Walmart’s. Starbuck. Belk’s. Barnes and Nobles. Yuck.
Why do people have such a hard time pronouncing and spelling the store names as they should be? Why does Wal-Mart have to become possessive? Why does Starbucks have to become singular? And why would you pluralize Barnes and Noble unless you did, in fact, visit more than one Barnes and Noble location?
I just don’t understand why some people have trouble reading a sign and then adding an “s.” And why, if it already has an “s” like Starbucks or Walgreens, do you take the “s” away?
Don’t change the name of the business. Don’t get confused with the way it’s spelled. If there’s an “s” on the end, go ahead and pronounce it that way. If there’s not an “s”, you don’t need to add one or make the business possessive. Yes, some places of business already have an apostrophe and “s” on the end of it because that’s what the owners chose to name it. That’s fine. Go ahead and pronounce it that way.
Rant over. Happy Friday!
Thanks to Erin who commented and reminded me of my biggest pet peeve of all. It is Nordstrom, people. Not Nordstroms.
And thanks to Hannah for pointing out my own spelling error where I left an “s” off of the word “places.” Sorry! I realize that makes me look like a moron when I write about mispronunciation and spelling errors and have one in my post. Forgive me?
Too funny!!! That drives me crazy too. My MIL pronounces it Wal-Marts & Targets. My skin crawls every time I hear it. LOL!!! XOXO
That’s too funny! I have a dog named Pickle…and like everyone calls him Pickles. There is only ONE of him..I just don’t get it!
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I have to admit, I fall into this trap when I say Kroger’s…but I’m pretty sure it’s just Kroger. I’ve never heard anyone say Starbuck…that is not a coffee shop, that is a charater on a tv show! (Battlestar Galactica, haha)
This drives me nuts too. Especially “NORDSTROMS” – it is Nordstrom. NO S, people!
Preach on! The B&N mix up gets on my nerves!
Ha. I live in the land of ‘Krogers’. It just sounds silly. Great rant.
Oh how funny.. I read the first line and my first thought, oh no, why did she just call wal-mart – walmart’s.. yikes! Living in the Wal-mart capital I take pride in it & feel compelled to correct people of this! ha
Hope Mommyhood is going wonderful for you!
TOTALLY AGREE!!! Drives me crazy!
I can’t STAND that! I don’t notice people that I talk to doing the Starbucks or Barnes and Noble one too much, but everytime I hear someone say “Nordstroms” or “Wal Marts” I just want to scream and correct them!!!
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This is definitely one of my pet peeves!! Wal-marts and Belks drive me CRAZY!
there must be ignorant fools all over this country! i always hear people say “i feel like having a starbucks,” or “do you want a starbucks?” when actually what they mean to say is they’re going to starbucks and offering me a cup of coffee! now that irks me. 🙂
love your blog!!
I am very guilty of saying Nordstroms. However, I will never say Starbuck that just sounds so very strange.
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I agree with all of those except I am guilty of saying Belks. I think Belk sounds like something is missing. (like an s, I guess)
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YES!! It’s so irritating when people can’t pronounce simple words. So tell me, how do you feel about people adding r’s to their pronunciations, when there are none??
Like warsher? UGH!!! I think this is a regional thing, but it still drives me nuts!
Drives me nuts too! Especially in my job. I used to work for Cato, and people constantly called it “Cato’s.” NOOOO!!! Same thing now, as I work for Eddie Bauer. I get “Eddie Bauer’s” all the time.
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This has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves on the planet! My bf said something like this once and I called him on it and now he does it to lots of things just to drive me nuts! lol.
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Yes, yes, yes, yes. I agree. Thankyouverymuch for this post!! xoxo
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Our cleaning lady growing up would say Wal-marK! It drove us NUTS!
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:::hangs head in shame::: I’m guilty. I do this. Especially with :::gasp::: Nordstrom(s). Sorry! I guess I think it sounds nice to add the ” ‘s ” … you know like you’re going over to your Friend’s house (somewhere pleasant). It’s like … hey I’m heading over to Lauren’s … hey I’m heading over to Nordstrom’s! See? Oh well, I guess I’m just going to be annoying you all!
Happy weekend 🙂
Ditto (!!)….my husband is from New Braunfels, TX…I HATE it when people call is New Braunsfels. THERE IS NO “S” IN THE MIDDLE!! I’m so glad I could get that off my chest.
Happy Friday!
I def do call Nordstrom…Nordstroms…sometimes…even though I know it wrong. But the other ones annoy me too. Personal pet peeve is the resturant “Qudoba” (it’s like Chipotle…not sure where in the country the Qudoba is) But anyways…I hate it when people call it QUE-doba…que says KA..
that might not make any sense but that is my rant 🙂
Amen sister!!!
We have a store here in TX- Sam Moon. Well 90% of the population calls it Sam MoonS…again, there is NOOOOOOOO “S”!!!!
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I’m with ya!!
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OMG, Nordstrom”s” kills me!! Absolutely kills me!
And Chipotle… it’s not Chi – pol -tay, it’s Chi – pot – lay. I could go on and on.
I have a boss who instead of saying faux pas, says “foo” pas. And instead of saying moot point, says “mute” point. And “supposably” instead of supposedly. Oh boy, it drives me crazy!
My mom and grandmother call JC Penny “Pennies.” DRIVES ME NUTS!
My pronunciation pet peeve? When people say eXpresso… even barristas at Starbucks will do it sometimes – THERE IS NO ‘X’ PEOPLE!
esssssssssssssssspresso
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totally feel your pain…the best little blue box in the world is from Tiffany, not Tiffany’s……
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NORDSTROM’S. IT MAKES ME INSANE.
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My grandmother says “Public” instead of “Publix”… yeah, she’s way off.
I hate this too! My mom and MIL always say Wal-Marts. It drives me crazy!!
Omg this drives me nuts! I was at work today and this lady goes “who do I make the check out to? Gaps?” I said no m’am make it out to gap, g-a-p.
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I AGREE!
I also hate when people add an and, as in “Williams and Sonoma.” Really? Read the sign!
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HAHA! Husband and I were just talking about this the other day when we pulled in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We live in a city called Hilliard and we HATE when people call it Hilliards. No!!! It is ONE town!
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Loved this post! That’s one of my biggest pet peeves too.
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OH NO!! Now I will have one more thing to drive me crazy. I will admit to the Nordstroms one, but I don’t do the rest and have never noticed.
I will never understand why people use the word “anyways”. That’s not a word. It’s anyway. Anyways? Where did that come from I wonder?
like nails on a chalkboard! One of my pet peeves too!
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I TOTALLY AGREE. I hate when people add S’s. “Kmarts” FAIL.
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I totally agree. Also, I worked at LongHorn Steakhouse for 4 years in college — It drives me crazy when people refer to it as “Longhorns” — ex: “We ate at the Longhorns last night!” Ughhhhh!!
I can’t stand when people say Sonics……. It’s Sonic people, not SONICS!
LOL. I totally agree. People annoy me like that too.
HAHA. This is great. I am from Seattle so Nordstrom and Starbucks are names you hear from age 1. The Nordstroms version with the S is so annoying…and common.
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I kid you not that I heard someone on their cell saying they were “at the Krogers buying some grocery.” Double ugh!
yes..
Like Silver Spring, MD…not Silver Springs
Hey I thought this was a funny post and understand what you’re saying. Thought I’d also let you know that I think you meant to say some placeS of business… 🙂
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OMG… you read my mind, a blogger who claims to be quite the fashionista did a post on ‘Nordstroms” the other day and she must of used “Nordstroms” 200 times in the post…ugh, I politelity corrected her, she deleted my comment and then a day later I noticed her post had been corrected – no “s”…its not that hard people, sheesh! Now, my rant is over too!
I’m going to have to start paying more attention…I’m SURE I’m guilty of Nordstroms (though I would say Nordies) and perhaps Krogers (we don’t have around me, but I always thought it actually WAS Krogers, whoops!) My biggest pet peeve is when someone says “I’m doing good” when they mean “I’m doing well.”
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This post cracks me up! Mainly because this drives my husband crazy, too! I will purposely say things like “Let’s go to Tropical SmoothieS” or “I need to stop and get gas at WawaS” and he goes bananas! I made him read your post and he was so glad he’s not the only with his pet peeve 🙂
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Have to add my input as well–underwears. Really? Just like deer, it’s one of those special words that has both singular and plural use-it should be easier that way!
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LOL I just got to read this and it made me laugh a lot. My dad ALWAYS adds an S to Wal-Mart. We have no idea why he does this, but we make fun of him!
Haha, Amen sister! Oh man, I could do a whole post on grammar pet peeves. One of my biggest is using “I” incorrectly.
[pretend this is a picture and below is the caption]
Husband and I
You would not say this is a picture of I… it would be a picture of me! Husband and me, darn it! Haha. Anyway… Happy Monday! 😉
I live in Arkansas, and work with “professioinal” people who go to “Wal-Marks”…
Now that will drive you crazy!
I have a nursing supervisor who says “sos”
“Get the patient up sos she can go to the bathroom”
SOS? please…..
I am TOTALLY with you on this rant. I absolutely hate grammatical errors of any kind and have been known as the Red Pen Nazi in our office. I get sent everything to proofread! I think I must have inherited this trait from my English teaching mother!!
i will say I totally don’t do this but i hear people often do it and it drives me nuts!! ugh! i make grammatical errors and spelling errors but never add an s when not needed 🙂
OHMYGOSH!! Mind reader!! My parents are the WORST offenders of this. And you can’t correct your parents, so, it’s a total nightmare! Their favorite: Best BuyS. Not Best Buy, Best Buys! The same goes for Barnes & NobleS. And, this just to add to my rant, my step mom cannot pronounce Jamba Juice. How does she say it, you may ask? JAM-(as in jam and jelly)-BO Juice. Occasionally she’ll get close with JAM-Ba, but, it’s always a hard A sound. Drives me crazy.
I’m done now.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen!
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HAHAHA! This really made me laugh!! It bugs me too!
oh how i love you…this drives me INSANE!!!!!! ESPECIALLY Nordstrom!!! Or BEST BUY not BEST BUYS! GAH
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The store is called TARGET – not TAR-JAY. Enough said.
Hubby and I have had endless discussions about Nordstrom because he mantains that it could work because Nordstrom is the name of a person. It is Nordstrom’s store. He’s just playing devil’s advocate because I know he agrees with me but it gets me riled up every time he brings it up all over again!
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Great ones! Check out these Top 40 Pronunciation Pet Peeves, but warning… you may cringe on a few that you mispronounce.
Hi Erin. I’m a new follower – and a fellow southern gal – who decided to spend some time on your blog today (obvious since this is a 2009 post right? 🙂 }. In any event, I just could not allow this post to pass without commenting! Thank you, thank you, thank you for addressing an issue that drives me crazy! I’m so glad to know there are other women who feel the same way I do about this! Love your blog and look forward to reading more.