10 English words that are hard to say correctly

Hi.

Welcome to engVid.

I'm Adam.

Today's lesson is a pronunciation lesson.

I'm going to talk to you about 10 words that many people find very difficult to pronounce,

especially non-native English speakers, but even sometimes native speakers have some trouble

with some of these.

We're going to look at the first five and I'm going to show you two things, two ways

to look at this word.

One...

Or these words.

One is the phonetic, basically just: How does it sound?

And two is looking at the actual phonetic alphabet to see how it's spelled according

to the phonetic alphabet, and I'll talk to you about that as well.

So we're going to look at: "months", "clothes", "little", "queue", "chaos".

So you already heard me saying them, but I'll go through each one carefully.

A lot of people try to pronounce the "th" in this word: "months", "months", you're just

confusing your tongue, you're confusing your listener.

Don't try to always put "ths", they don't always work.

Even native speakers don't bother trying to separate the sounds.

What...

The way it sounds like to us, like the way I say it is: "muntz".

The "ths" I just switch to a "tz".

So if you think about the word "plants", you know...

Everybody knows how to say "plant", one plant, many plants, this is the same sound as here:

"tz".

So this is the same sound here: "mun", like "sun", "run", "munt", "muntz".

Okay?

Again, don't try to separate them.

This is what it looks like in the phonetic.

Now, if you want to really improve your pronunciation and sound like a native speaker, you must

learn the International Phonetic Alphabet.

I took this phonetic spelling from the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, that's the American dictionary

if you want to get the North American accent.

Look at the Oxford Dictionary, for example, if you want to get the British phonetic spelling

of things, if you want to get the different accents, etc.

Get to know these symbols.

This is like an "ah" or sometimes even an "uh", as we're going to see in other words.

Make sure you understand the different symbols and what sounds they represent, that way any

word that you want to pronounce correctly, you can do according to this.

Now, you can also go online: m-w . com or just www . Merriam-Webster . com, you can

hear all of these words and you can practice saying them and saying them correctly.

Now, this word, and it's the same idea.

You still have your "t", "h", and "s", but you have the "e", the extra vowel in the middle.

A lot of people try to say: "clothes", but if you say "clothes" to a native speaker...

Okay, usually the context will help them understand what you're saying, but if you say the word

out of context they actually won't know what you're saying because we don't have a word

"clothes".

Okay?

It sounds like "cloze".

Close the door, wear clothes, sounds exactly the same.

And again, the phonetic with be "o" there, "k", and the "z".

We don't have the "th" because we don't pronounce it.

So most words that have a "th" and an "s" very close together, we generally just basically

squeeze them in into a "ts" sound or a "z" sound.

Okay?

"Clothes".

So when...

After you take the clothes out of the closet, close the door.

Okay?

Clothes.

"Little".

Now, some people try to say "little", which is okay.

Everybody will understand you if you say "little", but most people in, again, native...

Native speakers in everyday sound, everyday speech, everyday pace will say: "lidol".

I have a little bit.

Little bit.

So it sounds like a "d", the "tt" sounds like a "d".

This "i" is almost not pronounced.

It's more like the "d" drops into the "l".

This is what it looks like here, that's where the "t" drops.

They put it as a "t", but when you have two t's together and in normal speed, it sounds

like a "d", so: "lidle".

Some people say: "I have a little bit", some people will say: "I have a lidle bit."

Little.

Okay?

Now, this word, this word is very frightening because everybody who doesn't actually know

this word will actually try to pronounce it.

But you have to remember English is a crazy language.

We have many words that don't sound anything like they look.

Okay?

So this is not "queue", nobody says "queue", because nobody will understand what you're

saying.

This word basically means "q" or is pronounced-sorry-"q".

It means a line up.

When you go to the bank and you go to the teller, but there's a lot of people, get in

queue and wait until your turn.

Get in line.

Queue, very simple, just like the letter "q", and there is the alphabet.

Now, this one I've heard all kinds.

I've heard: "cows", I've heard "ka-os", but the actual correct way is "k", we pronounce

the "a" as a diphthong, as like a two-vowel sound, "ke yos" or "key os".

Okay?

Depends.

Some people say it differently.

Some people say: "ke yos", some people say "key os".

They'll put the accent...

Technically it should be this one because the stress is on the first part: "key os".

So look...

Notice that these are both a's, but these symbols on top tell you that they're diphthongs,

or they're longer, or they're shorter, what kind of sound they should be.

If you start to study the IPA, it's like learning a new alphabet so it does...

It will take some work from you.

Okay?

You do have to put in some effort, but once you learn it you can learn the pronunciation

of basically every word, and you can learn the different accents if you want British,

Australian, Canadian, American, etc. learn the phonetic alphabet.

Let's look at five more words.

Okay, so we're going to look at five more words that...

The first ones we looked at, everyday words, you're going to use them a lot.

These ones not as common, but still regular everyday words.

Okay?

So first we're going to look at: "niche".

Now, it looks like "Nietzsche", which...

Who was a very famous philosopher, but that's not who we're talking about here.

We're look...

Talking about niche.

When you're talking about a market and there's a very particular target audience or very

particular customer for a very specialized thing, so it's small, we call that a niche.

Okay?

It's like a very particular small thing.

This is how it's pronounced: "neesh", this is what it looks like in the IPA.

Okay?

So, again, study the IPA, very recommended.

Not easy, but it's worth it for you, especially if you want to improve your pronunciation.

Now, everybody looks at this word and they recognize the word "famous", so then they

think it's: "Oh, infamous, means not famous", but that's actually not the meaning of the

word and that's not the correct pronunciation either.

This word is "infamous", "in fa mus", and it means the...

It's famous, but for something bad.

Okay?

So somebody is famous for something bad, that person is infamous.

"In fa mus", "in fa mus".

Now, this looks like a "uh" so infamous, it depends who you're asking how it's pronounced.

I pronounce it "infa", "infamus", okay.

And the accent, "infamous", on the first syllable.

So remember it's very important also to understand syllables which are actually the vowel sounds

in a word.

So if you're not sure about a word, first cut it into all of its syllables and then

try to pronounce each one separately.

And if you're not sure how to pronounce them, you go look it up in the dictionary, you can

hear it.

Some...

A lot of them, like the Merriam-Webster will also give you this type of break down.

They'll split it into syllables and they'll give you the IPA spelling as well.

Now, "lawyer", the person who practices law.

So this word: "law" is "ah", but in...

When we're talking about the person it's: "oh", "loh", "loh yer", "loh yer".

This "yer" is the same as "sir" or "were".

So, one of the good things you can also do is try to find the pronunciations of words

that you do know how to say properly, like "sir" or "were", and then apply that to other

words that you're not sure about.

So you know this spelling: "your", "sir", "were", "lawyer".

Very straightforward.

Not "lawyer", okay?

Lawyer.

"Squirrel".

A squirrel is a cute, little animal...

For some people it's cute.

I think they're cute.

Some people think they're mice with big tails, but in Canada we have lots of them.

Okay?

And a lot of people come to Canada and they take pictures of these little animals, and

they want to send them home to wherever they came from, and then they want to tell their

family or friends about this animal and then they go: "Squirrel", "squirrah", okay?

Because the "rl" is a very difficult combination of letters to pronounce, even for native speakers.

For example, this is one of the most difficult words in English to pronounce: "rural".

Okay?

Rural means, like, countryside.

Urban - city; rural - countryside.

See?

Even I have trouble with this word.

"rl" is difficult.

From...

For some nationalities it's very difficult because you don't distinguish between these

two to begin with.

So what are you going to do?

You're going to take it and try to connect it to another word that you do know.

Most people can say: "girl".

All you're doing is you're taking out the "g", you're putting in the "skw", and you

have the same word: "girl", "squirrel", a girl squirrel, a squirrel girl.

Same idea, same pronunciation, and then you play with other words you do know to get to

the words you don't know.

And again, here the reason there's a little accent on top of the "r" is because it kind

of drops into the...

Into the "l" which is actually what makes it difficult to pronounce: "rl", little ending

there.

Now, everybody...

I've heard all kinds of ways to say this word: "comfortable".

I'm not going to go through them, but listen to how I say it in regular speech.

"Cumf t'bl".

I don't pronounce the "r", I barely pronounce "table".

I don't say "table", I say "t'bl".

I squeeze all...

I squeeze it all together, I take out the vowels.

"Cumf t'bl", that's one way.

Some people do pronounce the "r": "cum for tabl".

The "tabl" is still not "table", it's "tabl", any way you say it.

Some people do say the "r", some people don't.

Some people make the "f" sound like a "p": "cumptabl".

It works for some, it doesn't work for anybody...

For everybody.

Whatever way you say it, it is not "comfortable".

That's not the correct way.

"Comftbl".

Okay?

So get used to this kind of words.

Get used to the IPA, very, very important, very useful if you want to sound like a native

speaker.

Okay?

So, a little bit difficult to make quizzes on this, but I did make a quiz with IPA, help

you study your IPA words.

Go to www.engvid.com, take the quiz, and practice your use of the IPA for pronunciation.

Like my video if you liked it, and don't forget to subscribe to my channel.

If you have any questions, again, www.engvid.com, you can ask me in the forum there.

And I'll see you again real soon. Bye-bye.