Here is a sentence in the Chicago Tribune. It should be whet, right?

quote:

But we do hope their stories wet your appetite to learn to ask the soldiers who fought over there and the civilians who joined the grand collective effort here on behalf of freedom - ask them what it was like.

Yup. It's a common mondegreen.

But it's incorrect, right? This was in an editorial, but of course I can't link to the Tribune anymore.

Mondegreen, yes, but not a homonym. We seem not to hear the "h" in whet, which, if logic prevailed in pronunciation, would be before the "w." Same goes for all of the "wh" words in English that I can think of except "whore," wherein the "h" is silent. And how many of us pronounce "pen" and "pin" differently? I hear most people say,"pin" for both.

Yes, Kalleh, Tribune, mighty Tribune, has struck out.

The wine-whine merger is complete in most English-speaking parts of the world except for some parts of the States and Canada. Who, whom, whose, are like whore in that the {w} is not pronounced but the {h} is. Along with the pen-pin merger, there are not "mistakes" but regional varieties of pronunciation.

Wet in the opening post is a spelling mistake, not a pronunciation one.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:



Wet in the opening post is a spelling mistake, not a pronunciation one.

'Tis so, Z, but brought about by correct spelling of an incorrectly heard word, I suspect. If one hears, "whet" out of context from most folks, I bet they would write "wet." Now, what would you do with a wet whetstone?

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
... "whore," wherein the "h" is silent.

The h is silent?

quote:

Originally posted by tinman:

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
... "whore," wherein the "h" is silent.

The h is silent?

What? You're never heard of a wore? I goophed!

If one hears, "whet" out of context from most folks, I bet they would write "wet."

That's because we have a worthless spelling "system".

The whole "h" sound is interesting. Shu often doesn't pronounce the "h" in a word that begins with "h", as in uman, instead of human. I always pronounce the "h".

With "wh" vs. "w" I tend not to say the words differently, though again Shu does. I do pronounce whore with an "h," though.

As for the original question on whet, I don't think it's a spelling mistake. I'd consider it a syntax mistake, though of course we don't know for sure. Editors tend to catch spelling errors, but if they think it's the correct usage, they won't catch it.