The Some Smart Some Don’t School for Kids Who Can’t Speak Good and Want to Learn How to Do Other Things Good Too

Congratulations! You have successfully navigated yourself to The Some Smart Some Don’t School for Kids Who Can’t Speak Good and Want to Learn How to Do Other Things Good Too. Here you will find a list of words that, despite all logic to the contrary, pretty much everybody pronounces (or uses) incorrectly. In order to solve these dastardly mistakes, we will use this space to detail what the current mistake is and what we, as intelligent self-improving people, can do to fix our shortcomings.

January 16, 2007 Irregardless

I decided that it was time to update this page irregardless of the fact that I haven't created a submission for The Some Smart Some Don't School for the Kids Who Can't Speak Good and Want to Learn How to Do Other Things Good Too in quite some time. Wait a minute, did I just say irregardless in such context as to mean without regard? Let's think about that word for a moment by examining it in two parts:

regardless - This can literally be defined as less regard, or without regard. In other words, having little to no concern or respect for something.
ir- - This prefix serves to designate the entire word created as the opposite of what follows. As an example, "Irreverent" is the opposite of reverent. Simple, right?

So, putting these to parts together in the most logical manner, we would come to the conclusion that irregardless literally means the opposite of without regard. Or, to simplify, with regard. Obvioiusly, this is the logical, correct definition of the word irregardless. And yet, the word is constantly used as a synonym for the word it is actually the antonym of: regardless. Going forward, let's all do a logic a favor and use the word irregardlessly of the situation.


The world's first hippodermic needle.

February 15, 2006 Hypocrite

Currently, we pronounce this lovely word as h p cr t (hippo-crit). However, if we look at other words beginning with the prefix hypo (hypothermia, hypoglycemia, hypodermic, just to name a few) we see that the hyp has a long "i" ( ) sound (as in smile). Furthermore, with the "e" closing out "crite", we can safely conclude that this "i" should also have a long sound, just as it does when the "c" is removed in the word "rite". Therefore, the logically sound pronunciation of hypocrite would be h p cr 't (hype-o-crite), not h p cr t (hippo-crit).

Well done! You’ve successfully challenged established rules and regulations in order to develop a more logical, fulfilled understanding of the world we must all make our way through. Until next time...

UPDATE: I recently realized that I missed the greatest possible explanation for the widespread mispronunciation of the word hypocrite. Rather than simply being an unfortunate mistake, it may in fact be a part of a widespread conspiracy. In what way, you ask? Well, what could possibly be more ironic than the hypocrisy of pronouncing the word hypocrite in a way that is totally contrary to the word's inherent character?

Have a suggestion for words we can analyze? Send them to suggestions [at] somesmart [dot] com