Ns and Ms

I was typing up an email for work and when that red squiggly line popped up under imput I was confused. I was even more confused when the only suggestion was input.

Huh?

Wait, I’ve been saying that word wrong? My entire life? Twenty-five years of mispronunciation and nobody said anything?! Rude.

Granted, N and M* sounds are kind of hard to distinguish. And I obviously do not write it down often. But hmph, I felt pretty dumb for not knowing that all this time. Especially since I get so annoyed when people pronounce certain words incorrectly or make common grammar mistakes.

Five things people say that make me twitch:

1. Exspresso. It’s ESpresso people. Not Expresso. Yes, it’s a tiny little bit of coffee that’s fast to drink but that is where the similarity to it and the word express ends.

2. Irregardless**. That is redundant. And not really a word.

3. Busted. My mom always used to tell me that it isn’t a word. I think she may have been wrong about that. Or at least I’m pretty sure it is a word now but still, to me it sounds ignorant. It’s broken, not busted please.

4.  Good (In response to how are you?). Nope, you’re well. You can have a good day. You can do a good job. But unless you are referring to the content of you’re character, AKA I’m a good person, you are well or fine or excellent or okay or crappy. Just not good.

5. Illinois. It is pronounced Ill-i-noy. There is no z sound at the end. If you say Ill-i-noyz I might slap you.

Despite my snark I’m obviously not above mispronouncing the occasional word or two. And because karma is a bitch I’m sure this post is rife with spelling and grammar mistakes. Feel free to point them out. Clearly I could use some im, er, input.

*my little sister used to pronounce M&M’s like that (en an emz). And now I want some…

** You know what else makes me twitch? The fact that there is no red line under this word. Have we sunk that low English language? Really? ::sigh::