If English wasn’t your first language, maybe if you learned English later in life, were there any words that you had a really hard time learning how to pronounce? Do you think that had to do with the sounds made in your first language?
[the]
Don’t feel bad, everyone. English pronunciation IS difficult, though through tough thorough thought, you can do it!
Rural and squirrel
knowing how to spell definitely, and pronouncing drawer.
For others, in my accent drawer rhymes with door and or. All spelled differently to get the same sound. None of the three are spelled phonetically by the ‘rules’ of English. They should be drore, dore, and ore.
I think I was just pronouncing everything wrong for the first several years I was speaking English because I learnt English from books and never heard most words out loud. But I don’t remember anything being physically difficult to pronounce in terms of emulating how it’s said when I first hear it pronounced “correctly”.
English is my first language but saying “edited it” drives me crazy.
As a math teacher, I hate “sixth” or “sixths.”
Same goes for ’ pocketed it’
And my first language is Dutch, but like to speak English
I’ve heard “rug” is weird for many Europeans
Everything was hard. Even now I can’t speak or pronounce every word. The reason: in my country learning english means learning how to write right, speaking is not important. So yeah, you have to teach yourself by speaking with others, if you find other people who really want to improve how to pronounce right. Even now I feel chills when I remember how my english teacher pronounced Switzerland.
I personally am having a hard time with “overwhelmingly”
I wouldn’t say struggle, but I did wonder for a while how to pronounce “anemone”.
Everyone has trouble with that one. There’s even a joke about it in Finding Nemo. I don’t imagine most English-speakers can spell it offhand.
I was listening to a best-selling author’s recent audiobook, and the professional voice actress messed this one up. So you’re in good company. Really, who can we blame but the Greeks?
That sounds like a universal truth if I ever heard one.
The number of native English speakers who can’t pronounce “specific” and instead say “pacific” is too damn high.
“sp” cluster can be hard. So can “sk” at the end of a word. Hence why you can get “axe” instead of “ask”
Little kid me would agree about the difficulty with the “sp” cluster. “Spoon” came out as “psoon”.
Suh-poon is also reasonably common!
It if you speak Spanish, “Es-poon”!
Worcestershire sauce
It helps to break it up.
worce - ster - shire
“Worcestershire sauce is the worst.”
“Thousand island is worster.”
“‘Worster’? Sure.”
English as my first language and I can’t get that one right either.
No one can.
Wuh ster shuh. I live in that county, it’s definitely over-hyped.
You don’t say the last ‘R’? I’ve always said it ‘woo - stur - sure’ or ‘wi - stur - sure,’ depending on how fast I say it.
I’m American though.
That’s because you’re American. That’s how you say it with an American accent. Like think about how Brits say “sure” vs how Americans say “sure”. Americans pronounce the R far more.
Oh, one really pronounces the ‘shuh’ part? I was told it’s just the first two syllables.
Just the first two syllables would be Worcester, which is also a place.
The th sound is honestly a bit difficult. Three will end up sounding like either tree or free, but not three. Usually I just pronounce it as a slightly weird T. I have quite a Dutch accent anyways and that just something y’all will have to deal with ;p
Two people scored the same after the first five. They were the… sixths.
It’s a near miss of biting my tongue every time.
sixths-sevenths?
Learn to speak English with an Irish accent (like Lenin) and no one will bat an eye at you saying tree.
Also to add, a lot of native speaking adults also struggle with the th sounding words, generally due to local accents.
It’s a common one my brother! The F sound in free is made where your top teeth are on your bottom lips, and tongue is retracted. The th sound is when your tongue is resting on or just behind your top teeth, almost like you’re smiling.
Ignominious anthropomorphic pauciloquy.
I think many, many native speakers would struggle with those too so if you’re at that level you’re doing really well. Congrats!
The two first are pronounceable, the third not so much, for me at least 😅
I can pronounce it but I don’t think you have too much to worry about pal…I’ve come across that specific word about three times in my whole life.
Colonel.
Less of how hard it is to actually pronounce, more like how hard it is to believe it’s pronounced that way.
It was spelled with an R in the past, and they tried to change it to an L (because that’s how it “properly” should be according to its origins), but only the spelling stuck, probably due to everyone being illiterate anyway.
Just wait till you try “Lieutenant” in Britain or Canada.
You can find “leftenant” as a normal spelling in older texts. No one is sure why.
right?
Worcestershire
Kernel
