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Did you know that the word spelled p-r-i-m-e-r, meaning an introductory book or treatise, is properly pronounced PRIM-ur, with a short i as in print? The word is often mispronounced PRY-mur, with a long i as in prime, but that's the proper pronunciation for the word that's spelled the same way but means an undercoat of paint.
There may be no prime in primer, but it's always prime time for a primer on pronunciation. Listen to the excerpts below from the audiobook edition of Charles Harrington Elster's Word Workout for a list of words you are definitely mispronouncing and start sounding smarter today.
1. "Bestial"
2. "Prerogative"
3. "Spherical"
4. "Experiment"
5. "Nuclear"
6. "Chilean"
7. "Vertebrae"
8. "Espresso"
9. "Mayoral"
10. "Orangutan"
11. "Eschew"
12. "Uranus"
13. "Connoisseur"
14. "Coupon"
15. "Onerous"
16. "Incomparable"
17. "Orator"
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