I guess I might as well list a few

I'm sure there are 5 million blogs about pet peeves but just to get my first blog under my belt, here goes.

Words that people mispronounce.

In advance, I mildly apologize to those of you who actually pronounce the words below as such, but really only to those who have some sort of excuse for it... some sort of mouth deformity, a country of different origin where it is hard to pronounce some of the phonetics of different languages, regional accent, etc. You get the idea. Those of you whose first language is English. Stop it.

Ranked in order of annoyance.

1. nuclear - as NEW-Q-LAR
A guy named Dubya is famous for this one - I think other countries like this guy as our prez for the only reason I do as well, sheer entertainment

2. realty/realtor - as REAL-I-TOR
I know there are some strange pronunciation rules in English (silent letters, i before e, and all kinds of random craziness) but adding in extra vowel sounds where there are clearly none to be found is sheer madness. Here's a true story. I went to the bank to get a cashier's check for a deposit on this year's vacaction rental. The teller asked who I wanted the check made out to. I said "so-and-so Realty." As she jotted it down I watched it unfold in front of me. She wrote R-E-A-L-, and then she paused and I immediately knew what was to come. After some consideration, she finally continued, I-T-Y. With no way to be diplomatic I said, "That's spells reality," pronouncing the word properly, as in 'Survivor is a reality show.' I realized how dickish I sounded correctling her but what could I do. She laughed and admitted that the word always confused her. I wanted to say, "if you actually pronounced the letters that were there, there would be no confusion," but instead I just chuckled good-naturedly along with her as if I could empathize. The previous year, a different teller at the same bank came back with my cashier's check made out to 'so-and-so REALITY' as well, so I have to assume that in their orientation at this bank, they must teach this.

3. larynx/pharynx - as larNICKS/farNICKS
Explanation? I don't have a good one. Did their teachers in school pronounce it this way? How could they have started mispronouncing it? The only rational explanation I can put to it is that somehow Brett Favre's ancestors are involved. I bet if we traced the evolution of this mispronunciation back it would somehow tie to them. "Grandma Favre's voice is hoarse because a donkey kicked her in the larynx."

4. jaguar - as jagWIRE
Apparently those who clearly pronounce this as jagwire must have originally heard a southerner (or maybe a Bostonian) saying the word because if you say jaguar with a deep southern accent, it comes close. Of course, people with genetics that have never come anywhere close to the Mason-Dixon line or HAHvAHd YAHd say it, so they're just retAHded.

5. masonry - as masonARY
Again, there's that mysterious extra vowel sound coming from nowhere. This made my list today because this morning while watching 'This Old House' one of the experts actually said it. They actually have Boston accents on the show but that can't account for phantom sounds added to words.