Pronunciation Pet Peeves

walterj wrote: It annoys me when people pronounce it raydeeator in place of radiator. I was just tossing the fact that it really isn't a radiator either in as bonus material to show the anti-shock folks how clever I am ;)

Yes, but "heat exchanger" is too broad of a term to use to refer to that one part. Intercoolers are heat exchangers. There are lots of other things on a car that exchange heat.

Aren't all heat-pumps technically heat exchangers? Or... wait... no, they just all have a heat exchanger somewhere in the system. So your A/C has a heat exchanger.

I'm not going to a parts store and asking for the heat exchanger for the engines liquid cooling system. I don't care if it's called a "radiator" or a "thumb-nickel", I want to call up a parts store and be able to use a common term that they understand.

MGAMGB wrote: Bicycles have rims, cars have wheels...

Bicycles have wheels, which have rims

The sum of the parts are a wheel, of which the rim is a part

MGAMGB wrote: Only people from NJ and parts surrounding use the incorrect colloquialism RAD eeator. Of course, people from the city pronounce all sorts of things wrong.

Not true. You must be only dealing with retards

MGAMGB wrote: Possibly, but it's not labeled so therefore I do not have to acknowledge it.

I am not going to make you acknowledge it.

EastCoastMojo wrote: The sum of the parts are a wheel, of which the rim is a part

A wheel is a circular object that can be used to transfer force and/or allow an object to roll. It is the larger part of a wheel-and-axle which is type of lever (simple machine) that, rather than being a single arm, instead forms a continuous circle around the fulcrum.

I always figured that the "wheel" of a car included both the rim and the tire wrapped around it. Since from a purely mechanical standpoint, both parts make up the wheel-and-axle that your car uses to transfer force. A rim could logically be referred to as a wheel, if it does not have a tire on it. It can roll on its own, after all.

Or is the rim just the part of a wheel on the outside of the spokes/dish/face?

Salanis wrote: Or is the rim just the part of a wheel on the outside of the spokes/dish/face?

Yes. The rim is the outer hoop that is also the breaking surface for most bikes, and has the channel in which tires are seated.

Retahds. I love those goofy bastids.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Yes. The rim is the outer hoop that is also the breaking surface for most bikes, and has the channel in which tires are seated.

So car wheels have rims too. We just don't use them as a braking surface. In which case, it is still appropriate to refer to your Miata as having 15" rims.

I believe the correct pronunciation is ree-ims

EastCoastMojo wrote: Yes. The rim is the outer hoop that is also the breaking surface for most bikes, and has the channel in which tires are seated.

Well... it can be a breaking surface under certain conditions but it is most often employed as a braking surface.

My wife started working at a pharmacy in a new town and a customer came in asking for their prescription under the name "Shurf". Pronounced like Surf. When she asked them how to spell it, the customer simply said, "Shurf, you know as in a Shurf?" The name was Sheriff. So from then on we started saying that if we had trouble with the law we had to call the County Shurf.

You know those maps that are 3D displays with mountains and topographical information? My uncle calls those "Base Relief."

I can't believe no one has picked up on the big ones...

Real-a-der. The person who helps you sell your house

Jew-la-ree. The fancy decorations you put on your body

New-kya-ler. The kind of power plant

Foylij. The pretty fall leaves

Dah-beet-us. The disease which causes unregulated blood sugar levels

But the best one I EVER saw was a classified ad clipped from a newspaper in new england. The guy was selling a 1974 Volkswagen Common Gear. Think about how you'd pronounce that in Maine and you'll get it.

EastCoastMojo wrote:

Salanis wrote: Or is the rim just the part of a wheel on the outside of the spokes/dish/face?

Yes. The rim is the outer hoop that is also the breaking surface for most bikes, and has the channel in which tires are seated.

[Gin-yoo-wine smartass]

Um, it's BRAKING surface, not BREAKING surface. Unless you are smashing it.

[Gin-yoo-wine smartass]

Well, if you saw what my customers bring me, you would understand.

My sister used to answer 911 calls....

....had one guy tell he he takes "insults" for his "beedees"...

Nu-ku-ler.

I don't round off my "r's" like other Massachusetts natives do. Sometimes, it grates on my nerves when someone has a wicked thick Mass. accent. And yes, I use "wicked" a lot.

Retard: I motherberkeleying hate that word! Since this is the Internet, I can't do anything to stop people using this word, but anyone who says it near me risks being punched in the teeth. It's such an ignorant and ugly word.

You guys have covered the worst of the English ones so here's a German one: the local accent around here tends to turn "g" into "y" at the start of words. This means the ordinary word "gut" (good) becomes "yut", or rather "yooooooot" because they tend to draw out the vowel for at least a whole second. Yes, it sounds exactly as stupid as it looks written down.

It's especially annoying when you're explaining something you've done and the other party is standing there bobbing his head going "yoot... yoot... yoot... yoot..." ARGH ARGH I HATE IT MAKE IT STOP.

I can only take so much of that before my urge to smack someone becomes dangerously powerful.

J

here in michigan I have heard Both Melk (milk), and Pullow (pillow).

Porsche-uh is correct, no silent letters in german.

as is ray-dee-ate-er!

sometimes down south i hear people pronounce Soda as pop or coke.

VW Common Gear is pretty funny, I had to think about it for a second.

I say "melk" - I always thought that was a bit of residual accent from my Dutch parents (the Dutch word for milk is... 'melk'.) Interesting that it's normal in some forms of English.

J

Let me axe you some questions:

"What happened to the 's' and the 'k'? Where did you find the 'x'?

I'll let you slide on the 'e'."

Anyone who says ath-a-lete should be flogged. And on the topic of Porsche and other foreign pronunciation: English speakers Anglicize words; that's just life. If not we would pronounce Munich as Munchen, Germany as Deutschland.

Hey are any of youse Eye-talian?

maroon92 wrote: sometimes down south i hear people pronounce Soda as pop or coke.

Ya heard 'Co-Cola' yet? Some of the real oldtimers will refer to a Coke as a 'dope', that goes back to when it really did have cocaine in it.

I see people stand at the drink machine across from my desk and say to their buddy 'I'm getting a Coke', the damn thing has a huge Pepsi bottle across the front and they are hitting the Sierra Mist button. But it's all 'Cokes' to them; I guess among some folks that's a generic term for carbonated drinks.

'Pop' is more a Midwestern thing, although you hear it down here as well.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Al-U-minium

If I remember right, didn't the British at some point decide to rename "aluminum" to "aluminium" so that it fell more in line with other metals on the periodic table? Not that the rest of the world followed suit.... (And in my experience, it's usually Brits that use that pronunciation.)

in reference to the use of "Retard" That particular "R" word usually says more about the person using it than anything else, unless of course you are discussing engine timing....