The British Struggle with English pronunciation

With nine letters and four syllables, the tongue-twisting ‘phenomenon’ has been named as the most mispronounced word in the English language.

 

 

Top 20 mispronounced words:

 

1. Phenomenon (fi-nom-uh-non)
2. Anaesthetist (uh-nes-thi-tist)
3. Remuneration (ri-myoo – nuh-reyshun)
4. Statistics (stuh-tis-tiks)
5. Ethnicity (eth-nis-i-tee)
6. Philosophical (fil-uh-sof-i-kuhl)
7. Provocatively (pruh-vok-uh-tiv)
8. Anonymous (uh-non-uh-muhs)
9. Thesaurus (thi-sawr-uhs)
10. Aluminium (al-yuh-min-ee-uhm)
11. Regularly (reg-yuh-ler-lee)
12. February (feb-roo-er-ee)
13. Particularly (per-tik-yuh-ler-lee)
14. Hereditary (huh-red-i-ter-ee)
15. Prioritising (prah-awr-i-tahyz-ing)
16. Pronunciation (pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn)
17. Prejudice (prej-uh-dis)
18. Facilitate (fuh-sil-i-teyt)
19. Hospitable (hos-pi-tuh-buhl)
20. Onomatopoeia (on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh)

 

A recent study concluding that 82 percent of Britons frequently mispronounce words. Check out this link for 17 words we really need to stop mispronouncing. They’re easily confused with other words when not clearly and correctly enunciated. The list includes; Cache, Moot, Niche and Silicon.

 

Try Testing the 10 Trickiest Words to Pronounce

 

1. Ely Mispronounced by 59% of people EE-lee NOT Ee-Lie
2. Keighley (West Yorkshire town) 40% keith-lee NOT ki-lee or kay-lee
3. Sherbet 40% shur-but NOT sher-burt
4. Et cetera 34% et-set-ter-eh NOT ecc-set-ter-eh
5. St Pancras 33% Saint Pan-krass NOT Saint Pan-kree-ass
6. Espresso 26% ess-press-oh NOT ex-press-oh
7. Bruschetta 25% Brew-sket-a to be truly Italian NOT Brew-shet-a
8. Often 24% (traditionally offen, although off-ten has become increasingly common in the UK)
9. Prescription 21% Pruh-skrip-shun NOT per-skrip-shun or pro-skrip-shun
10. Greenwich 16% Gren-itch NOT Green-witch or Green-itch

More here…

 

2 Comments

  1. Ayaz Akhtar15/11/2014

    very well

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