What word do you think is the hardest to pronounce???

[Hayseed]

sorry, but it is not what I meant...I wrote FOCUS to give a sample of the hardest words to pronunce. My intention is to show the similarity with the expressions "fuck us" or "fuck you". I´m a Spanish speaker and those words represent confussions sometimes....

I know what you`re sayin`, juacro. I think Spanish has about five pure vowel sounds with major differences among each one. English has at least fourteen pure vowels with subtle differences among many of them. While you may have some difficulty hearing the difference between "focus" and "f__k us", I can assure you there`s a huge difference to native speakers. All I can tell you is to listen more carefully and you`ll probably be able to hear these differences. Keep in mind that not being able to put all these English vowels into your English pronunciation makes most Spanish accents very harsh & unpleasant to listen to. But, I HAVE heard Spanish speakers who can do well when speaking English; so it`s certainly not impossible. The one that bothers me most is the English "i" as in "hit", "bit", or "with". If you say "The dog bit me", that makes sense. But if you pronounce this lax "i" like "ee", the sentence takes on a different meaning, such as "The dog beat me". See? :up:

 

[Coffa]

Of course sometimes these well-known pronunciation difficulties can affect non-native speakers even when they get it right. I am reminded of the story of the Italian man who was thrown out of a British hotel because he wanted a fork on his table and a sheet on his bed.

 

[joenuts]

I once fumbled over 'entrepreneurship'.

 

[joenuts]

Of course sometimes these well-known pronunciation difficulties can affect non-native speakers even when they get it right. I am reminded of the story of the Italian man who was thrown out of a British hotel because he wanted a fork on his table and a sheet on his bed.

Many of us here in the Philippines cannot pronounce 'sheet' (and sh#t for that matter) properly, so I decided my students needed to know the phonetic difference between the two words.

 

[Robbie_Durham]

I'm an English native, so I have very little trouble with pronunciation. However, it was only around 3 years ago when I finally learned how to pronounce "three" correctly. I had been pronouncing it as "free".

 

[englishstudent]

Hi tdol,

I checked the link you provided for "phthisis"
and on the website for "Ultralingua"
I saw TB spelled as "Tuberculosus",
whereas in other dictionaries, it is
spelled as "Tuberculosis".
Are both spellings correct?

Thanks

 

[alexrps08]

i have problems with 'spinach'. Due to influences from my 1st language.

 

[curmudgeon]

Affect's a verb. ;-)

It could be a noun. In medical (psychiatric) use you could say 'He is suffering from lack of affect'

 

[SunnyDay]

Got a few more: aurora and rural. They're fine on their own, but when I speak quickly, my tongue flops on those second syllables.

 

[wrivas]

I can´t pronunce knowledge,

 

[queenbu]

Maths! And I used to teach it-so I always end up saying Mathematics!

 

[Ouisch]

The hardest thing for me to pronounce is: "clothes & cloths".
Everything with "ths" as ending gives me a lot of problems!
I try very hard to disguise the fact that I'm not British but these words have me bury my head in shame most of the time. All the lovely Natives of this forum: do you maybe have tips on how to improve this?

The "th" sound is difficult for even native English speakers to learn at first. When young children are first learning to talk, most of them substitute an "f" sound, or sometimes an "sss". If someone has a lisp (a speech impediment), the "th" sound is extra-troublesome.

In the case of "clothes", remember that the final "s" sounds more like a "z" (as in the first letter of "zoo.") Place the tip of your tongue between your teeth to make the "th" sound, then quickly draw it backwards and arch it, so that the middle of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth. When spoken in slow motion, your lips will pull back in a sort of grin when you pronounce the final "s" sound in "clothes." (I hope this makes some sense.)

"Cloths", on the other hand, is prounounced with an "s" sound at the end. Again, the tip of your tongue goes between the teeth to form the "th" sound, but then you only pull it back slightly, so that the tip rests just behind your front teeth and against the roof of your mouth, to make the final "s" sound. (Think of a hissing snake.)

 

[Saint Turay]

Thousandths

I think pronouciation has to do with once first language. I believe I can pronounce all english words many times in relation to my mother tonque

 

[eggtar]

can any of you pronounce "kiln"? this word kills me.

 

[julesrules]

with effect and affect, I think I maybe able to help. Someone I know had trouble with this.
The trick is to pronounce the "e" of "effect" as an "i" as in "bin"

This is natural English pronounciation, and it would sound strange to me to hear the "e" of "effect" pronounced as a "e" as in "bed"

As for pronouncing "th" (as in "the":

1. put the tip of your toungue between your teeth, but dont bite down, you should just feel your teeth on either side.
2. Blow out .
3. Now introduce your voice into the soun, just like a droning.
4. You have said "th"

for "th" as in "thermal".

1. same as before
2. Blow out hard.
3. there is no need to use your voice form making this sound, the hiss is enough.

 

[SunnyDay]

The trick is to pronounce the "e" of "effect" as an "i" as in "bin"

This is natural English pronounciation, and it would sound strange to me to hear the "e" of "effect" pronounced as a "e" as in "bed"

Visit the southern U.S. - "effect" with the "e" as in "bed" is common. I personally sometimes also use an "uh" sound for the "e" (or "a" in affect), depending on how fast I'm talking.

 

[larce]

The vowels drive me nuts!, in Spanish my native language, an A is always pronounced in the same way (as an A of course), in english you have several ways to pronounce the same #$!#!~& letter!, for example all these words have different pronunciation:

Fat, far, up, until, mouth

I can barely notice the difference, it is not difficult when you are listening but it is really annoying when you are speaking and the other people do not understand you because if this subtle (for me) differences, my last experience was in a store I asked for a Bag and the clerck looked at me attonished (of course she understood Bug, could anybody told me the difference!!!)

Of course I am planning to take a pronuntiation course, and I am having fun really, I havent had any real problem because of it (I am taking it easy )

 

[incognittum]

Try pronouncing this sentence really fast.
"She sells sea shells by the sea shore"

 

[nyggus]

I've always had problems with pronunciation of the words "environment" and "environmental". They kill me.

Do you have any problems with this or it's just me?

Nyggus

 

[Fazzu]

Well Nyggus,

I don't see any difficulty in pronouncing the word "environment" and "environmental".

But I recently had difficulty in pronouncing the word "genre".And came to know that it's pronounced as jon-re.I'm still trying to figure out if my teacher has pronounced it wrongly.:roll: