How’s your English pronunciation? Let’s put your pronunciation skills to the test.
I have ten of the hardest words to pronounce and a special bonus at the end so stay tuned.
My name is Anna English from Englishlikeanative.com where we help students
from all over the world to learn and speak English like a native with our free and paid courses.
My top ten most difficult words are difficult for a combination of reasons.
Some because of the complexity of mouth movements,
some because of their bizarre spelling! Now, these are relatively common words. I could include words
like synecdoche, antidisestablishmentarianism, or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious but they
are rarely used in everyday conversations and therefore not as useful as this list is
going to be. Okay, let’s go. I will show you the word and give you a moment to speak it out loud.
Number one, can you pronounce this? Anemone. Even the little fish Nemo found this word
difficult to pronounce in the Disney film Finding Nemo, this is a real tongue twister,
and many people struggle with getting the right number of Ns and Ms. Let’s have a go. Anemone,
think of a lemon (lemon spelt with an N) and a knee.
Anemone, anemone, anemone. Got it? Let’s move on.
Number two, how would you pronounce this? Colonel, colonel is a military rank
and it is not pronounced as it is spelt at all. It would be easier if it was written ‘Kernel’.
Unfortunately, it’s not spelt like that (Kernel), in fact, a Kernel is the edible part of a nut.
So perhaps thinking of ‘A colonel eating kernels’ will help you to remember this pronunciation.
Number three, how would you pronounce this?
Draught. Don’t feel daft when you pronounce the word draught, when I got it wrong I just laughed.
This is pronounced, draft. Not to be confused with the ‘first draft of a book’,
which sounds the same but has a different spelling. Draught means a current of
cool air which blows through a confined space “Is there a window open somewhere,
there’s a terrible cold draught in here?”. Draught is also an adjective to describe beer
or cider that is served from a barrel “Ooo a nice cold pint of draught beer”.
Number four, fest your eyes on this lovely word. Onomatopoeia - What a beautiful word.
This word is used to describe words which sound like the noise they refer to. For example: zip,
bang, plop, buzz, hiss, etc. Onomatopoeia, break it down, ona, matter, pier.
Number five, can you pronounce this? Quinoa.
You would not believe how many English people get this word wrong. It’s not quin-oh-ah, it’s
qui-noir because of its Spanish routes. Are you keen-ah to have some quinoa?
Number six, (Segue on screen). This word rhymes with ‘weekday’. Segue. And it means to transition
from one thing to the next, speaking of which let’s segue into the next word.
Number seven, how do you pronounce this? Squirrel. This cute little nut collector graces gardens and
woodlands across the UK and pronouncing its name will make you spit out your dentures
if you wear dentures of course. Let’s try that again, squirrel. Squ - like squid, rel. squirrel.
Number eight, this one is very tricky.
Worcestershire. Whether you’re talking about the location (there’s one in both the UK
and the USA) or the sauce, this is a familiar word in English. But it’s bizarre spelling
trips many of us up. Most people, just say Wus-tah. But the full version is Worcestershire.
Number nine, can you correctly pronounce this midweek day?
Wednesday - Blast those silent letters. Who said Wed-nes-day, it’s an understandable mistake to
make, I mean, who made up this stuff up?… it’s pronounced When’z-day. You don’t use the d.
You don’t pronounce the ‘nes’. Crazy! Don’t even get me started on Feb-ru-ary.
Ooo we are nearly at the end of the list, are you finding any of these words challenging,
don’t forget after number ten I have a bonus word so stay watching to the end.
Number ten, try not to spit on the screen as you do this one…Sixth. Now, it’s generally considered
that the ‘th’ sound is one of the most difficult sound in English for non-native English speakers
to pronounce, even for some natives too. The word sixth positions the ‘th’ after an /s/ sound,
which follows a /k/ sound. This means you have to move your tongue very quickly from
the high back /k/ to a tip of the tongue /s/ position then through the teeth for the th.
It’s like tongue break dancing - sixth, sixth. In honesty,
if you just jump from the /k/ to the th, missing out the /s/ then no one will notice.
If you would like more help with your pronunciation, I am offering a free
pronunciation course covering the 5 hardest sounds in English. To sign up follow the link below,
provide your name and email address and the free course will be delivered to your inbox.
Bonus word - Rural. This is not a word that native English speakers struggle with
but the English R is a strange beast to much of the rest of the world. In English,
we use a still floating tongue when pronouncing the /r/, it remains flat and slightly back.
So if you are Spanish, Italian or German, you may be tempted to try to trill or
tap the r. If you are East Asian, you may try to use an /l/ sound. Either way,
you’ll be struggling to pronounce these two tricky /r/ sounds so close together. Rural. Rural.