Sunday
Dec042011
How to React When You Learn You've Been Doing Something Wrong for Years
2 things:
1. Thanks to everyone who posted reviews of my calendar. Thanks to you I have a 5-star rating on both sites, and am currently sold out on Amazon.
2. Yes, I do say "fourth, fiftht, sixtht, seventh." Anything else sounds ridiculous to me, and yes, it took me until now to notice I was alone in this. Makes me wonder what else everybody else is wrong about!
December 4, 2011
Reader Comments (86)
I had to sit through two days of training where the instructor kept saying "heighth" instead of "height". By the first hour I wanted to strangle her!
Whatever the case, you're certainly right about the fiftht Star Trek movie. I actually paid money to see that in the theatre back in the 20th century, and haven't been able to to watch it again. (Fan dance, argh!)
The sixtht, however, was awesome.
I've never heard fiftht, but I hear people say heighth from time to time. If that sounds really bad to you, then maybe you can start to imagine what fiftht sounds like.
Don Quicks-oat... for the win!
Actually, if you lived in Lancaster or York PA you'd fit right in...
A belly laugh in every panel. Well done. Thank you for making the probability that tomorrow is Monday just a little less sucky!!! :)
Yup, just as funny on the second and third reads. Probably the best B.I. Ever. :D
The last panel reminds me of my brother. He says several words wrong, like saying "Rouge" when he means "Rogue." The first couple of times were because he didn't know any better. Now he does it just to mess with me.
I've been called on my pronunciation of "room" quite a bit. Others have claimed I'm saying it like "rum," but it's not true. I've spent quite a bit of time comparing how I say the two words, and there's a difference. The "oo" in my "room" is softer than how most people are saying it, but it's not a full on schwa like in "rum." I think there are some other "oo" words that get this treatment, though some I pronounce "normally." Thankfully I've found I'm not alone in my pronunciation of "room," so I think it might just be regional.
Whoops. I guess I have been doing this wrong all my life...and I never knew until your comic today. Seriously.
I was going to mock you until I said "fifth" out loud and realized I say "fiftht" too! Now that I am aware of it, I will work on fixing it.
I say "sixth" like a normal person, though, so nyah.
I love that Rick gets one up on you in this comic
I've seen worse... for the better part of my life I read rendezvous as "rendevenous"... still not sure how I figured that...
I hold my pencils/pens between my second and third fingers rather than between my index and second fingers. I've known it was wrong since late in my elementary school years, but never did anything to correct it. I write just as well as I would otherwise, so why bother.
Saying 'fiftht' aloud makes it seem like I'm saying 'fist' with a lisp.
Bad as the fiftht Star Trek movie was, how can you say it was worse than the abomination that is Nemesis?
Oh well, I guess that's how you and I are different. You're wrong and I'm not.
Couple of my friends say Demond instead of Demon (we're rolplayers, the topic comes up more for us than standard issue civilians). I keep pointing out that it's not a verb, you cannot be Demoned, but the error is too deeply ingrained
> Whatever the case, you're certainly right about the fiftht Star Trek movie.
> I actually paid money to see that in the theatre"
I was lucky. Although I paid money to see it in a theater, it was a double-feature with "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
> just as funny on the second and third reads.
Don't you mean "secondt" and "thirdt"?
It's not pronounced 'fiftht'? ;(
My dad adds "h"s to the start of many words that begin with the short "a" sound (as in "at", which he pronounces "hat"). It's more confusing than annoying, and quite strange since dropping "h"s is far more common.
I work as an IT consultant and I have two colleagues who say "firmwire" instead of "firmware". One is a sales drone and the other is a field tech. My boss and I cringe every time they say it, and they shrug and moves on, saying that the customer's problem was due to "old firmwire".
AHHHH
I've lived in many parts of the U.S. and noticed that many mispronunciations are common regionally but sometimes also situational. For example in many parts of the northern states I have encountered those who say "warsh" instead of "wash". Not only adding an "r", but changing the vowel sound as well. But only some of those people will say "Warshington" instead of "Washington". I've also encountered the "heighth" usage. Often I've heard it where they will correctly say "height" if that is the only aspect they are referring to. But when they move past one dimension they begin referring to the "heighth and breadth". I think it's confusion with "width and breadth". Though I did once encounter someone who was always urging others to achieve new "heighths". So yeah, there's that guy.
Dialect divides the spoken word from the written word, generally. The above is but one example of such.
"Actually, if you lived in Lancaster or York PA you'd fit right in... ~Marie"
Hey! I find that rather... well now that I think about it... I got nothing. ~Mike from York, PA
I had to sit through a training where every 10th word out of the instructor's mouth was "irregardless." Like nails on a chalkboard!!!