I just realized something.

On the radio tonight, I heard someone pronounce “prepare” as “per-pair’.”

So, of course, off to the internet I went.

The first thing I did was google “perpare.”

Millions of hits.  Millions.  There are, apparently, millions of people out there who think the word is not only pronounced like that – but spelled like that.

So, what we have here is a really good reason to be concerned about proper pronunciation – if one pronounces a word incorrectly, one is more likely to spell it incorrectly.

(I was relieved to find that neither of my online dictionaries offers “per-pair’ “ as an alternative pronunciation.  Whew!)

Now, all I have to do is figure out what to do about so many people pronouncing “create” as “ker-ate’. “  (See, below, Friday, February 17, 2012; “Petty Pet Peeve.”)