I’m not sure if I’m just stupid or what, but it seems like I’ve been saying the adjective form of ‘mischief’ wrong for a long long time!
Can someone please tell me that there is at least a common pronounciation of the word that sounds something like “mischEEvEEous”??
I’ve looked it up in several dictionaries hoping that I’d actually find something to back me up and not make me look like an idiot in front of my czech girlfriend who can not only spell better than I can in english, she evidently knows which words are actually words and which are brain farts.
It’s not mis-CHEE-vee-ous. It’s just the word ‘mischief’ with an ‘ous’ at the end and the corresponding ‘f’ to ‘v’ tweak. Mis-CHE-vous.
I’m guessing your Czech girlfriend has the brains in that couple… :)
-Tom
P.S. Hey, didn’t you do a little time on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen set out there in Prague? Any war stories to share with the comic book geeks on this board who are into that sort of thing?
Well, I go “mis-cha-vus” and my wife goes “mis-chee-vee-us”. But as the OED says re “nuclear” and “nook-ya-ler”, spelling is always a poor guide to pronunciation. Only pervasive usage counts in the long run.
I remember getting into a discussion about this with a friend a while back, so we looked it up. Apparently the ‘official’ pronunciation is the three-syllable version (mis-chiv-ous), but the other (mic-chee-vi-ous) is an accepted alternate pronunciation. I don’t think you can really go wrong with either, and I personally prefer the four-syllable version for its nefarious evil-sounding drawing out of the long EEE sound. :twisted:
the other (mic-chee-vi-ous) is an accepted alternate pronunciation.
Well, crimeny, we have to stamp out these alternate pronunciations. If you condone this stuff, who knows where it will lead? One of these days we might even have respectable people like politicians pronouncing ‘nu-CYOO-lerr’.
I heard the other day on some talk radio show that all kinds of goofy pronunciations are becoming “legal alternatives”. They had a list of which I can remember none, of course. Once they are used often enough and for a long enough period of time they simply become alternate pronunciations and are added to dictionaries.
There is no correct grammar or proper way of speaking any longer. Whatever the majority thinks is correct gets a Webster’s seal of approval eventually. Me no likey.
Should’ve done what I did: combine both by making pop culture the focus of your English degree. Which is why I wrote papers like “Some Like It Hot, Others Like It Gay.”
Should’ve done what I did: combine both by making pop culture the focus of your English degree. Which is why I wrote papers like “Some Like It Hot, Others Like It Gay.”[/quote]
Didn’t you leave out those that like it hot and gay.
To show you how un-focused and stupid I was, I went on to get an 8 year, no 9 year, I think, Business Mgmt. degree. Who needs to major in English and enjoy* what you do when you can get into business and be bored silly and still be in debt?
[size=2]*BTW, I am not saying an English degree guarantees everlasting happiness and riches, I just wish I had done something different rather than choose the path of least resistance. [/size]
ok guys, thanks for the back up on the alternate pronounciation. when i spelled out the pronounciation originally, I wasn’t at all trying to do it “correctly” but rather trying to point out the phantom fourth sylable. I’m pretty sure that I will go on saying it in the alternate version and now I don’t have to worry about it.
As for war stories about League, I have a few, but it is, for me, a sad story of the normal hollywood bullcrap. You should all know that Connery and the director had a terrible time together and I think that connery left prematurely after trying to get the director fired (everyone was saying that the director was a first class prick). The shoot was supposed to finish in mid nov and the main photography finished up in mid december with tons of second unit stuff to do.
As for my part in it, I was originally supposed to have a day on oct 25th, but that got pushed because of the floods and the plain fact that they were behind anyway. They called me and told me that my new day was dec 14th, and I had to cancel a theater performace that I was supposed to do that was going to be recorded for Czech Radio 2 and played for New Years. On the 13th, yes, that’s friday the 13th, the AD called me and told me that the night before the director had decided my part would involve more of a fight and that they were going to hire a stunt man to do it, but thanks very much anyway and I’m still getting paid. So that’s my involvement in THAT one. Hellboy, which should start shooting in the spring, should be a much different experience. I’ve got 13 days on that one and don’t see how I can be edited out of all of it. Anyway, enough of my rambling!
Casper, I know that must make you sick. I have very little experience in that level of getting screwed over, but I have it on a much smaller scale. Mine was moreso a choice rather than an actual screwing.
I have given up a couple of parts in local theater that I was a near shoe-in for in favor of auditions for paying gigs (commercials, print ads, and the like). Money still being a factor at my house and all. Long story short: did not get paying gigs, missed out on theater parts which I, of course, enjoy exponentially more. Money does not always equal happiness, but it sure allows you the leeway to do what you want to do. Which, then, hopefully leads to contenment and happiness.
I am fully in favor of banning all Guests from this forum. This forum is having increasing difficulties with Guests (aka forum members posting anonymously) who are trying but failing to be funny.
Anonymity is rarely good, and its getting ugly here.
well, yeah. that sucks that you lost out on funner theater things while trying to go for more paying things. I always try to keep as many doors open as I can, but when you have to make the choice, you have to make the choice.
The League thing was not the biggest thing like that to happen to me in these past few months, so I’m not too upset about it. The worst thing is that I don’t get to put it on my resume, but since they’re paying me anyway, I’m not all thatupset. american movies are pretty much constantly coming to prague and there’s only a few american actors for the smaller parts so I’m sure that it’s just a matter of time before my resume is good enough to get me a good agent in the states…
