What’s the hardest English word for you to pronounce? 😅

Every ESL speaker I know (American English, not UK English) can’t say “comfortable” correctly.

As a native speaker, I don’t have trouble saying it but I’ve always thought that words like “ghosts” and “masks” must sound strange to non-native speakers. The latter half of these words is basically just breathlessly making little noises like you’re trying to call an animal to you

Don't worry about squirrel, native English speaking Americans can't say that right either.

Wash-yer-shoes sauce

Native speaker, my hardest word is “withdrawal”

I don’t know why but I keep messing up the correct pronunciation of abroad and determined. It always sounds wrong

Glomerulus/glomerular

World. It is a simple word, but I don't think I manage to pronounce correct a single time.

Worcestershire

Predator

Hierarchy is tough one for me to explain how to say. I just have to go for it.

Had a Russian friend who said pronouncing 'Rollerblading' "hurt his tongue" haha

Thoroughfare


someone i know rightfully has trouble saying "indubitably"

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

I'm a native speaker and "rural" was going to be my answer, lol. "Squirrel" is another one that feels awkward to say to me. I had to do speech therapy for a few years as a kid because I had trouble pronouncing rs. Any word with an r sound in the middle requires some extra thought to pronounce even in my 30s. It could just be that I'm hyper aware of it from a combination of being made fun of as a kid and needing to do speech therapy for it. I guess that's a bit of a window into native speakers. Yes, some of us struggle with speech sounds too. R is a common one for kids to have issues pronouncing. It may or may not continue into adulthood depending on what help they get.

Angsts

I'm going to embarrass myself here because I'm a beginner in English so there are several where I get the pronunciation wrong, one of them is Widgets... sometimes it's not even the pronunciation but I forget how to write it and that makes my mind go dark, “how do I actually say the word?” 🥹

Native speaker, and I have to think about rural everytime I say it. It comes out one of three different ways. For squirrel, I've settled on saying it like the Russians from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I'm an English L1 speaker, and "lily" still trips me up, every time.

native English speaker here (American): I hear you on "rural"! Hard for me to pronounce and I have a vivid memory of saying it in front of a room full of 20 British people and them collectively flat-out not understanding my pronunciation of it.

"Booths" I'm a native speaker and can never really like to pronounce it like "boothz," so you end up with "boo-th-su" that sort of dribbles out as your tounge starts back, moves forward, and then needs to move back again.

Native speaker here and I struggle with phenomenon.

OP, are you German? 😅

Schedule

I’ve heard “twelfths” gives a lot of non-native speakers a hard time

I’m a native English speaker and i cannot fucking say rural for the life of me lol

Does rendezvous count? [I don't know if I even typed that correctly] Because I'm pretty sure it's literally just stolen from French, though it is used in english.

The best advice I can give for the word "squirrel" is that it rhymes with "twirl" or "earl" but with a "skw" sound in front (as in "squat" or "square"). It is a lot of sounds to mash into one syllable but you'll get it. :)

Choir

My colleague is a 38 yo Australian who migrated here from China when he was 14. Speaks excellent English but can’t say “pearl”. It almost sounds like “prowl”

As a native English speaker, the word asterisk always messed me up as a kid. God forbid there was multiple, and I'd have to say asterisks.

Duck.. there's something about my ck that if I don't emphasize it, it sounds like dog. So, saying we ordered a whole duck from the Chinese has caused some confusion with my mates

Bournemouth

Colonel and schedule 😔

clothes

derailleur

Chair, absolute nightmare.

Statistics

3

Help you

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, and clothes

"the" Must I say "de"? or "ze"?

Squirrel rhymes with girl in my accent

It's not uncommon for native speakers (American, at least) to avoid the word "rural" altogether.

Jewelry (native speaker)

Synecdoche

water

R-vowel-R Rural as an example

Worcestershire sauce lmao. 

If it makes you feel better, many natives have trouble with “rural” as well lol

Comfortable, jeweller(y) and look/looking

"Colloquially." Native speaker, NW USA.

Sixth. I'm a native speaker and it feels so clunky to say.

Literally

Horror

Photographer. I can say it in a sentence in normal conversation, but if I’m reading out loud, I cannot for the life of me put the emphasis on the right place. It comes out like I’m saying “photoGRAPHer” rather than “phoTOGrapher”. Drives me NUTS.

Actually, here’s a very interesting short video about that exact problem [English has one of the RAREST Sounds… YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl_3HXtINss)

"grasps" I hate this word so much, especially that double hissing sound that comes with pronouncing it.

One of the most consistently mispronounced that I hear among esl learners is "Edinburgh". That's not even close to being the trickiest UK place name to pronounce. Try saying "Strathspey Thistle" (a Scottish football club) with a mouth full of cornflakes.

Appropriately. I also hate typing that word.

Native speaker. I can’t say “preliminary” in normal conversation. I had a speech impediment growing up (in therapy until middle school) and this one word always trips me up.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention words with "thr", like "through". I just do not understand how that works!

UwU

No matter how hard I try, I could never pronounce "literally" correctly.

For me it is - Nightcrawler

I think you nailed those two less because they are *the* hardest and more that the bastards are *common*. Squirrels are everywhere in the US, Canada and the UK and the idea of a "rural and urban divide" is a big thing in basically every culture. A tip though "country" is a substitute for rural. "out in the country" "in the countryside" stuff like that means places outside of cities and suburbs. As for squirrel, "tree rat" gets the point across and is just fun to hear, unless you like squirrels because it's kinda... idk insulting? It comes off as if you're angry about the squirrels. "damn tree rats"

Brewery. Author.

As a kid I always had so much trouble saying "funeral"

Theater 😵‍💫 and Teeth for me

Opposite Ahh-po-zit Oh-pah-zit Oppizit Opstst

For squirrel, you don't need to pronounce it similarly to rural despite the spelling. Many native speakers pronounce it "squirl" instead of "squir-uhl"

deliverables

"clothes" is a bit difficult for some

Birthday 💀

Abominable

i trip over myself when i have to say the word sixth in a sentence

Extraordinarily and jewelry. Also I'm scared of saying the word "horror movie" since several people misheard it as me saying "hoe movie." Now I say scary or ghost movies instead lol

Career

Warsheshchershire

Charmondliegh.

Scheme and schedule. I hate both of these words!

fetishization

I’m an english teacher in a spanish speaking country and I have noticed words that use an “ir” digraph as the only “vowel” sound hard for my students to grasp. For example “girl” “bird” and “stir”. It seems unnatural to them because essentially there’s no classic vowel sound, and an open “r” sound functions as the vowel instead. They want to say things like “gee-erl” or “stee-er” instead.

This is going to sound silly, but the word “world”. I just can’t say it without getting my tongue twisted in nots.

I’m a native speaker and rural/squirrel give me issues if I think about it too hard. You’re in good company.

As a native speaker I can't say "withdrawals" for the life of me

Miscellaneous 

“inevitable” I spend hours trying to pass google pronunciation check

Anesthetists. F that word. Makes me glad I'm not in medicine.

rural, world, MURDERER!! cant get the hang of it

Native speaker here, rural is the bane of my existence. Is it ru-ral? You get laughed at. Ruul? Laughed it. Rur-al? I don’t like this word at all.

American native speaker here, and HANDS DOWN, no contest: it's **February** EDIT: extremely common to say *Feb-yoo-air-ee* rather than *Feb-roo-air-ee* and I can never fix it.

alright. unfortunately, i also really like saying alright.

Obstetrician

Fifty, and I always laugh internally when most of the people follow it with saying “five-zero” 😉

I still struggle with "comfortable". It's about having to accents, it's just so... unnatural.

"free" "tree" three"

as a native speaker, I think the most tedious to actually verbalize is “sixths” “rural” is also a classic one lol But “sixths” just has so much going on in one syllable

Horror, mirror, rural, clothes, cloths.

For me, it's probably "Worcestershire."

Im native and Tylenol kicked my ass for years. And ”nominal“ for some reason 

As a native speaker I too have trouble saying squirrel and rural so don’t feel too bad

Native English speaker here. I cannot say rural to save my life!

"prioritize"

Isthmus can be tricky

I think a lot of the relies are getting two different things mixed up, words that easy to pronounce if you try to say it after you actually hear them being said but have spellings that are quite different from their pronunciations and words that are actually hard to pronounce. Words that are hard for non native speaker to say include words with consonant clusters eg, sixths, crisps, masks; or words with vowels which are not differentiated in their native language, eg work and walk, sheep and ship. And words with sounds that don't exist in their native language, eg the "th" sound.

Colloquial

Haha, this post reminds me of an episode of 30 Rock where Jenna gets a role in a movie called “The Rural Juror”, and they all have issues pronouncing it. There are some clips on youtube if you care to look it up.

Drastic. My mouth hates that word

Embarrassingly enough, I find "water" really hard to pronounce for some reason. The letter t in English just makes it weird cause I don't know whether to say it or not.

Mirror

I am german, but I don't find any english word hard to pronounce. However, that said.... I lived in England for many years. As you form words differently in both languages you will need after some time some time to get back into the rhythm again and get the muscle memory to kick in. In this respect english is dead easy. Dutch I find a lot harder. If I didn't speak it for a while I need a lot longer to get back into it. Not because of the vocabulary, but because of the pronounciation.

any one with the weird english R

Rural

This one https://youtu.be/TuRfFw7ybs0?feature=shared

The rural juror is the true story of Roy Jurner whose pure furor ensures a terrible murder.

For me it's refrigerator. There's always an extra d or some added t's whenever that word comes out of my mouth

"Library" and "February" both fall into the too-many-Rs-one-gets-dropped trap for me. And a lot of people. I guess it's the same issue with "rural", though. People will understand you, though, even if you say "lie-bary" or "feb-bary". "Ru-al"... maybe not so much!

Smile.

Native Speaker: Referral, Withdrawal, and most of the words that have that -ral sound in them like that (Most of the time I say those two ends very similarly, withdrawal just with a longer a like "all" but referral like "ull" in pull)

Colonel

Sixth Doesn’t help I had a speech impediment when I was younger.

As an English learner, I have many that are already mentioned. Sixths, rural, worcestershire sauce, world and anything starts with "thr" like thread or through.

Nobody can say *rural*.

Anything that has th and s sounds together, for example clothes. I'm probably saying it right, but it just sound weird and wrong to me.

With american accent: ”other than that”, ”rather than”, ”depths”, ”deaths” Try saying: Other than that, I’d rather explore the depths of the ocean rather than dwell on the tragic deaths that have occurred there.

I passed c2 FCE last year, but i dread saying "can i go to the toilet" for some reason. Yeah, i am still a highschooler

I struggle with 'weird' the most

World. Which for some reason supposed to sound kinda like whirled? Also, Iron. Why write it Iron if you're reading it I-urn?

I’m a native speaker and have no idea how to properly say Wednesday and February.

I hate saying mountain in the American way...

Wary and Weary are my biggest enemies.

"itinerary", no doubts!

Rerl and Skwerl

World, without and though are common words that I still struggle to pronounce correctly.

Everyone has a word or grammar construction that's is hard. Practice, and don't be so hard on yourself. As an example, I loved these three words: cup, cap, cop. And for me, it is not the pronunciation but the writing of this word: acknowledgement.

i say it like rerrol and skwer-roll

honestly, i still struggle with saying rural lol

Native speaker, and rural’s a tough one for me too. “Horror” as well - just comes out as “whore”.

Yacht Even as a native British speaker, I struggle. Is it how it's spelled or is it yat?

Acts Even as a native speaker I find myself pronouncing it as "axe," despite not having a problem with "ask."

Native English speaker and "sixth" & "rural" are awful words

Rural juror jewelry is so hard to get even as a native

The hardest ones for me were "bottom" and "water" (American English). I couldn't quite figure out the correct vowel sounds.

Magnanimity, adequately, amphitheater, prurient, prerogative

Blue bugs have black blood but black bugs have blue blood

RURAL. I hate that word 😣

Native speaker- I can never say the word ecstasy properly. I keep trying to add a syllable "extacsasy"

equilibrium

library :(

My experience as a teacher of ESL has shown me that, at least to Brazilians, the letters R and L and sometimes W seem to be the most challenging. World is often very difficult for my students to say correctly, but I suppose this all makes sense as they’re all glides and don’t really exist in Brazilian Portuguese (in some ways they do, but it depends on the accent and region, and more often than not they find the phonemes very challenging).

Rural. Such a short word but so hard to pronounce 😭

Many years ago I aske a German friend this question. He thought about it then very slowly and carefully said, “Woo-l-wor-th”