I'm anal about correct usage of words..therefore, this is my list of commonly misused words with their definitions (according to www.dictionary.com).

Patronising:(used of behavior or attitude) characteristic of those who treat others with condescension

Complain: To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment.

Whine: 1. To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint.
2. To complain or protest in a childish fashion.
3. To produce a sustained noise of relatively high pitch: jet engines whining.

Stoic: One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain (to my dearest brother...HAH...I used the word stoic correctly!! It's NOT necessarily used for grief!)

Kitsch: Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts: “When money tries to buy beauty it tends to purchase a kind of courteous kitsch” (William H. Gass).

Ok...here's a PRONUNICATION list...I can't stand it when people mispronounce words either....ok...you may not be able to stand me being this fussy....what the hell...if you mispronounce words, nobody really understands you. Right? Not only that, it reflects badly on yourself. Oh, I can't type those phonetic symbols so I'm just using my own "phonetics" k?

Lettuce = Let-ters NOT let-tuse
Genuine = Gen-nu-yin NOT gen-nu-wine
Three = the-ree NOT tree (this is due to Singaporeans' inability to pronounce the 'th' properly)
Fillet = Fi-lert...only the americans/canadians pronounce it as fee-lay

Oh...let me tell you something rather amusing. I was in KL last weekend and I was listening to the radio. This DJ pronounced cyclo-amine as cyclo ar-mee-nee!! At first, I went, "HUH? I've never heard of such a compound before." Then, I realised that he was referring to amine. *sigh* on national radio too...so embarassing. My bro was listening to it too...we couldn't help but burst into laughter when we realised his mistake. Ok, it's a given that not everyone has taken chemistry in school but if you're a DJ and you're reporting something for trivia/entertainment...you ought to check the pronunciation of words that you're unfamiliar with. Ah well...