Exquisite

Do you know how to pronounce this word? Most people don't. They put the accent on the second syllable, the quis. That's wrong. The word is pronounced exquisite, with the accent on the first syllable, the ex.

I know this because one day, when I was a freshman at the Convent of the Sacred Heart high school for girls, now Woodlands Academy, in Lake Forest, Illinois, my English teacher, Mother Barsch (our nuns were called Mother, not Sister) went down the rows of the classroom and had everyone pronounce this word correctly.

It was a pet peeve of hers, I guess. And she did the same thing with the word "didn't," because some people pronounced it "dint," and that just about pushed her over the edge.