From fridge to sesquipedalian

Weekly Topic: A word in your native language which you find it hard to pronounce

Teacher Dom


 

Here are some of my favourite words which are difficult to pronounce in English. Have fun!

 

refrigerator - nobody in the UK uses this word. We all call it the fridge. Much easier :-)

GIF

Pronunciation: “gif” or “jif”

GIF is one of those words that can be pronounced two ways. You can pronounce it “gif” OR “jif”

Sixth

Pronunciation: “siksth”

anemone

uhnemuh-nee ].

 

colonel

The word colonel came to English through French, where it was spelled coronel

[ kur-nl ].

 

February

The word February is most commonly pronounced as if the first R is not present: [ feb-yoo-er-ee ], because R sounds and Y sounds are quite closely It is also correct to pronounce the R, as in [ feb-roo-er-ee ].

 

 

Worcestershire (sauce)

[ woos-ter-sheer ].

However most Brits who use this word simply refer to it as Worcester sauce

[ woos-ter].

 

Deteriorate

“dih-TEER-ee-uh-reyt”

 

ignominious: /ˌɪɡnəˈmɪniəs/, ihg-nuhm-in-ee-us: very embarrassing

How is it pronounced? 

“ig-nuh-MIN-ee-uhs”, emphasis on the third syllable

 

sesquipedalian: /ˌseskwɪpɪˈdeɪliən/, sess-kwih-pid-ay-lee-in

We use this to talk about someone who tends to use a lot of LONG words

 
This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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