How should you pronounce the word "affluent"? Some people say "afFLUent" and some say "AFluent." So what's the right way? --Got the Flu in NYC
Dear Flu,
I have no idea when or why people started stressing the second syllable instead of the first. I suspect it started with a television personality and seeped into television studios across the land, because I rarely hear it mispronounced EXCEPT on television.
Okay, I'll stop ranting.
The correct pronunciation according to the Oxford English Dictionary and three editions of Webster's New World Dictionary is with the stress on the first syllable: AF-fluent.
Do you hear that, television newscasters and talk-show hosts? AFfluent.
Oh, and the same thing goes for influence. It's INfluence.
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