Justine, don’t swear off of these – this has been such a fun and enlightening dialog!

FWIW, I say “shone”, rhymes with “bone”. I am a NJ USian.

One was the teacher of a short course on Access databases who said ‘astrid’ instead of ‘asterisk’. Bizzare.
Another was a teacher of a desktop publishing and Photoshop subject who said ‘cirtle’ instead of ‘circle’. Again with the bizarre.

Drove me nuts!

Although not all of it works if you aren’t actually English.

2. Sometimes I say “liberry” ON PURPOSE. But only within the family.

3. I don’t get irked so much by mispronunciations as by misplaced accents.

I hadn’t heard of ‘eggcorns’ before; cheers for that.

FWIW, I don’t think people should be lambasted for mispronunciations, misunderstandings or misuses based on ignorance, but when broadcasters, presenters and writers misuse the language (like reporting news in sentence fragments as mention by @genevieve above, something that’s been happening for at least 15 years in Australia, or using the word ‘literally’ when they mean precisely the opposite), it’s a problem.

Some changes in written and spoken English are, to borrow from George Michael, natural and good; others actually diminish our ability to communicate.

they accuse me of having a Jersey accent.

i accuse them of being crazy.

nice to see that i’m actually somewhat . . . normal as compared to some of these other peeps who get all het up. LOL

“free gift”!

‘ Other peeves:
“And plus.”
“Added bonus.”
“Discuss about.”
“The reason is because.” ‘

Oh my. Neither have I. Actually, to be honest, I don’t know that I’ve ever had the occasion to say it aloud myself, but while reading it I always hear it in my head with both I’s making the same sound, because of Latin.

BUT, you will all be pleased to know, the dictionary I’m obliged to use for work agrees with Cheryl: “’sir- e -es”. That first E is long and the second is one of those all-purpose sounds, that upside-down-e “schwa” thing.

(Because apparently it is from Greek, “Seirios,” not Latin. Neither of which I ever learned, even a little bit, so that’s my excuse )

I promise I’m not really this obsessive. This is kinda my job, or close enough — I’d be doing similar anyway.

“For all intensive purposes.”
I’m still kinda shocked that this even exists. I’d never heard this version before I got on the Internet.

It still irks me less than “could care less,” though.

Other peeves:
“And plus.”
“Added bonus.”
“Discuss about.”
“The reason is because.”

Grrrrr.

Probably the latest annoyance when it comes to language is those who add the unnecessary “s” at the end of words, i.e. “Yous live around here?”

Another thing that drives me crazy is when people say “blush you” instead of “bless you.” It may possibly be the Northern Michigan custom, but it does get annoying.

Champ-een (for champion).

When someone “arx” instead of “asks” a question.

People in Saskatchewan have a teeth-clenched “R” – must be the cold – so they buy veggies from the “ferrmrrs merrket”. Which makes me giggle and mimic unkindly.

Now, given that I’m used to hearing “Sirius” pronounced differently, can you see why it totally boggles me to hear satellite radio described as “serious” (Howard Stern and all).

“For all intensive purposes.”

It’s “for all intents and purposes,” not for just the REALLY STRENUOUS purposes!! I got into a huge fight with my boyfriend about this when I was 19. I don’t think it’s why we broke up, but it didn’t help.

Also, my college roommate got mad at me once for saying “more zippity!” Not that I was saying that–I was saying “more’s the pity” but she heard it the other way.

I’ve always pronounced “shone” as “shon”.

I hate it when chavs here say words wrong. For example, they will be meaning to say “hate” and they will say “ate” so when they say “I hate you” I hear it as “I ate you”. It’s really annoying but funny sometimes!

Erm, this is very random but is there a smiley face at the bottom of every one else’s screen?

Ooh, one annoying thing I find it when people are saying “naughty” yet pronounce it “nough-ee”. What is so hard with prnouncing your t’s??

Data. I get irritated when people say “dah-tuh”. I prefer “dayta”. How do you all pronounce data??