When pressed, even the most eloquent of English speakers will confess that “yes, there’s a word I’ve long mispronounced.”
For Here & Now host Robin Young, the word was ‘misled,’ which she pronounced, on air, as “mizzled.” For a WBUR podcast producer, it was ‘bedraggled’ which she firmly believed was said ‘bed-raggled’ (as in one who got raggled in bed).
Among those who have taken note of the difficulties of the English language are wordsmiths (and siblings) Kathy and Ross Petrus, whose books include “You’re Saying It Wrong,” which is also the name of the podcast and radio show, co-hosted with KMUW’s Fletcher Powell. Kathy and Ross Petras join host Robin Young to talk about commonly mispronounced words, why we say them the way we do, and the ones that they themselves never seem to master.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2026 WBUR
