10 mispronunciations that could get you killed

This is the cast of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.



They know about heinous. This is because they deal with heinous sex crimes every day of their damn working lives. In fact, they eat a bowl of heinous first thing in the morning. When they get to their desks, the first thing they do is update their status on facebook and twitter to 'very heinous', and after work, they go to the gym for a variety of workouts, such as 'heinous pump', 'cross-heinous' and 'advanced heinousness'.

And because they deal with heinousness in every facet of their day-to-day lives, they also know how to pronounce the word heinous – you would if you had to deal with it every damn day of your life.  But what about you, who isn't confronted with the same amount of heinousness every day of your life? How will you cope when something heinous comes along? And who knows how a psychopathic murderer will react when they hear you say 'heinous' wrong?

And it's for this exact reason that you need to know these 10 frequently mispronounced words – so you are safe from all forms of heinousness in the future.

Here are 10 frequently mispronounced words:

Heinous – HAY-nus, not heen-us. Hear it here.

Often – you do not pronounce the 't' in often. Hear it here.

Exacerbate – the 'c' in exacerbate is soft, so it is ig-ZAS-ur-bayt, not ig-ZAK-ur-bayt. Hear it here.

Interpret – in-ter-PRET, not in-ter-PRE-TATE. Hear it here

Miniature – This word has four syllables. Say min-I-A-ture, not min-A-ture. Hear it here.

Preventive –This word has three syllables, not four. Pre-ven-tive, not pre-ven-TA-tive. Hear it here.

Regardless – This word has three syllables. Ain't no such word as 'irregardless'.

Asterisk – Notice the second S. Say as-ter-isk, not as-ter-ik. Hear it here.

Dilate – This word has two syllables, not three. Say di-late, not di-A-late. Hear it here.

Etcetera – Say et-cet-era, not ex-cet-era. Hear it here. 

Armed with this knowledge, you can go about your business, never having to be afraid that you will suddenly utter a mispronunciation without realising. The streets might not be any safer, but at least your pronunciation is.