Art of pronouncing words incorrectly- confidently! (Part 2)

After a crazy long hiatus, I am back with a new post. I have often asked myself why I didn’t write anything all this while, however, nothing other than procrastination best answers this question. But, the new plan is to pen down my thoughts and views as often as possible. And, what better way to be back on the scene than writing part 2 of one of my favourite posts? In the past couple of years I was trying to compile a list of new words / phrases I have seen people using incorrectly. So, here we go…

• The word, ‘ESCAPE’ is a simple enough word to pronounce, but we human beings love to complicate things and end up pronouncing the word as ‘EXCAPE’. The good news here is, if one says ‘excape’, they have mastered the prefix ‘ex’, because its meaning fits the word, but the bad news is, we don’t need that prefix here.
• I have often heard people at work say “… for all intensive purposes”. Umm… the phrase is “… for all intents and purpose”. I like the effort people make in communicating in a language they are not comfortable with, however, it is a good idea to know the correct meaning and usage of a word / phrase before using it in public.
• As Indians, we love to add extra letters or words in our sentences. Let’s look at an example:
• INTERPRETATE instead of INTERPRET. An explanation for this could be, because of the back formation from ‘interpretation’, many get confused with the correct conjugation of the verb. Like ‘INTERPRETATE’, the word, ‘PREVENTIVE’ is also given extra letters to make it ‘PREVENTATIVE’. Let’s just avoid doing that… 
• Another example is the extra ‘i’ in ‘MISCHIEVOUS’ to make it ‘MISCHIEVIOUS’. The additional letters is only making the word longer and does not serve any purpose.
• I have often heard people narrating their weekend shopping sprees thus: “I bought lots of KLOZ…” Do I even need to say anything here?
• Another one that troubles me: “I play soccer IRREGARDLESS of the weather”– something unusual about that sentence? The double negation is not needed. –‘–less’ already means without / in spite of, so there is no need to repeat the same sentiment with ‘ir-‘.
• My current favourite is “Blessing in the skies”. I agree the blessing could have dropped down from heaven, but let’s just keep it at “Blessing in disguise”!
• The next one is something I just cannot get over. Working in the Indian corporate world gives me the benefit of travelling to work in company provided transport. On days when I travel in my own vehicle, I am often asked if I came ‘SELF’. Umm… what does that even mean? How can one come self? Can I just reach work on my own, please?
• Small piece of advice: please stop saying ‘CRITERIAS’.‘CRITERIA’ is already a plural of ‘CRITERION’!