1. Recognize.

This word is pronounced rek-ugh-nize.

This word is NOT pronounced rek-uh-nize. Pronounce it correctly, Sparky.

2. Espresso.

The word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. Alas, too many people think it is spelled like this: Expresso.

It’s not.

There is no drink called expresso.

Pronounce it correctly or I will kill you.

This is particularly important if you work at Starbucks. Working at Starbucks and saying “expresso” is like being a veterinarian and not knowing how to say “cat” or “dog.”

Starbucks managers, please require your employees, I’m sorry, your baristas, to correctly pronounce the name of the most basic product you sell.

3. Anything that ends with “ing.”

I don’t know HOW this horribleness got started. Somewhere along the way in the last ten years, people have started to give a hard g sound to words ending in “ing.”

So they end up saying ridiculous things like king-guh.  Sing-guh.  Or, even worse, sing-guh-ing-guh.
Stop it. The “ng” combination makes ONE sound; it’s a combination sound. You know, that nasal thing. You know what I’m talking about. SO the “g” is already spoken for, thanks very much.  Pronouncing it is not only unnecessary, it’s wrong.
In order for the word to be pronounced king-guh, you’d really have to spell it with an extra g: “kingg.”

It’s not spelled that way. So stop saying-guh, I mean pronouncing-guh, it that way, right now.