I have always wondered why some people cannot pronounce the word "nuclear," but say instead "nucular." George Bush comes to mind, also Sarah Palin. My high school chemistry teacher could not pronounce this word either; I remember being slightly shocked when I first heard her say the word "nucleus" and she pronounced it "nuculus." She was, however, a very good teacher.
I have what I consider a foolproof way to get these phonetically challenged folks to say "nuclear." It works like this:
Take the sentence, "I bought a new clear pane of glass for my window." and have them repeat it fifty times, followed by, "I bought a new clear pane of glass," fifty times, followed by, "new clear pane," fifty times, then just ,"new clear," fifty times. Then they (according to my plan) will be ready to add the word "weapons," but they should picture it in their mind as "new clear weapons." Say it fast and it sounds just like "nuclear weapons," or so close as makes no matter, certainly much better than "nucular weapons." Same with the words "reactor" or "energy":
they would picture "new clear reactor," and "new clear energy," respectively.
I can think of no reason why this wouldn't work.
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2 comments:
How about something for people who think the abbreviation, i.e., means for example.
You mean, they use "i.e." instead of "e.g." - A lot of people confuse these two abbreviations. I always remember it this way: if you mean, "for example," use the one that starts with "e" like "example," or "e.g." - the other one, "i.e." means "that is."
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