Although much of our modern-day communication is done using computers or mobile devices, it’s important that you learn how to pronounce words correctly as well as spell them correctly. While our word processing applications and phones are smart enough to tell us when we’re misspelling a word, that’s only useful when we’re writing to people rather than talking to them. Both writing and speech make an impact on people, and if you want to leave a good impression of your knowledge of a topic and your general level of education and ability, you need to practice the pronunciation of a word along with its spelling.
In many ways, knowing how a word is spelled will help you with its pronunciation, and knowing how to pronounce a word correctly will help you remember how it’s spelled. A good example of the connection between the two is the problem of metathesis, the transposing (switching of position) of letters in a word. Here are some examples of words that are often both misspelled and mispronounced due to this phenomenon:
cavalry (CAH-vuhl-ree)
Many people think that this word is pronounced CAL-vah-ree, and so tend to also misspell the word with the v and l transposed (incorrectly as calvary). Cavalry refers to troops of soldiers mounted on horses; Mount Calvary is a place mentioned in the Bible.
jewelry (JEW-el-ree)
Again, the tendency is to pronounce this word JEWL-er-ee, and spell it accordingly.
nuclear (NEW-klee-uhr)
A recent American president became notorious for his pronunciation of this word as NEW-kyu-luhr – it’s possible he tried to spell the word as nucular as well.
From the examples above, you can easily see that the right spelling will help you with the right pronunciation of a word. While most people will understand what you’re trying to say even when you do mispronounce a word, there are times when your meaning will be unclear, and this will lead both to misunderstandings and the impression that you’re not as capable or knowledgeable as you really are.
On the other hand, an occasional mispronunciation happens to everyone – there’s even a word to describe it: spoonerism. Named after a 19th-century English church leader named William Spooner, this word refers to a metathesis between two words rather than within one word, and only when spoken. Two famous examples of spoonerisms are from television broadcasts in the early 20th century, one where an announcer mentioned a “hypodeemic nerdle” (rather than a hypodermic needle), and another with an announcer’s statement that “All the world was thrilled by the marriage of the Duck and Doochess (Duke and Duchess) of Windsor.”
Malapropism happens when completely different word is used, often one that has similar pronunciation but not the same meaning, so that the sentence makes no sense. Shakespeare used malapropisms for comic effect; a good example comes from the lines spoken by the character Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, when he says that he and the other watchmen have captured “two auspicious persons.” Naturally, he didn’t mean that these persons would bring good fortune (the definition of auspicious) but rather that they were suspicious; that is, suspected of doing something wrong.
Watch your words, and your pronunciation, and no one will be suspicious that you don’t have a good command of your topic, and the English language.
Cross-posted on the Ultimate Spelling blog.
