(soft music)
- Hello everyone, welcome back to English with Lucy.
Today is a video that can be appropriate
for both native speakers,
all you people who have English as a mother tongue,
and also non-native speakers, people who are learning
English as a second or as an additional language.
It might be your third language.
I know some of you are completely crazy
and are on your seventh language.
Comment down below and tell me how many languages you speak.
I'm going to talk to you
about words that are hard to pronounce.
There will be 20 words in total
and it's going to be a bit of a tongue twister even for me.
I love doing these pronunciation videos.
I've done a couple before.
I did one on commonly mispronounced words
by non-native speakers,
the 10 words that you might pronounce incorrectly,
which you can watch by clicking here.
And also 10 words that native speakers
might pronounce incorrectly as well,
and you can click here as well to see that.
Yep, these videos have been really, really popular
and whenever I ask you guys
what kind of videos you'd like to see, you want to see
pronunciation videos of commonly mispronounced words.
So here it is!
Before we get started,
this video is very kindly sponsored by Lingoda,
the company that I've been working with for ages.
If you don't know about Lingoda,
it's an online language academy.
You can learn French, Spanish, English, or German
with real native teachers in both private and group lessons.
If you want to see a review I did of the platform
then you can click here.
And that's a full review of Lingoda.
And they've very kindly given me a discount for that.
It's 50 euros, or 50 US dollars,
off your first month at Lingoda.
It's a great offer.
Don't miss out.
You can claim that by clicking on the link
in the description box and using the code ENGLUCY5.
The code is also in the description box, don't worry.
Right, let's get started with the video.
Now the first word I want to talk to you about is this one.
How do you saw it?
Go on, give it a go.
(laughing)
The word is choir.
Choir.
The next word, number two, is this one.
It's difficult because we've got the er sound twice.
Rural, rural.
(mumbles), it doesn't sound nice when I say it.
Rural.
Now the next one, number three, is actually a place name.
It's a county in the UK.
Is Worcestershire.
Worcestershire.
So people want to say Worcestershire, or Worcestershire,
but it should be woosta, woosta, Worcestershire.
How do we pronounce, and that brings me on to my next one,
number four, which is this.
Is it shire, is it shire, or is it shire?
The answer is it can be all of them.
Officially it should be shire, or shire,
but a lot of people blend the two and say shire.
That's what my family and I say.
We're from Bedfordshire.
I'm living in Cambridgeshire.
The next one, number five, is prelude, prelude.
A lot of people want to say prelude, or prelude,
but it should be prelude.
The next one, number six, are we on number six?
Yes.
The next one, number six,
is a word that most native people will know
but when I was teaching Spaniards English
they never knew how to pronounce it
because it's quite a complicated spelling.
It's this one.
How do we say it?
It's squirrel, squirrel.
And that irrel, irrel,
people with Chinese as their mother tongue,
that might be a really difficult one
because ir and ul often get confused.
So squirrel, squirrel.
Two syllables there.
The next one, number seven.
This one.
We've got that er sound again.
Juror, juror.
Also people suffer with the juror, er sound.
Juror.
It's a very complicated mouth movement
that you have to make.
Er.
I almost stick my chin when I say it.
Juror, juror.
Beautiful angle there.
The next one, number eight.
Spherical, spherical.
It's a very satisfying one to say, isn't it?
Spherical.
A lot of people say spherical
because we have a sphere and a sphere is spherical.
But it should be eh, not ir, eh.
Spherical.
Number nine, this one.
Frenchies, where are you, because this one is yours.
Valet, valet.
But you will hear some people saying valet, valet.
That pronunciation is accepted by some dictionaries
but come on, guys.
Let's say valet.
Number 10, pronunciation.
(laughing)
Now this one is a really common mistake.
Pronunciation, how you pronounce something.
A lot of people will say pronunciation.
Sometimes I get accused of saying pronunciation in my videos
but really it is just my accent.
Pronunciation, nunciation.
I say it so quickly and people like to pick at me
and wait for me to make a mistake
because I'm meant to be correct all the time.
Number 11.
This one I've heard so many different pronunciations
that I honestly before researching this video
didn't know which one was right.
It should be mauve, mauve.
Many people will say mauve or mauve
but it should be mauve.
The next one, number 12.
Regime, regime.
Which one should it be?
It should be regime.
I've got a new regime.
The next one, number 13, is this one.
Now because it comes from French
it should be pronounced niche with a shh,
a soft shh sound at the end, unvoiced.
But many people will pronounce it niche,
which sounds so ugly compared to niche,
which is so beautiful and airy and breathy,
and then niche.
Niche?
Yes, niche!
The next one, number 14,
is more a confusion between two words.
It's moot, moot.
It's a matter about which
there may be discussion or confusion
but people generally confuse it with mute,
which means silent, not speaking, not making a noise.
Moot, mute.
The next one, this one.
You might ask for a nice beer.
It's draught.
I used to work in a pub
and I heard people ask for a draught beer a couple of times,
but it's a draught, draught beer.
Number 16, this one.
Yes, in my lifetime I have heard someone say albeit.
Albeit?
And I was thinking albeit?
What do they mean?
Turns out it's albeit, albeit.
The next one, and this is one that my Italian ex-flatmate
used to pronounce incorrectly all the time.
He used to say lettuce.
(laughing)
"Lettuce in the house!"
No, it's lettuce, lettuce.
Yeah, confusing spelling there.
The next one,
a word that you might not use in everyday conversation,
but it's an interesting one because it's such a bizarre
spelling and pronunciation difference,
colonel, not colonel.
Colonel.
Why, why?
I'm sure there's a fabulous reason behind it, actually.
(electronic notification)
I just researched it.
It was colonel and then colonel
and that's where the modern pronunciation came from.
Colonel, just a squashed up version of colonel.
The next one, number 19, is another place name
and this one is important because we have GMT.
I hear a lot of people saying Greenwich
and I can totally understand why you would say that,
because reading it, Greenwich, it makes sense.
But no, it's Greenwich, Greenwich.
The next one, infamous.
I've heard a couple of people pronounce it infamous,
which is incorrect.
Infamous.
Number 20, this one.
I used to pronounce this incorrectly.
This one is gauge,
but it looks like it should be pronounced gorg.
But no, it's gauge.
You're gorg, this is gauge.
Gorgeous, you all look gorgeous.
That's it for today's video.
Thank you so much to Lingoda for sponsoring the video
and making this all happen.
Don't forget to check out the link in the description box
and use the code ENGLUCY5
to gain your 50-euro or 50-US-dollars discount
off your first month at Lingoda.
Loads and loads of lucifors have tried it out
and they're really, really happy.
I don't think I've ever heard
a negative comment about it, actually.
Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.
I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter.
And I will see you soon for another lesson.
Bye!
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