Pronunciation

There are a few things my son, nearly 4 years old, mispronounces that we've just kind of let slide. "Marote" for "remote. " "Mike Muggilan" for "Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. " "Thinger" for "finger. " Heck, in my family we often still say "reg-lee-ar" for "regular" in homage to my brother's mispronunciation, and he just turned 29. But we've been trying to work with our son on the word "three," which he has been saying as "free," and which comes up a lot since he is 3 (at least for a bit longer)

There are a few things my son, nearly 4 years old, mispronounces that we've just kind of let slide. "Marote" for "remote. " "Mike Muggilan" for "Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. " "Thinger" for "finger. " Heck, in my family we often still say "reg-lee-ar" for "regular" in homage to my brother's mispronunciation, and he just turned 29. But we've been trying to work with our son on the word "three," which he has been saying as "free," and which comes up a lot since he is 3 (at least for a bit longer)

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre has no clue how his name came to be pronounced F-A-R-V-E. "I asked my dad. He has no idea," Favre said. "I asked my grandfather, a full-blooded Choctaw Indian, a long time ago, and he said as far as he can remember, it was that way. "Where I grew up [Mississippi], there weren't a lot of Favres, but there were some. Some spelled it Favre, others Farve. I don't know. Somewhere along the line, someone probably was on a little moonshine and wrote it down wrong.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: MAUDLIN You have no doubt seen it in a companion. One drink, and he is cheerful, talkative, exuberant. Two drinks, and he becomes sentimental. Three, and he is tearful, self-pitying, and embarrassing in his confidences. He has become maudlin, tearfully sentimental, and the phenomenon is frequently associated with drink.

Maybe Retief Goosen would be better off with a different name, or at least a different pronunciation. When the South African golfer missed two short putts last month in Tulsa to force a U.S. Open playoff, which he eventually won, NBC analyst Johnny Miller said of the revival of Chokelahoma: "The last time I saw that look, it was a deer in my headlights. ... They call it goosing a putt, and I'm sure now they're definitely going to call it after him." There's nothing like having a sporting collapse become part of your name.

The Bawlimer pronunciation of Mary Pat is Mayor Pat.Cheer up. More American criminals have been executed than in any year since 1962.Candidate Clinton criticized NAFTA, which President Clinton favors. No surprise there.

Beijing (Insight; $15.95) From the Forbidden City to Tiananmen Square, this guide offers an overview of the city that will host the Summer Olympics in 2008. The guide features essays on Beijing's population, religion (Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism), food and drink (and culinary etiquette), the arts (including Beijing opera) and the Great Wall, as well as survival tips (look out for pickpockets; avoid street food not cooked in front of you). It includes listings of accommodations, nightlife and shopping areas.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: MAUDLIN You have no doubt seen it in a companion. One drink, and he is cheerful, talkative, exuberant. Two drinks, and he becomes sentimental. Three, and he is tearful, self-pitying, and embarrassing in his confidences. He has become maudlin, tearfully sentimental, and the phenomenon is frequently associated with drink.

There are plenty of words that bug Brian Sietsema. Not the words, actually, but the way Americans tend to mangle them.There's "pundit," which many people want to pronounce "pun-dent." Or "heinous," which Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, among others, turns into "hee-nous."But the worst could be "specific," which often comes out "pacific.""That's the one that really drives me crazy," says Mr. Sietsema, whose name rhymes with "Heats-ma," and whose job is pronunciation editor for the Merriam-Webster dictionaries.

ONCE THE soot had settled from the freight train fire in the old B&O tunnel and the water had stopped gushing from the broken main in downtown Baltimore, I began to brush up on my Baltimorese, the distinctive pronunciations some area residents apply to the English language. Or as a local might put it, "Now that the far in the old Beeno tunnel has been attackted by the far fighters, it is time to ax a few hard questions." In particular I wanted to verify the correct local pronunciation of the street spelled L-O-M-B-A-R-D.

On big stages, when the stakes are high, President Bush's syntax sometimes goes awry. Subjects and verbs might not agree. Sentences get chopped. Words are flubbed. Opening yesterday's Middle East peace conference at the U.S. Naval Academy, Bush stumbled over the names of his star guests: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert's came out sounding like "Ulmmm." Bush got hung up on the Palestinian leader's name, calling him "Ma-Mock-Mahmoud Abbas."

LOS ANGELES -- Sitting across from his teacher, Edgard Jimenez repeated the word he couldn't quite pronounce: situation. "Sit-oo-a-shun," he said. "What happens with the tu?" asked the teacher, Lisa Mojsin, hired to help Jimenez reduce his accent. "Chu," Jimenez responded. "Yes, like chewing your food," Mojsin said, saying the word slowly: "Sit-chew-a-shun." "Wow - that is another new one for me," said Jimenez, 37, who emigrated from Mexico as a teenager and lives in Los Angeles. "I wish they had taught me this 20 years ago."

Kids aren't the only ones studying for Friday's Howard County Library Spelling Bee. Patrick Clancy, a Washington lawyer who has been recruited to be this year's "pronouncer," has been spending quite a bit of time with words, too. Fifty-one pupils, winners in their school spelling bees, will compete at 7 p.m. at Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School in the second regional competition. The winner will earn a $1,000 scholarship and a trip to the May 28-June 2 National Spelling Bell in Washington.

Beijing (Insight; $15.95) From the Forbidden City to Tiananmen Square, this guide offers an overview of the city that will host the Summer Olympics in 2008. The guide features essays on Beijing's population, religion (Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism), food and drink (and culinary etiquette), the arts (including Beijing opera) and the Great Wall, as well as survival tips (look out for pickpockets; avoid street food not cooked in front of you). It includes listings of accommodations, nightlife and shopping areas.

You know there is something different about this children's entertainer -- something besides the fact that he is pushing 70 -- when the Kinderman opens the act he's been perfecting for more than two decades. "We're gonna have a good time. We're gonna disturb the peace," he sings to the bright tones of a Casio keyboard as toddlers, preschoolers and parents sway before him. "And if we have too much fun, they're going to call the po-lice!" No matter how many times John "Kinderman" Taylor intones his signature line with its unique Baltimore pronunciation -- at birthday parties and malls, in senior centers and classrooms -- it never fails to draw a laugh.

There should always be room for operas that don't aspire to the grandest of heights, that are more about sentiment and atmosphere than intellectual or musical depth. Lakme, the only one of nearly 20 operatic pieces by French composer Leo Delibes that ever gets into the fringes of the repertoire on these shores, is a perfect case in point. To begin with, Lakme boasts a score of unending tunefulness that falls gracefully on the ear, as the Baltimore Opera Company's first-ever production reaffirms.

Kids aren't the only ones studying for Friday's Howard County Library Spelling Bee. Patrick Clancy, a Washington lawyer who has been recruited to be this year's "pronouncer," has been spending quite a bit of time with words, too. Fifty-one pupils, winners in their school spelling bees, will compete at 7 p.m. at Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School in the second regional competition. The winner will earn a $1,000 scholarship and a trip to the May 28-June 2 National Spelling Bell in Washington.

On big stages, when the stakes are high, President Bush's syntax sometimes goes awry. Subjects and verbs might not agree. Sentences get chopped. Words are flubbed. Opening yesterday's Middle East peace conference at the U.S. Naval Academy, Bush stumbled over the names of his star guests: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert's came out sounding like "Ulmmm." Bush got hung up on the Palestinian leader's name, calling him "Ma-Mock-Mahmoud Abbas."

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre has no clue how his name came to be pronounced F-A-R-V-E. "I asked my dad. He has no idea," Favre said. "I asked my grandfather, a full-blooded Choctaw Indian, a long time ago, and he said as far as he can remember, it was that way. "Where I grew up [Mississippi], there weren't a lot of Favres, but there were some. Some spelled it Favre, others Farve. I don't know. Somewhere along the line, someone probably was on a little moonshine and wrote it down wrong.

ONCE THE soot had settled from the freight train fire in the old B&O tunnel and the water had stopped gushing from the broken main in downtown Baltimore, I began to brush up on my Baltimorese, the distinctive pronunciations some area residents apply to the English language. Or as a local might put it, "Now that the far in the old Beeno tunnel has been attackted by the far fighters, it is time to ax a few hard questions." In particular I wanted to verify the correct local pronunciation of the street spelled L-O-M-B-A-R-D.