Mispronunciations, typos, et al.

[katyism.livejournal.com]

So how do your favorite users mispronounce, misspell, and mistype things?

My users are university people... faculty and undergrads cannot get their heads around the following words, but the grads, staff, and international students can. It makes you wonder who learned to read before college, vs. who got in to the university for money reasons.

My favorite examples...

Correct: Symantec
Incorrect: systematic, simon tech, schematic, semantic.

Correct: https://exchange.whatever.edu
Incorrect: http://sexchange.whatever.edu

Correct: Ad-aware
Incorrect: Adware

Correct: Microsoft
Incorrect: Microsock (this was a typo)

Comments

[eddiddiums.livejournal.com]

Correct: Novell Login
Incorrect: Norvell Logan

[chaobell]

Correct: Pentium
Incorrect: Pendulum, Penitum

Correct: RAM
Incorrect: Rams, Megarams

Correct: Hewlett-Packard
Incorrect: Hewart Packard, Hewlett Packer, Hewlett Packard Bell

Correct: Modem
Incorrect: Modulum, Motor

[devilkitty0.livejournal.com]

correct:prometheus
incorrect: proteus;promtus,

prometheus is an online supplement to classes.

The supporting the blasted thing is another post.
I wince every time I hear because I was a classics major.

DK

[mystii.livejournal.com]

I really like it when they say, "It just says connecting through wang miniport" ...haha, wang.

[akage.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Sexchange.whatever.edu made nearly made me spew Mountain Dew out my nose. Good show.

[katyism.livejournal.com]

Imagine how I felt when the user read the incorrect URL back to me over the phone!

[thecolorblue.livejournal.com]

my company is called netopia, but our endusers call us:

utopia (thanks, but it's not that nice)
neto-PEEEE-ya (no, the accent is on the second syllable)
newtopia

how is it that hard to pronounce?

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Correct: Software Repository
Incorrect: Software Suppository, Software Depository, Software Penitentiary

Correct: McAfee (MACK-a-fee)
Incorrect: MacAfee, McFee, (ma-KAFF-ee), (MACK-a-fay)

Correct: ePolicy Orchestrator
Incorrect: (EE-poe), Policy Orchestra, Primary Orchestration

Correct: Protection Pilot
Incorrect: Pilot Protect (where the hell all these people get that one, I'll never know)

Correct: Lotus Domino
Incorrect: Locust Dominion (from a Domino admin...)

Correct: "Yes, here's what I need help with..."
Incorrect: "Do you have any black technicians there? I'd feel more comfortable speaking with one if so." (^%@$#%^*&#$)

[katyism.livejournal.com]

regarding that last one, wtf? i thought i'd heard it all when they ask to speak to a male...

[toxico.livejournal.com]

I've heard the opposite side of the coin years ago when I did dispatch work for a plumbing company ("I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd send one of those nice Southern white boys out, please."); the one referenced in my original comment happened here a few months ago.

I do live in Texas, so unfortunately I'm not quite as shocked at the one a few years back; this most recent one, however, was from who-knows-where in the U.S. and completely surprised me.

Not being one to begin a cultural discyussion with either of these folks, I obliged their requests - albeit a little uncomfortably.

[katyism.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm lucky that we get to lie and say everyone else is on a call already and they're stuck talking to me. How I would love to be able transfer to their preferred consultant in some cases, though.

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

Correct: McAfee (MACK-a-fee)
Incorrect: MacAfee, McFee, (ma-KAFF-ee), (MACK-a-fay)

I say ma-KAFF-ee. I would mean mik-aff-ee, but that's my Northern Ohio accent. I would think mik-aff-ee would be closer to the right pronounciation anyway, because of the Mc, like in names.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I took a tour of their offices in Silicon Valley and our group got speeches by several V.P.s who all say MACK-a-fee. :D

[iterative-steps.livejournal.com]

you know i never noticed the difference with the second one and i rarely hear people say it. i always said it mcfee if it came up.

and i love primary orchestration. i don't know how you keep from laughing on the phone..unless you just hit the mute button

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

My most common one is when I ask the client to do something to their cable/DSL modem and am asked, "Is that the blue link system box?" Lame, I know.

However, just yesterday I had a district manager call me up and ask, "Can you tell me if my laptop shipped today?"
What I heard was, "Can you tell me if my laptop shit today?"
"Uh.... I dunno. What happened?"

Once I figured out that I'd heard wrong, I declined to let her know exactly what I thought I'd heard.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Naturally, LJ just ate my whole comment.

I would see/hear

Inspirion or Inspiration instead of Inspiron
Lattitude instead of Latitude
Dimensional instead of Dimension
(yes, I worked at Dell)

And always, ALWAYS, "kernal"

[katyism.livejournal.com]

kernal? for kernel?

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Yep. Whenever they were looking at the error, they would still misspell it. Good Lord.

[absurdwords.livejournal.com]

correct: configure
incorect: centrifuge

[alithium.livejournal.com]

Pronunciations at their best, to add to the above McAfee poster...

Correct: McAfee
Incorrect: McFree, McFairy, MacAfree

McFairy has always been my personal favorite.

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

Correct: cable
Incorrect: DSL

Correct: router
Incorrect: rooter

Correct: modem
Incorrect: Coxbox or 'that box you gave me'

I don't even bother correcting callers though. It's not worth my time. Am I also the only one annoyed when customers say 'you', when it wasn't me, but the company. 'Your internet's not working', 'The modem you gave me', etc.

[jecook]

The term "coxbox" sends me off on a wholly NSFW tangent. ::giggles uncontrollably::

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

It makes me giggle/die on the inside when I hear it. Too bad it's an ISP specific. :[

[sacredlyprofane.livejournal.com]

I say rooter, but I'm Australian, I'm allowed.

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

In Australia (well, many parts, anyway) we say "rooter" for "router" because here we pronounce route "root" not "rowt", and router is just a natural extension of that.

So the 'correct' pronunciation is extremely dependent on your point of origin.

But I do get the gist of "when in Rome..."

[sacredlyprofane.livejournal.com]

Tee hee, you said root.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I say "root" for "route" a lot, too, but I say "rowter" for "router," because otherwise it makes me think of Roto-Rooter (http://www.rotorooter.com/), and then I would get the giggles.

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha - I went there, and promptly got the sniggles (somewhere between a snicker and outright giggles) too!

Thanks for the laugh!

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Heh, no problem. Glad to oblige.

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

Hmm. You, unlike most of the world, make me smile. Mind if I befriend you?

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Sure, no problem. That's a hard standard to live up to, though! ;)

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is how I feel. Root is a street. Router is... uh... a router.

[cyrus7.livejournal.com]

Coxbox... I take it then that you are internet tech support for Cox Communications? ;-) me too, and I have to say that every one of those you've said I've heard as well. Drives me nuts when people say their DSL isn't working. It's cable! Way better than DSL; how dare you insult it! lol. And about people saying "you" when it wasn't me... nope you're not the only one who is annoyed! Drives me nuts, especially when they say "you messed up and..." I've never talked to you before! How did I mess up?! [/rant]

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

That is correct... although I'm actually outsourced.

[cyrus7.livejournal.com]

I had a woman today call her DCT a "coxbox" and I had to dive for the mute button so she wouldn't hear me snort with laughter.

[kelly-bean.livejournal.com]

EVERYDAY.

linksys= "link-skies"

[kelly-bean.livejournal.com]

Woops, that was me, heh.

[flyingcheerio.livejournal.com]

I get the Linskees everyday too.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Correct: authentication
Incorrect: "authentification" which I get ALL the time, even from consluttants! WTF!

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

I still love the (very deliberate) MicroSloth...

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

There was this one guy who was trying to login to one of our websites and he called up to get what he called his "dominance."

"Your dominance?"
"Yeah. I have my username and my password, but not my dominance."
(I looked at the page in question, which has clearly labeled spaces for your username, your password, and your domain.
"You mean you need your domain information?"
"That's what I said. I DON'T HAVE MY DOMINANCE!"

This guy was, of course, several levels above me in the company.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

"Have you talked to a business psychologist?"

Or maybe he should just stop wearing the clown pants to work.

[iterative-steps.livejournal.com]

lmao at simon tech