That's fantastic, and sadly, not terribly surprising.
This one came to my attention yet again today while I was at the mispronunciation capital of the world, my job. A formal compliment is known as “a commendation.” This makes perfect sense because someone, for some reason, is commending someone else. Far too often, I have heard this sentence.
“John got four accommodations last month.”
Okay, I chalked it up to having misheard what the person said. Surely, they said “commendation”, right. Nope.
“John got four accommodations last month. It’s been three months since I got an accommodation.”
The use of the word “an” proved it. I stopped correcting people about that a looooooong time ago. The blank stares I received in return made me uncomfortable.