Michael considers himself to be an eloquent, witty,and entertaining public speaker. However, throughout the series he botches the delivery and use of common phrases and idioms.
- In "Broke", Michael says to Charles Minor and David Wallace "How the turntables." (How the tables have turned.). In this same episode he says "our balls are in your court" (the ball is in your court).
- In a talking-head interview in "Prince Family Paper", Michael states that "The business world is a doggy-dog world." instead of dog eat dog world.
- In "Casino Night", Michael says that he is going to "drop a deuce on everyone" with his blackjack prowess instead of drop a bomb on everyone, and dropping a duce according to the urban dictionary is the wrong kind of bomb dropping for this situation.
- In "The Whistleblower", Michael refers to Angela as Andy's "spermed lover" (he means 'spurned').
- In "Dinner Party", Michael says the wine has an "oaky afterbirth" instead of aftertaste.
- In "The Convention ", Michael says to Jim "The Prodigal... my son returns", which should be "The prodigal son returns." another phrase Michael botches in this episode is that he asks Dwight to get the dirt on Josh and see if he has any "Skeletons in his attic." instead of skeletons in his closet.
- In "Casual Friday", Michael says "I am not to be truffled with." (trifled)
- In "The Cover Up", after Pam explains that running amok means out of control, Michael later uses it, " It's too late to undo it. I need to know. Otherwise this thing is going to spiral out of amok." but he should have said out of control.
- In "Traveling Salesmen", Michael speaks of Dwight's betrayals in a talking head segment- "You know what they say: fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice... strike three" instead of "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me".
- While filming his apology video in "Product Recall", Michael defends his honor by declaring, "It wasn't me (who put the obscene watermark on our paper). They are trying to make me an escape goat" instead of scape goat.
- In "The Negotiation", Michael says to Jan "It was a crime of passion, Jan, not a disgruntled employee. Everyone here is extremely gruntled."
- In "Body Language" Michael says "I have your baugette." He meant to say barrette.
- In "Secret Santa", Michael says Jesus "can heal leopards." (lepers)