Pronunciation matters! It is one of the most important things when you are speaking
a language because, of course, you don't want to make mistakes and be misunderstood and you
also want to make sure you understand what other people are saying. This is why I have created a
second test to test your English pronunciation skills. In this video we're going to look at 13
of the most difficult and commonly mispronounced words in English by English Learners. Just like
the first test, which if you haven't seen I will link in the card above and link it down
below in the description, there will be five different levels. Level one we'll start with
some common everyday words that, for sure, you will know and you will have seen but they are
quite commonly mispronounced. Level two will get a little bit trickier, level three even harder,
level four will be even harder and more commonly mispronounced, and then the fifth one will be the
big boss, just like last time. Now if you did the first test and you thought the big boss was hard,
you're gonna hate me for this one because this is a real real big boss.
So be sure to keep score as you go through this video and then when you're finished comment down
below on the score that you have. How many do you get correct? Let's begin! So just like test number
one, I'll put a word on the screen give you a few seconds to think about it and then I'll talk about
the words pronunciation. Are you ready for number one? Let's go! how do you pronounce this one?
Two syllables, okay? Evening evening. It's quite common for many learners to pronounce this as
e-ve-ning with three syllables but actually it's just two, evening evening. Remove that
middle syllable, remove that middle e. Word number two, how do you pronounce this one?
If you said 'sains', which I hear a lot, then [incorrect noise] it's since. So that I in the
spelling is an /I/, remember miserable /I/, since. Number three. What do you think about this one?
Knowledge knowledge. Now a lot of learners get confused with know and knowledge,
so let's compare the two. We have know, know. Mind that vowel o o. You may also hear some
speakers in the UK saying it as oh, know. That's more RP. What I'm showing you is Modern RP, know,
where you drop the jaw a little bit more. Over here, instead of saying knOUledge,
we're not going to say that as ou we're going to say it as o, like dog.
'no', knowledge knowledge. Level two. It's getting trickier, how about this word?
Don't get confused with south. The vowel changes here. Southern. So we have south southern.
So the vowels are quite different. Notice also that the th sounds are different. South,
is voiceless, South-(ern), there's vibration.
South southern. Here's number five, be very careful. Have a think.
Let me give you a clue! The two vowels are pronounced exactly
the same. Women. Wi- misterable /I/. Women.
Now this is the plural don't confuse women with woman,
so notice those two vowels at the beginning are different. So the plural women women,
singular woman woman. Number six. I'll give you a little clue here. One of these letters is silent.
Doubt doubt. So the b is silent and mind that vowel. Quite a few people get influenced by the
spelling and they say dOUBt and pronounce the b as well so make sure the b is silent and that
vowel is an AU, doubt doubt. We are now moving on to level three, well done, hope you're keeping
score! Make sure you're keeping score, then you can tell me at the end how you're doing.
How do you pronounce this one?
Now, if you said clothes, I will accept the answer. Of you also said 'close'
you're cheating slightly but I will accept the answer! Now the difficult part here is
that the thz combination clothes, notice that I just move my tongue back very quickly, clothes.
If though in rapid speech you find it quite difficult to say clothes, for example,
I really like your clothes, where are my clothes? It may be easier to cut the th and just say close,
exactly the same as the verb, to close the door, to close the window. So in a sentence it sounds
like 'I like your clothes', 'where are my clothes?', 'I'm gonna wash some clothes'.
So notice I can cut that th and it makes it so much easier to say in rapid speech. Many native
speakers do this, so it's a good little trick. If native speakers are doing it it means that
it's more efficient a lot of the time, so copy them! If you can make life, especially
English pronunciation, more simple for yourself. Number eight. How would you pronounce this word?
Mind, there is a silent letter, receipt receipt. So the p is silent, not receiPt,
remove the p. Receipt, number nine, how would you say this word?
Ache ache. So that ending that ch is not 'eich', but ache. This goes the same with toothache,
headache, backache, stomachache, bellyache, they're all ache. It doesn't change. So now
we're moving on to level four, we're getting trickier! How about this one? There are two
different ways to pronounce this one, if you can get both then double points to you.
Quinoa quinoa or quinoa quinoa. So two quite different ways there.
Quinoa which is more common to be honest, quinoa is definitely more common. But quinoa
is also accepted. Quinoa. Number 11, how would you say this word here? Be really careful.
Iron so notice that I'm not pronouncing that r. Iron iron. You might hear some
accents pronouncing it like iron with that /r/ in there, but it's very very rare that you will
hear i-ron that tends to be more of like a very very specific accent thing, very very specific,
typically in parts of the US. Not in the UK, I would say. In the UK we would tend
to say iron or iron or something along those lines. But we would never say i-ron in the
UK. So if you're into your superheroes then you will know Iron Man, Iron Man. Number 12,
this is the last word from level four, we're on level four. We've got the big boss after this one.
Weird weird. So notice again that that r isn't pronounced. Weird. This is another
way of saying strange, odd, unusual. English pronunciation is very weird. Now you have made
it to the big boss round. Are you ready? I hope it fits on the screen when I'm editing this.
How would you pronounce this word?
I'm being such a troll. This word is antidisestablishmentarianism.
Antidisestablishmentarianism and it's one of the longest words in the English language
and teach us. Antidisestablishmentarianism. So if you got that one then you deserve a medal,
my friend. So tell me how many you got correct out of 13! Did you get that big
boss? Because if you did, then you deserve just a C2 certificate, like, there you go, my friend,
there is the C2 certificate. If you also got the two pronunciations for quinoa and quinoa,
then yes, you can add that as another point so if you want you can have 14 points in total instead
of 13. You get that extra point, that bonus point. So let me know how you did because it
was so good last time seeing which words were difficult for you guys in the previous video
because it makes me aware of what I should make more videos about. It really helps me
out as well as helps you out as well. It's just a bit of fun. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video
remember to subscribe if you've enjoyed this and I will see you in the next video. Bye bye!