Things Americans Say Wrong
Yes, the title is intentional.
Please take the following grains of salt before criticizing the list too harshly:
- I am a (naturalized) American citizen, and thus a proud American.
- I have no formal training in linguistics.
- These are just some personal pet peeves, so don’t get your panties in a bunch.
| a whole other… | Not “a whole ‘nother…” |
| abercrombie | Not “ambercrombie” |
| across | Not “acrost” or “acrossed” |
| addictive | Not “addicting” |
| all I did was… | Not “all’s I did was…” |
| all of a sudden… | Not “all of the sudden…” |
| alumni | This is often mistaken as the singular form of itself. The correct form is alumnus for singular masculine, alumna for singular feminine, alumnae for plural feminine, and alumni for masculine or generic plural. |
| Alzheimer’s disease (ALTS-heim-ers) | Not “old-timer’s disease” |
| Antarctica | Not “Antartica” |
| anticlimactic | Not “anticlimatic” |
| anyway | Not “anyways” |
| as best as you can | Not “as best you can” (pronoun may vary). Even more appropriate would be “as well as you can.” |
| as long as | Not “so long as” |
| as opposed to | Not “as oppose to.” This one is fairly subtle, since even in the correct pronunciation, the “d” is almost inaudible. However, many people do indeed consciously and audibly omit the “d.” |
| ask | Not “axe” |
| asterisk (AS-te-risk) | Not “asterix” (AS-te-riks). This error is made frequently by low-ranking office employees or people who are beginning to learn computer terminology. |
| beck and call | Not “beckon call” |
| better than the last | Sometimes, to express pleasure toward something, someone might incorrectly say, “every day is better than the next,” or “every bite is tastier than the next,” and so on. If you think about this carefully, you’ll realize that these are actually negative statements. When a person says, “every day is better than the next,” it is equivalent to saying, “every day is worse than the previous.” The person is essentially implying that every day since the beginning has been getting progressively worse. The correct phrase, therefore, should be, “every day is better than the last.” |
| biceps | Not “bicep.” The singular of biceps is still biceps. |
| boisterous | Not “voice-terous” |
| bystander | Not “by-standard” |
| calculate | Not “caculate.” |
| cavalry | Not “calvary.” Of course, if you’re referring to the place outside of Jerusalem, then you’re fine. |
| card sharp | Not “card shark.” A reader contributes: “When someone is good at shooting pool or playing cards, they are sharp. Therefore, they are a ‘pool sharp’ or a ‘card sharp.’ They are not sharks as in ‘pool sharks’ or ‘card sharks.’” |
| chipotle (chi-POT-lay) | Everyone seems to have their own pronunciation of this word. Most commonly, however, people mispronounce it by saying “chipolte” (chi-POL-tay), or “chipote” (chi-PO-tay), omitting the “l” altogether, or even “chipottle” (rhymes with “bottle”). The word itself has its origins in the Aztec language Nahuatl, where the “tl” sound was very common. It is derived from the words chil (chile), and pochilli (to smoke). |
| comeuppance | Not “comeuppins” |
| comfortable | Not “comfterble” |
| couldn’t care less | Not “could care less.” When you think about it, to say “I could care less” really means that you actually do care about something, and it’s possible for you to care less about it. It is more appropriate to say “I couldn’t care less” to indicate that you have reached the rock bottom of carelessness about something. |
| data | The word data is plural. Therefore it is inappropriate to use a phrase like “this data.” It is more appropriate to say “these data.” The singular form of the word is datum. |
| daylight saving time | Not “daylight savings time” |
| drivel | Not “dribble.” Dribble is what one does with a basketball. Drivel is childish or nonsensical language. |
| drowned | Not “drownded” |
| enormity | The word enormity refers to excessive evil or wickedness. It does not, however, refer to general excessive size. For that, the preferred term would be enormousness. |
| espresso | Not “expresso.” I mean, come on. |
| et cetera | Not “exetera.” Commonly abbreviated “etc.,” this is literally the Latin words et, meaning “and,” and cetera, meaning “the rest.” When spelled out, this is two words, not one. |
| exact revenge | Not “extract revenge.” |
| exclamation mark | Not “exclamation point.” Do you ever say “question point”? |
| fateful day | Not “faithful day” |
| February (FEB-roo-a-ry) | Not “Feb’uary” (FEB-yoo-a-ry). |
| founder | Not “flounder.” Founder is what a ship does when it collides with something and sinks in the water. Flounder is a kind of fish. |
| for all intents and purposes | Not “for all intensive purposes” |
| hair’s breadth | Some believe that this metaphor is actually “hare’s breath.” |
| heart-rending | Not “heart-rendering” |
| height | Not “heighth” |
| hertz | This applies to the singular form of the unit, which is still hertz. Some people mistakenly say, “1 hert.” |
| how many feet are in a mile? | Not “how many feet in a mile?” (Units may vary) |
| I’d just as soon… | Not “I’d just assume…” An example phrase might be, “I’d just as soon not go to the park today.” |
| I’m not sure | Not “I’m not for sure” |
| I’ve seen | Not “I seen” |
| in other words | Not “another words” |
| infinitesimal | Not “infintesimal” |
| instant messaging | Not “instant messenging” |
| integral | Not “intregal” |
| inverse square law | Not “invert square law” |
| jewelry | Not “jewlery” |
| kielbasa (kil-BA-sa) | For some reason, this is commonly mispronounced “kielbasi” (kil-BA-see) |
| lackadaisical | Not “laxadaisical” |
| laundromat | Not “laundrymat” |
| let it be | Not “leave it be” |
| library | Not “libery” |
| literature | Not “litature” |
| mano a mano | In Spanish, this literally means “hand to hand.” However, many Americans incorrectly pronounce it as “mano y mano,” which would mean “hand and hand.” |
| mayonnaise | Not “man-aise” |
| memento | Not “momento” |
| menstruation | Not “menstration” |
| mischievous (MIS-chee-vus) | Not “mischievious” (mis-CHEE-vee-us). |
| moot point | Not “mute point” |
| myrrh | Not “myrth” |
| nauseated | Not “nauseous.” A reader contributes: “Too often I hear people who are sick to their stomach say “I am nauseous” rather than “I am nauseated.” Saying “I am nauseous” means that I cause OTHERS to feel sick to THEIR stomachs.” |
| nuclear (NEW-clee-ar) | Often disgustingly mispronounced as “nucular” (NOO-kyoo-lar). I still cringe when remembering George W. Bush say “nucular” in his speeches. |
| nunchucks | Not “numchucks.” A reader contributes: “Nunchaku is technically correct. However in English usage it is acceptable to use nunchucks, but not in Martial Arts usage or Japanese.” |
| off | Not “off of” |
| olfactory | Not “old factory” |
| on one hand… | Not “on the one hand…” |
| one and the same | Not “one in the same” |
| orangutan | Not “orangutang” |
| oriented | Not “orientated” |
| parenthesis | One of these “(” is a parenthesis (as opposed to parentheses, which is plural) |
| phenomenon | The word phenomena is plural. Therefore it is inappropriate to use phenomena when speaking of a single phenomenon. |
| picture | Not “pi’ture” |
| pieces and parts | Not “pieces parts.” For some reason, this is catching on at an alarming rate. |
| powers that be | Not “powers to be” |
| prescription | Not “perscription” |
| pronunciation | Not “pronounciation” |
| realty/realtor | Not “real-a-ty” / “real-a-tor” |
| regardless | Not “irregardless” |
| relevant | Not “revelant” |
| repercussions | Not “reprocussions” |
| rhombus | Not “rhumbus” |
| sacrilegious | Not “sacreligious” |
| sherbet | Not “sherbert” |
| sidetracked | Not “sidetracted” |
| statute of limitations | Not “statue of limitations.” To quote Jerry Seinfeld, “Fine, it’s a sculpture of limitations!” |
| strength | Not “strenth” |
| supposedly | Not “supposably” |
| tact | Not “tack” |
| take for granted | Not “take for granite” |
| that’s not fair | Not “that’s no fair” |
| touch base with… | Not “touch bases with…” |
| triathlon | Not “triathalon.” Also applies to biathlon, tetrathlon, pentathlon, etc. Even the word athlete is sometimes mispronounced “ath-a-lete.” |
| utmost | Not “upmost” |
| verbiage | Not “verbage” |
| vertebra | The word vertebrae is plural and should not be used as the singular. |
| vice versa | Not “vice-a-versa.” |
| voluptuous | Not “volumptuous” |
| where are you? | Not “where are you at?” and certainly not “where you at?” |
| width | Not “wi’th” |
| would have | Not “would of” |
| wreak havoc | Not “wreck havoc” |
| yin/yang | Not “ying/yang” |
March 1st, 2006 at 6:45 pm
>>> “…piqued his interest…” not “peaked” or “peeked” (easy to find both examples). A Google search returns the following statistics (roughly 10% error rate):
23800 results for “it piqued his interest”
925 for “it peaked his interest”
1080 for “it peeked his interest”
By the way, another exhaustive list of these things, with many of the same examples, can be found here.
March 2nd, 2006 at 10:55 pm
DB, the spam-robots have found you. I think you need to put a good robots.txt in your root directory.
March 18th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Please add pseudonym vs. pseudo name
March 30th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
The last book of the New Testamant is called “Revelation.” This book is not plural. The letter S appears nowhere.
Just for the record, “Relevation” means “to lift up,” it has nothing to do with the last book of the bible.
March 30th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
You can not graduate from school, you can only be graduated. To say, “I graduated from college,” is improper. You can graduate someone from college, or you can be graduated, but you cannot simply graduate.
No, actually it could work to say, “I graduated from college.” What it would mean however, is that at one point you used to graduate people, and the place where you graduated them from was a college.
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Ah, “graduated” vs “was graduated”. WWSS? (What Would Safire Say?) Not sure whether he would be so pedantic. I can’t find a Safire citation on the web, but American Heritage has this to say (which luckily I agree with): The verb graduate has denoted the action of conferring an academic degree or diploma since at least 1421. Accordingly, the action of receiving a degree should be expressed in the passive, as in She was graduated from Yale in 1998. This use is still current, if old-fashioned, and is acceptable to 78 percent of the Usage Panel. In general usage, however, it has largely yielded to the much more recent active pattern (first attested in 1807): She graduated from Yale in 1998. Eighty-nine percent of the Panel accepts this use. It has the advantage of ascribing the accomplishment to the student, rather than to the institution, which is usually appropriate in discussions of individual students. When the institution’s responsibility is emphasized, however, the older pattern may still be recommended.Personally I think only cylinders should be graduated.
April 15th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Here in Michigan a popular thing to say is puh-tay-doh instead of potato, tuh-may-doh instead of tomato, da-morrow instead of tomorrow, etc. Perhaps this phenomenon is nation-wide. People seem to replace the Ts with Ds. God help us all.
April 19th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Please, add ‘jibe’ as in, “This does not jibe with that.” Everybody pronounces it “jive” as in, Jive Talkin’ by the Bee Gees.
April 21st, 2006 at 9:00 am
When some one is good at shooting pool or playing cards, they are sharp. Therefore, they are a “pool sharps” or a “card sharps”. They are not sharks as in “pool sharks” or “card sharks”.
May 10th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
When I am swimming in the ocean off the coast of Florida, and my leg is bitten by a grey aquatic animal, it is because its teeth are SHARP, not SHARK. Grrr.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Just discovered this wonderful list. My propsed addition is nauseated/ nauseous. Too often I hear people who are sick to their stomache say “I am nauseous” rather than “I am nauseated.” Saying “I am nauseous” means that I cause OTHERS to feel sick to THEIR stomaches.
June 19th, 2006 at 3:27 am
nunchucks Not “numchucks”
Nunchucks is incorrect as well.
Nunchaku is technically correct.
However in English usage it is acceptable to use nunchucks, but not in Martial Arts usage or Japanese.
June 26th, 2006 at 10:21 am
What is the proper pronunciation of BUFFET?
Also, pronunciation of PROMISCUITY?
I would like to be able to LISTEN to the pronunciations.
Thanks!!
Irma F.\
July 12th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I’d like to suggest renaming this to ” Things Backwoods Southerns Say Wrong” – Up north we have our own bastardization of the language and we don’t want it confused with the hack job that the Southerns have done. The who/what/why thing I’d like to debate because the dictionary.com pronounciations match what I learned – hwo hwat hwy. The same with toward being a monosyllabic word.
Oh, and THANK YOU for this list! I did learn a few things from the list, such as the card/pool sharks thing.
July 12th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
SouthernERs, rather
Things Backwoods SouthernERs Would Say
July 28th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Hi Dmitri! Haven’t checked out your list in a while, but I’m glad to see all the new entries.
Here’s oneyou absolutely must add:
PREROGATIVE – NOT “PEROGATIVE”
I hear even educated people – and speakers on TV & radio – get this one wrong all the time! It may be due to laziness of the mouth as it is indeed easier to say, like Feb-you-ary instead of Feb-roo-ary, BUT it’s incorrect nonetheless!
July 28th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Well I hate to say it but my Webster’s New World College Dictionary says the word ROOF has the alternate correct pronunciation with the oo sound like the oo sound in “book”. I grew up believing the only correct pronunciation was with the oo sound like that in “boot”. Times change.
So maybe that entry needs to be deleted off your list!
July 28th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
OK Dmitry! You have GOT to delete the entry about the “what/when/where/why” pronunciation. Both my dictionary and my educated and cultured mother (from New York – NOT a hillbilly!) says the “hwat/hwen/hwere/hwy” pronunciation is actually the MOST correct, with the pronunciation leaving the H sound off the beginning is the second alternative corerct pronunciation.
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:57 am
I second that. The /hw/ pronunciation is actually older. It may be falling out of fashion but it’s not wrong.
As for “drawring”. This is how I pronounce the word. All it is is a linking r, quite common in non-rhotic dialects. Of course, we’re talking about things Americans say wrong and I’m Australian but non-rhotic accents do exist in the US.
And then to “healthful”. There’s no such word in my dialect but again I’m not American and that word is.
“Guesstimate” is legit. http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=34849&dict=CALD http://www.bartleby.com/61/17/G0301700.html
“Old-timer’s disease” may sometimes be said tongue-in-cheek.
The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) lists the pronunciation of month’s name as if it were spelt “Febyuary”. http://www.bartleby.com/61/42/F0064200.html
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary lists one meaning of “shark” as “a dishonest person, especially one who persuades other people to pay too much money for something”. http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=72533&dict=CALD AHD concurs: “2a. A person regarded as ruthless, greedy, or dishonest. b. A vicious usurer.” and even adds “3. Slang A person unusually skilled in a particular activity: a card shark.” http://www.bartleby.com/61/2/S0320200.html
“Hertz” is not capitalised (except at the begining of the sentence or if you’re using all caps). Odd though this may seem, it’s the official word on the matter.
Of course, one could trundle out the old prescriptivist vs descriptivist debate but that a hwole nother story.
October 24th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Are you sure about “vice versa”? I’ve seen the “vysa versa” listed first in a couple of dictionaries.
Here’s a good one: “sub pump” instead of “sump pump”.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Thanks for posting Yin and Yang. It’s frustrating to have people try to explain to me what the symbol Yin and Yang represents but refer to it at Ying and Yang. It just proves they don’t actually know anything about it. High Five.
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Interesting note: Schoolhouse Rock has a whole thing about interjections, and they ALWAYS say “exclamation point” not “exclamation mark”. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anything different than “exclamation point” myself in K-12 school, college, or otherwise. That’s so interesting!
January 4th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
How about the recent trend of adding ‘-ness’ to adjectives in order to make them nouns (AGGRESSIVENESS instead of AGGRESSION)?
Or DRAWL and SAWL instead of DRAW and SAW.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Reverse Discrimination….AAAAAANT!
Didcrimination is discrimination no matter who it is against!
Reverse discrimination might be …. CRIMINATION! LOL!
January 12th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
OOPS! Is oops a word? Sorry about the spelling in the last post!
January 12th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I hear so many people call the name Crystal or Chrystal, CRYS-CHUL
January 24th, 2007 at 11:22 am
in the great scheme of things who really cares? there are more pressing issues in life.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Bob, you are right on the money.
Who gives a rip if we say “I’ve already THREW it away” or “I don’t have no more of them things”.
Maybe we shouldn’t spend so much on ejukashun if we ain’t gonna lurn nuthin.
Yure kool!
February 25th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
To John:
How typical of a northerner to say something like that.
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:31 pm
How about redundancies when using acronyms? “The ATM machine is asking for my PIN number.”
Cheers!
March 5th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Here’s another that bugs the crap out of me: “The floor needs swept” instead of “The floor needs sweeping,” or “The floor needs to be swept.”
March 24th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I am quite the edyumuhcated hillbilly and love the beauty of my family’s regional dialect. Besides, there is no such thing as standard spoken English. There is only standard written English.
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Dmitry,
If you are truly interested in pointing out the flaws of others, you really should make sure that they are actually flaws in the first place.
– Exclamation point, for example, is technically correct. It is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary under “Point” and is defined as:
’16. A dot or other small mark used in writing.
a. A full stop (in full full point); (hence) any terminal punctuation mark, as an exclamation mark or question mark.’
Example of usage given: 1795 L. MURRAY Eng. Gram. 169 The Interrogative point, ? The Exclamation point, !.
– “As best you can.” This phrase is listed in the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms as being correct.
– “How many feet in a mile?” is another phrase you have listed as being incorrect. While it may be incorrect on its own, when coupled with a preceeding question, it becomes acceptible usage.
Example: How many feet are in a yard? And how many feet in a mile?
I would also like to reiterate what others have said regarding your complaints about “what, when, why.” Again, the Oxford English Dictionary lists hwat, hwen, hwai as the correct pronunciations.
While your attempts at pointing out mispronuncations and incorrect usage of terms is valiant, I would suggest that you do better research into these matters before jumping to conclusions, and confusing people who are naive enough to take you at your word.
That being said, one of the mispronunciations that has bothered me the most is when people are trying to say “reagent” but end up saying “reegent” instead. Another is that people pronounce “hearth” as “hurth.”
– Tess
July 5th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Can you add route – pronounced as rout
Route should be said ‘root’ rout as ‘R ow t’
Route is how to get somewhere rout is an unorganised retreat from battle
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:53 pm
I find it a bit odd that you single out Americans for incorrectly using “leave it be” where “let it be” ought to prevail. After all, most major American dictionaries and guides (the Columbia Guide, American Heritage, Random House, just to name a few) reject this construction. By contrast, British dictionaries such as Oxford, Longman, and Cambridge all list it without censure. Moreover, in the updated Fowler’s Guide to Modern English Usage, Burchfield calls the two constructions interchangeable.
August 29th, 2007 at 4:18 am
You need to add “I got it for cheap” and “they have them down at best buy for cheap!”
etc etc – it kills me.
Oh here’s an awesome one for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mppc4ReOMw
sodder, instead of solder ARGH
September 10th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Great list. I am confused by spoonsful vs. spoonfuls. Which is it? MS word reckons spoonfuls, but it doesn’t sound right to me since it’s not the “ful” that is plural but the spoon.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
I pretty much agree with all of these, except “data”. To me “data” is like “sand”. It’s singular in the collective sense, even though there’s not just one datum OR one grain of sand. You wouldn’t say “the sand are tan”, you wouldn’t say “the data are correct”, which sounds very odd. True, datum is one single piece of data, but in the case of the word “data”, it’s still a collective noun, like “rice” or “sand”.
I love the list as a whole though. Especially “fo-ward” (instead of saying “forward”), which I hear all the time and it drives me nuts!
October 17th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Great list! As an architect you left out two of my worst pet peeves; “chimley” place of “chimney” (sorry granddad) and “masonary” instead of “masonry”. Of course the people who mispronounce these the most are usually the ones on the job site doing the work. I’ve also never gotten a satisfactory explanation for why we call it “aluminum” and the British call it “aluminium”.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
The words that are mispronounced the most by Americans that bother me are ‘second’, which comes out as ‘secont’.'Antarctica’ which I have heard too many times pronounced ‘Anartica’ and ‘Wimbledon’ referred to ‘Wimpleton’. It’s not that hard, honestly.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
What about Gyro? I’ve hardly ever met an American who could pronounce the Greek sandwich.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:24 am
To add to Tess’ point re “as best you can”: the word ‘best’ is a superlative, and in this phrase it’s being used as a comparative, whether the second ‘as’ is there or not. That ain’t right. Most correctly, the phrase should be “as well as you can”.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:17 am
One thing that I’ve recently started hearing (mostly by weathermen and business news talking heads) that drives me nuts when I hear it is “Meantime” without “in the” preceding it.
“The Dow fell for a second straight day on news that…… Meantime, Apple announced that it was…..”.
Just freaking say “Meanwhile”, would ya?
October 18th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I’ve updated the list a little bit, based on comments from a recent influx of visitors. Specifically, I removed some items that appear to be merely regional pronunciations, and don’t constitute a grammatical error.
Don’t hesitate to add more comments!
October 18th, 2007 at 10:16 am
As a DC in the midwest, my pet peeve is when people refer to me as a “Choirpractor” instead of as a Chiropractor.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Re. “…if a word is pronounced incorrectly long enough and by enough people, it becomes formally acceptable?”
I personally hope not too, but this is what’s happening. How many of you know that, whenever you have a meal at an Italian restaurant, you are insistently mispronouncing “bruschetta”? (should be “bruskétta” with a k, a closed e sound and 2 T’s as opposed to the dominating “brushèta”, sh sound, open e sound and one T). However, do as much as point that out, and the answer is usually “whatever”. OK, I pointed out a foreign word as an example (but there are others in the above list), but sure enough, the answer would not change if the mispronounced term were an English word.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Also, I don’t know if this is officially incorrect, but I often hear creek pronounced “crik”. Speaking of something you can find in a creek, is crawfish or crayfish the correct word?
October 18th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I also forgot to bring up the word “news”, which sometimes I hear pronounced as “nyooz” instead of “nooz”. I don’t know if that’s incorrect, but it just sounds weird.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Language can evolve and after reading this list, I don’t think that the author understands that one bit.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Buck naked vs “butt naked” Should be “buck naked.” This started as a reference by European explorers and colonists to the largely undressed state of native peoples in Africa and the Americas. These warriors were called “bucks” as a sort of nonhuman/animal reference.
Asterisk vs “asterick” — I hear ‘asterick’ more and more these days.
Couldn’t care less vs “could care less” — I probably hear ‘could care less’ more often. I never understood the logic of it, but I think these speakers interpret it as a threat–‘watch out–I could care even less than I already do.’
RE data/datum — I don’t care what the rule is, I say and write data for both singular and plural. If I were writing in Latin, I’d conform to Latin rules.
Escape vs “excape”
Exclamation point — This is the term that was in my grade school English grammar texts.
Kielbasa — “kielbasi” is the plural in Polish, just as spaghetti and macaroni are Italian plurals. Saying “kielbasas” as a plural would sound as wrong to a Pole as ‘datum’ does to me.
Mano a mano — I run across this mistranslated as meaning “man-to-man” instead of hand-to-hand.
Verbiage — As a tech writer, it’s insulting to hear people reference your text as ‘verbiage,’ which means an excess of words, not a generic reference to a block of text.
Accessory vs “assessory” The double c is a k sound, just like in accelerate or access.