I’m going to level with you: this has happened to me a few times. But it happens even more to a friend who is a brilliant editor and essayist and poet and I never ever correct them. I figured out years ago that it simply means they read more than they speak. And that should generally be encouraged. But Ms. Ninja and I often argue over this sort of thing. Who has it right. The internet is a great help nowadays, but we grew up in a pre-internet era, and some things are ingrained. I will always say “pedd-ant” while others will tell me it’s “pee-dent”. I wish they’d stop being pedd-antic.
When I mispronounced tinnitus (ti–nuh–tuhs is correct, ti-nai-tis is not) recently and was kindly corrected, my embarrassment was a fraction of when I said apropos (a–prow–pow instead of a-pruh-pow) to a large table of people in London when I was in my 20s. That day I was not kindly corrected, but only realised my mistake after howls of laughter and a whispered, “Maybe that’s how they say it in Australia?”
It is not, unfortunately.
Bookninja 