Can YOU Pronounce These Difficult Words in English - 10 Hardest Words to Pronounce

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.