| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | The unpronounceable (April 29, 2011) Thread poster: RominaZ
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RominaZ 
Argentina
English to Spanish
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I found this video of "The Unpronounceables" and I think it is hilarious (I hope you do, too). I thought it would be fun to share here the words that we find hard to pronounce in English and see if there are any coincidences.
Which are the words in English that you find most difficult to pronounce?
Here are some of the words my co-workers and I would include on the list:
enthusiasm
entrepreneurial
genuineness
hierarchically
interoperability
onomatopoeia
preternatural
specialization
and really tough ones:
antidisestablishmentarianism
floccinaucinihilipilification
What about you?
| | | | Dave Bindon
Greece
Local time: 02:50
Greek to English
In memoriam | As a native speaker... | Apr 29, 2011 |
As a native speaker of English, I don't find any of those words difficult (unless I'm drunk!).
I'll be interested to see what lists other people come up with, and what correlation there is with the person's native language(s).
I'm sure, for example, that some of our French and German colleagues would include words which have a "th" in them, since that phoneme (is that what it's called? - it's decades since I studied linguistics!) doesn't exist in their native language... See more As a native speaker of English, I don't find any of those words difficult (unless I'm drunk!).
I'll be interested to see what lists other people come up with, and what correlation there is with the person's native language(s).
I'm sure, for example, that some of our French and German colleagues would include words which have a "th" in them, since that phoneme (is that what it's called? - it's decades since I studied linguistics!) doesn't exist in their native languages.
Similarly, I'd expect some of my Greek colleagues to admit to having difficulty with 'sh' and 'u' (or perhaps they don't even realize that they're not pronouncing those phonemes correctly). The fact that most Greeks can't tell the difference between 's' and 'sh', or 'a' and 'u' (because 'sh' and 'u' don't exist in Greek) becomes blindingly obvious when you see some of the common mistakes that are made when the average Greek (ie not translators) speaks and writes English. I often see "Fan club" written as 'Fun club' and hear it pronounced as 'Fan clamb' (there's a problem with pronouncing 'b' without a preceding 'm'). "Drag show" becomes 'Drug sow' etc.
As for myself, the main problem that I have with Greek pronunciation (that I'm aware of!) is words which have γ (gamma) twice, with a change in pronunciation because of the following vowel sound. Words like καταγωγή where the first γ is a gutteral 'gh' and the second is similar to the English 'y'. ▲ Collapse
| | | | veratek
Brazil
Local time: 20:50
French to English
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| one for me in French | Apr 29, 2011 |
saying "caractéristique" in French always make me feel like I'm saying a small tongue-twister (combination of the r's + s + the rest)
| | | | | one for me in Slovak | Apr 29, 2011 |
My tongue always gets tangled up in the word "meteorologicky", although I don't think that's one of the hardest words to pronounce in Slovak. Unless I slow it down to the point where other people impatiently go ahead and say it for me, I never get it quite right.
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Germaine
Canada
Local time: 19:50
English to French
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| you're right! | Apr 29, 2011 |
Dave Bindon wrote:
I'm sure, for example, that some of our French and German colleagues would include words which have a "th" in them...
Yep! In the mouth of a French speaker of English, the !!!!! "th" must be the most suffering sound to be... spat! In the next corner, the "i" - as in "live" vs. "life" - probably is a close contender. Finally, "Onion ring" has been massacred by one of the characters of the TV series "La p'tite vie" for so many years that nobody dare to pronounce it anymore!
For the English colleagues, I suspect the "gn" pair to have a first row seat in this forum. For instance, the word "ignorant" in French, has a better impact when pronounced "i-gno-rant" (instead of ig-no-rant).
In the unpronounceable category, I still can't get through "les chemises de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches archisèches". For more French tongue twisters:
http://french.about.com/cs/francophonie/a/tonguetwisters_4.htm
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For me the unpronounceable is best-seller (S+T+S). I just can't say it right...I have to say it in slowmo... Is it the word combination or just me??
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 17:50
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
In the USA, we natives just pronounce "best-seller" as "besseller", that solves the problem. Non-natives are often too prone to over-correction. In the USA, sloppiy pronunciation is the rule. There are all kinds of examples.
| | | | | longest word in the English language | May 1, 2011 |
Interesting...
Random House:
floc·ci·nau·ci·ni·hil·i·pil·i·fi·ca·tion n.
Rare. the estimation of something as valueless
(encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language).
[1735–45; < L flocc# + nauc# + nihil# + pil# all meaning “of little or no value, trifling” + -FICATION]
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| Royal wedding tongue-twister | May 1, 2011 |
While watching the Royal Wedding the other day, we found "SCOTTISH STATE COACH" quite a challenge - especially after a couple of glasses of champagne.
Jenny
| | | | Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 02:50
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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I'm told when during the civil war 1918 the Whites wanted to make sure who is Russian and who is Finn they asked them to count to three. But already the word for one: yksi, revealed the Russian accent. They cannot pronounce this as 'üksi' but say 'youksi'.
Off they were taken to be shot!
Also English people have difficulties with the German ü/Finnish y/French u.
A lot of people have difficulty with the word 'democracy' in any language.
| | | | veratek
Brazil
Local time: 20:50
French to English
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| same for Japanese | May 1, 2011 |
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
I'm told when during the civil war 1918 the Whites wanted to make sure who is Russian and who is Finn they asked them to count to three. But already the word for one: yksi, revealed the Russian accent. They cannot pronounce this as 'üksi' but say 'youksi'.
Off they were taken to be shot!
I had heard something similar concerning Japanese people not being able to pronounce L's. Can't remember if it was during WWII.
All in all, the fact that human beings have a window at the very earliest age of their language development where they are able to perfectly learn to pronounce no matter what sound and then that window, to a large extent, closes later on is a fascinating phenomenon.
| | | | | Tätätätä!!! English for Frenchmen. | May 1, 2011 |
An American couple, tourists, at a SNCF (French Railways) counter in Paris:
He, very friendly to the clerk (ticket seller, or even speech recognition robot):
"Two to Toulouse, please."
And his friend, behind him (might think, the clerk's/robot's work is easier printing all tickets in a single run):
"Too two to Toulouse"
(PRONOUNCIATION:
TOOTOOTOOTOOLOOSE - you might need a metronom for the correct pronounciation)... See more An American couple, tourists, at a SNCF (French Railways) counter in Paris:
He, very friendly to the clerk (ticket seller, or even speech recognition robot):
"Two to Toulouse, please."
And his friend, behind him (might think, the clerk's/robot's work is easier printing all tickets in a single run):
"Too two to Toulouse"
(PRONOUNCIATION:
TOOTOOTOOTOOLOOSE - you might need a metronom for the correct pronounciation)
The clerk angry, in modern times the robot, confused:
TÄTÄTÄTÄ
(The Ä is in German a vocal between A and E -
we say: ein Apfel (1 apple) with an A like in bar, but we say 2 Äpfel, Ä like in apple.
TÄTÄTÄTÄ on a sunny Sunday afternoon,
Werner. ▲ Collapse
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I hate drawers with a passion, my English girlfriend is always correcting be, but try as I might, I can't seem to place my mouth in a way that makes this word sound right, unfortunately, there aren't really synonyms I can use... practice makes perfect, I'll get it at some point.
| | | | Wendy Cummings
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:50
Spanish to English
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I remember being surprised when I realised it was simple word combinations such as walk/work that caused problems to my non-English friends.
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Eichhörnchen -> squirrel
I practice since 1996... still no progress.
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