 12th, 2008 at 4:41 am

    To: #11 (Aequitas),
    Thanks for pointing that out. I never claimed to be an English teacher, and some of the “mistakes” in this article are intentional. Thanks for the input.

  • Tusaani
    March 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    Ooh, “Libary” annoys me to no end. Good list.

  • hydraulic car jack
    March 14th, 2009 at 7:33 am

    I have to say, that I can not agree with you in 100%, but that’s just my opinion, which indeed could be very wrong.
    p.s. You have a very good template . Where did you find it?

  • keyboardologist
    March 14th, 2009 at 11:04 am

    I was listening to a radio show (the home team), and they were talking about the word irregardless. I went to google, and found, quite a few debates on the misuse of the word. I made the chart from scratch with MS Paint.
    Thanks for the input.

  • hdwdlnd
    May 12th, 2009 at 11:39 am

    What about sneaked and snuck?

  • Johnny
    July 9th, 2009 at 2:15 am

    I have a problem with #5.

    “I got a bag groceries for you.”

    This is correct. The sentence implies you have “bought” a bag of groceries for someone. As in, I went to the store and GOT you an item.

    Verb

    Infinitive
    to get

    Third person singular
    gets

    Simple past
    got

    Past participle
    got, (North American or British archaic) gotten

    Present participle
    getting

    to get (third-person singular simple present gets, present participle getting, simple past got, past participle got, (North American or British archaic) gotten)

    # (transitive) To receive.

    I got a computer from my parents for my birthday.
    He got a severe reprimand for that.

    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get

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