- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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Smart Talk
by Dr. Verbos Metikulos
COUPON: At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we work not only on repairing grammatical and usage-related damage many Americans inflict, but also on pronunciation. The past eight years have, of course, caused us particular stress, especially here in Texas, due to instances of nucular popping up like hot spots in the bed of a doused fire.
Another common error is speakers saying coupon (KOO-pon) sound like KYOO-pon. We have long searched for the origin of this problem and have found nothing conclusive.
However, my colleague Dr. Alfred Chatterly thinks that the same people also say KOO-po-la instead of cupola (KYOO-po-la) and have confused the initial syllables. He claims that they usually make both of these mistakes and seldom just one, so he may be right.
Our mission at the institute is to help Americans speak English as a first language (EFL). Please contribute to our EFL outreach.
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