50 Words You're Pronouncing WRONGLY Right Now! | Top 50 Mispronounced English Words, Common Mistakes

Hello, and welcome back.

In this lesson, I will show you

fifty words that you are probably pronouncing

incorrectly right now.

And I’ll also teach you how to say them

correctly.

Let’s start with this word – how do you say it?

Well, we say /prə-’nauns/, /prə-’naunst/ and

/prə-’nauns-iŋ/, but /prə-nən- si-’eɪ-shən/.

There’s no ‘noun’ in this word.

It’s ‘pronunciation.’

Word number two is ‘says’.

This word is commonly mispronounced

by people learning English as /seɪs/.

But remember: I say, you say, but he or she /sez/.

Number three is ‘et cetera’.

A very common incorrect

pronunciation is to say ‘ek’ – ‘ek setra’ instead of ‘et’.

Don’t say that.

And also remember that the stress is on

‘ce’.

So the word is /et-’se- tə-rə/.

You will also hear /et-’se-trə/ – that is less

common but it’s OK too.

Next up is ‘often’.

Some pronounce this as /’äf-tən/.

Now, strictly speaking, /’äf- tən/ is not wrong, but the more

common pronunciation is with the ‘t’ silent, so I recommend

that you always say /’ä-fən/.

One word that is often mispronounced by learners of

English is ‘women’.

This is, of course, because of the English

language’s crazy spelling system.

But remember that we say /’wu-mən/ for one woman and

/’wi-min/ for the plural – /’wi-min/.

Word number six is ‘police’.

This isn’t /po-lees/ or /po- lis/.

It’s /pə/ and /lees/ with the stress on /lees/.

So /pə-’lees/.

The next word is ‘vehicle’.

It’s often pronounced wrongly as /ve-hi-kl/.

But the ‘e’ is a long vowel and the ‘h’ is

silent.

So /’vee-ə-kl/.

Number eight is this word.

How would you say it?

The correct pronunciation is /’zhän-rə/.

Pay attention to the first sound,

it’s like ‘sh’ but you put your voice into it - /’zhän-rə/.

/’zhän-rə/ Next up is actually what you’re

watching right now – ‘video’.

The important thing is that both the ‘i’ and the ‘e’ are

pronounced as short ‘i’ sounds.

It’s not /vee-di-o/, it’s /’vi-di-o/.

If you watch a video on YouTube or Facebook, you might leave a

‘comment’.

I have heard many speakers say /’kə-ment/.

Now whether you use this word as a

noun or a verb, the first syllable is always /’kä /. So

it’s never a /’kə-ment/, it’s a /’kä-ment/.

Word number eleven is ‘interesting’.

This is mispronounced sometimes as

/’in-tə-rə-stiŋ/.

But there are only three syllables – /in / –

/trə / – /stiŋ/ and the stress is on ‘IN’.

So the word is /’in-trə-stiŋ/.

Number twelve is ‘hotel’.

There are two syllables – /ho/ and /

tel/ like the English word ‘tell’ as in ‘tell me’.

The stress is on the second

syllable, so /ho-’tel/.

A related word is ‘suite’.

This means a set of connected rooms

in a hotel and this is wrongly pronounced by many people as

/soot/.

But it’s /sweet/ - like when you eat a piece of candy -

/sweet/.

While we’re on the topic of suites and hotels, I cannot

leave out this word – ‘restaurant’.

It gives a lot of English learners trouble.

But, don’t let the fancy spelling

confuse you – the second syllable is just /tə /. The

third is /ränt/.

So /’res-tə- ränt/.

In British English, you might hear just two syllables –

/’res-trɒnt/ - that is also correct.

After you eat at a restaurant, you have to pay the bill.

But you might get a discount on

your bill if you have one of these – a ‘coupon’.

A common incorrect pronunciation is

/’koo-pən/.

But the second syllable should be /pän/.

So – /’koo-pän/.

Here’s word number sixteen – how would you say it?

The proper pronunciation is not

‘break’ ‘fast’ – it’s ‘breakfast’.

/brek / with a short /e/ sound and /fəst/ with

an /ə/ sound - so /’brek-fəst/.

You know what I had for breakfast today?

I had this – ‘pizza’.

Really, I did.

It’s not a /pee-sə/ and it’s not a

/peed-zə/.

There’s no /z/ sound in this word.

It’s /peet/, /sə/ - /’peet-sə/.

Another food word that’s mispronounced a lot is

‘vegetable’.

It’s not /ve-jə- tə-bl/.

If you say it correctly, there are only three syllables

- /vej/, / tə/, /bl/ - /’vej- tə-bl/.

Let’s talk about a couple of vegetables now – this is a

‘cucumber’.

It’s not a /ku- koom-bər/.

Think of it like saying the letter ‘Q’ and then

/kəm-bər/ like ‘number’.

So /’kyoo-kəm-bər/.

This vegetable is called ‘lettuce’.

I know the spelling looks like /let-yoos/ but it’s

not – it’s /letis/.

And since we talking about food, here’s a food that just

about everybody loves – ‘chocolate’.

When you ask for this at the store, make sure

there are only two syllables – /chäk/ and /lət/ - /’chäk-lət/.

And remember: there is no ‘late’ in ‘chocolate’.

Speaking of chocolate, how would you say this word?

This is ‘dessert’.

Notice that the first syllable is /di/, and the

second starts with a /z/ sound.

We stress the second syllable – /di-’zərt/.

This word refers to something sweet that’s eaten at

the end of a meal, and it should not be confused with

‘desert ’. Here, the stress is on the first syllable which is

/de/ - /’de-zərt/.

Now I said that desserts are sweet.

But what about this taste?

It’s pronounced ‘sour’.

Some people say /sär/ - that is a mispronunciation.

The only correct way to say this word is

/’sauər/.

Many words in the English language have silent letters –

that is, letters that we don’t pronounce.

As in word number twenty-four – ‘receipt’.

The ‘p’ is silent.

When you purchase something or you pay a

bill, you get a /ri-’seet/.

Now if you don’t pay your bills, you might find yourself

in ‘debt’.

The ‘b’ is silent in this word, so /det/.

If a debt is related to your house, it might be a

‘mortgage’.

This word means a loan that a bank gives you to

buy a house.

So, which letter is silent here?

It’s the ‘t’.

The first syllable is /mör/ and the second is /gij/.

So /’mör- gij/.

Number twenty-seven is this word – how would you say it?

It’s ‘subtle’.

The ‘b’ is silent.

Subtle means something that is difficult to notice or

something that isn’t obvious.

And once again, the word is pronounced /’sə-tl/.

Another popular word with a silent letter is ‘singer’ – the

‘g’ is silent.

Now we say ‘finger’ (we say the ‘g’),

‘younger’ (again, with the ‘g’) but /’siŋ-ər/ (no ‘g’).

And what would you call someone who fixes taps and pipes at

your house?

You call him a ‘plumber’.

Not a /’pləm-bər/ – the ‘b’ is silent.

So /’pləm- ər/.

In fact, in many words, when you have the letter combination

‘mb’, the ‘b’ is silent.

If I had a ladder in front of me

now, I could ‘climb’ the ladder.

Not /’klaɪmb/.

A quick note - in the pronunciation

symbols that you see, the ‘ai’ is an /ai/ sound not an /ei/

sound.

So the word is /’klaɪm/.

By the way, what’s this?

This is my ‘thumb’.

It’s not my /’thəmb/ – it’ pronounced

/’thəm/.

And what about this?

This is a comb.

Not a /komb/ - a /kom/.

A similar-sounding word is ‘tomb’.

It’s often wrongly pronounced as /tomb/, but the

‘b’ is silent, and the ‘o’ is pronounced with an ‘oo’ sound.

So /toom/.

A tomb is a place like the Taj Mahal, where a person, usually

an important person, is ‘buried’.

We say /’be-ri/.

Now when I first heard this as a

kid, I was really surprised because I used to say /’bə-ri/.

I mean, it looks like that, right?

But this word sounds just like the ‘berry’ in

‘strawberry’.

So once again – /’be-ri/.

But back to silent letters.

How do you say this day of the

week?

It’s ‘Wednesday’ – the ‘d’ is silent.

Sometimes it is pronounced as /’wednz-deɪ/ but

the proper way to say it is /’wenz-deɪ/.

What about this – ‘sword’.

Many people say /sword/ but that is

totally wrong.

It is just /’sord/.

And here’s our last word with silent letters – ‘clothes’.

But what’s silent here?

Well, first of all, this word is not

cloths.

When we say /’kloz/, the ‘th’ in the middle can

often be silent – /’kloz/.

But it’s not wrong if you say them

with a ‘dh’ sound – /’klodhz/.

That’s also correct.

In some words, people think a letter is silent, but it’s not.

For example, look at this word – what is it?

It’s ‘arctic’?

This is the name for the region at the North Pole of the earth.

It’s mispronounced by many as /’är-tik/ but it’s actually

/’ärk-tik/.

The ‘c’ in the middle is not silent.

Similarly, /ant-’ärk-tik/ and /ant-’ärk-tikə/ – that’s the

name of the region at the South Pole.

Sometimes people also mistakenly insert letters or

sounds that are not there.

Like in the word ‘mischievous’.

This is not /mis-’chee-vi-əs/.

There is no ‘i’ after the ‘v’.

The last syllable is just /vəs/.

So /’mis-chi-vəs/.

And then there are words that have hidden sounds that we

don’t recognize – like the word ‘tuition’.

It’s /tu-’wi-shən/ in American English and /tyu-’wi-

shən/ in British English.

So what’s the hidden sound here?

Well, the first syllable is easy - /tu/ (American) or /tyu/

(British).

But after that, it’s not /i-shən/, it’s /’wi-shən/.

Tuition.

You have to put the ‘w’ sound in there.

So /tyu-’wi-shən/.

Word number forty-one is this word.

How do you say it?

If you said /zu-’ä-lə-ji/ it’s actually

wrong.

That is a very common mispronunciation.

This is actually /zo-’ä-lə-ji/ - /zo/

and /ä-lə-ji/.

‘Zoology’.

Number forty-two is ‘develop’.

This is pronounced wrongly by many learners of English as

/’de-vel-əp/.

But the first syllable is actually /di/, and

the stress is on the second syllable.

So /di-’vel-əp/.

Our next word is ‘photography’.

We say /’fo-tə-graf/ but /fə-’tä-grə-fi/.

So the first syllable becomes /fə /. And the

stress goes to the second syllable - /tä-grə-fi/ So

/fə-’tä-grə-fi/.

In the same way, /fə-’tä-grə-fər/.

Word number forty-four is ‘jewelry’.

It’s spelled differently in American and

British English but it’s pronounced the same - /’joo/,

/əl/, /ri/ - /’joo-əl-ri/.

It’s not /’jyu-lə-ri/ and it’s not

/’jwel-ə-ri/.

It’s /’joo-əl-ri/.

Up next is the word ‘quote’.

This is not pronounced the same as ‘coat’.

The correct way to say it is with a /kw/ sound at

the beginning - /’kwot/.

Similarly, we have ‘quotation’ and ‘quotation marks’.

Another punctuation term that many people get wrong is

‘parentheses’.

This is the proper name for the round

brackets that we use in writing.

If you talk about just one bracket, you say /pə-’ren-

thə-sis/.

The stress is on /ren/.

If you’re talking about both, the plural is /pə-’ren-

thə-seez/.

The last syllable becomes /seez/.

/pə-’ren-thə- seez/.

Word number forty-seven is this word.

It’s not so much that it’s mispronounced, it’s just

that it’s said differently in the UK and in the US.

In American English, this is

/’ske-jool/.

The first syllable is /ske/ and the second is

/jool/ - schedule.

In British English, it can be both /’she-

jool/ or /’shed-yool/.

So you can choose the pronunciation

that is right for you.

Number forty-eight is the word ‘elite’.

Actually, there are two correct pronunciations -

/i-’leet/ and /ei-’leet/.

Both are OK but just don’t say /i-

lait/.

There’s no ‘light’ in /i-’leet/.

Now if you keep practicing your pronunciation and avoid the

mistakes that I’ve shared with you in this lesson, you might

just become English pronunciation elite one day.

In fact, you might even become the

‘epitome’ of good pronunciation.

This word means a perfect example of something,

and the perfect pronunciation of that is /i-’pi-tə-mee/.

It’s not /’e-pi-tom/.

Once again, it’s /i-’pi-tə-mee/.

Of course, once you have become the epitome of good

pronunciation, don’t go around correcting everybody for every

single pronunciation mistake that they make.

Because that way, instead of becoming

famous, you might just become ‘infamous’.

This word is the opposite of famous and it means

famous for something bad.

But it’s not pronounced /in-’fei-

məs/.

It’s pronounced /’in-fə- məs/.

Alright, I hope you enjoyed this lesson.

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If you have any questions at all,

you can always ask me in the comments section below and I

will talk to you there.

Happy learning, and I’ll see you in

another lesson soon.