Difficult words to pronounce in English: 40+ with IPA and tongue twisters

You have Wednesday in your diary, comfortable clothes in your wardrobe, vegetables in the fridge and a library at the end of the street. They are words you use every day and yet almost nobody says them correctly the first time. And then there are the scary ones: Worcestershire, colonel, squirrel. Why they are so hard is a good question: English is not pronounced the way it is spelt, it has sounds and consonant clusters that Spanish does not have, and in many words the vowel you see in the spelling is not even pronounced.

In this guide I give you more than 40 hard-to-pronounce English words, with their IPA pronunciation, their meaning and a tip for each one, grouped by the reason why they are difficult. That way, as well as learning the words, you understand what you need to fix. I also explain how they change in British and American English, a method for studying any difficult word and 12 tongue twisters to train your mouth. Let’s get started! 🙂

Why some words are so hard to pronounce

Not all difficult words are difficult for the same reason. It is almost always one of these five causes, and knowing which one tells you how to attack the word:

And there are two more causes for the words in this list: proper names (many British place names are pronounced very differently from how they are spelt) and long words of Greek or French origin. If you want to understand the historical reason, I explain it in my guide to English spelling and pronunciation.

Words in which a syllable disappears

In these words, a weak vowel vanishes and the word has fewer syllables than it looks. If you pronounce them letter by letter, they sound slow and unnatural.

Words with silent letters

English spelling keeps letters from times when they were pronounced. These are the ones people most often get wrong. (There are more, organised by pattern, in the guide to spelling and pronunciation).

Words with misleading letters

Here the spelling simply lies. There is no rule that solves it: the quickest way is to learn them by heart, with their audio.

Words with difficult consonant clusters

Spanish does not string together so many consonants, so we tend to insert a vowel between them or drop one. If that happens to you, pronounce the word slowly and let the air jump from one consonant to the next with no vowel in between.

For the sounds /θ/ and /ð/, see the guide to TH pronunciation.

Words with the stress where you do not expect it

In these, the problem is not the sound but which syllable is strong. If you put the stress somewhere else, many native speakers will not understand you even if you pronounce every letter correctly.

Difficult British place names

The names of UK cities and places are among the trickiest, because many keep a very old spelling. If you travel to England, you should know them:

Long, scientific and technical words

Here the difficulty is the length, the Greek or French origin and the number of syllables. Break them into chunks and go from the back to the front (I explain how below).

How they change in British and American English

Some difficult words are not pronounced the same in the two accents. These are the best known (on this website we use British English):

How to study any difficult word: 5 steps

1. Listen to it. Look the word up in a dictionary with audio (Cambridge, Oxford, Longman) and read its transcription. Do not trust how it is spelt.
2. Split it into syllables and mark the stress. With development: de-VEL-op-ment.
3. Say it from back to front. Start with the end and keep adding: -ment, -opment, -velopment, development. That way the hardest part comes last and your mouth is already warmed up.
4. Say it in a sentence. We need more development. Words are not pronounced in isolation.
5. Record yourself and compare. Listen to your recording and the dictionary’s one, one after the other.

Common mistakes with difficult words

English tongue twisters

Tongue twisters are a fun workout for your mouth. Each one trains a particular sound that is often difficult. Start slowly, until you can say it without tripping, and then speed up little by little.

How to practise tongue twisters

• Slow and clear first. Speed comes by itself; what matters is that every sound comes out right.
• Exaggerate the movements of your mouth. They help fix the position of your tongue and lips.
• Repeat it three times in a row without a mistake before you speed up.
• Record yourself and listen for which sound you slip on.

FAQ: difficult words to pronounce

What is the hardest word to pronounce in English?

There is no single answer, because it depends on your language. For Spanish speakers, the candidates include Worcestershire, squirrel, sixth, rural and colonel. If you master those, the rest is easier.

How do you pronounce Worcestershire?

/ˈwʊstəʃə/, with three syllables: WUS-ta-sha. It is the name of an English county and of the famous sauce (Worcestershire sauce, /ˈwʊstəʃə sɔːs/).

Why is colonel pronounced «kernel»?

Because the pronunciation comes from the old form of the word, coronel, while the spelling was changed later to look like the Italian colonnello. The spelling changed; the pronunciation did not.

How do you pronounce February?

/ˈfebruəri/, with the «r» in the middle. Many native speakers say /ˈfebjuəri/, which is also considered correct.

Why are there so many words that do not sound the way they are spelt?

Because of the history of the language: English has borrowed words from many languages and its spelling was fixed before the pronunciation changed. I explain it in the guide to English spelling and pronunciation.

What should I do if I do not know how to pronounce a word?

Look it up in a dictionary with audio and read the transcription. Repeat the audio two or three times and record yourself. If you do not know the phonetic alphabet, start with the guide to English phonetics (IPA).

Difficult words exercises

Thirty sentences to check you have understood. The answers are below each exercise.

Exercise 1: choose the correct pronunciation

Choose the correct pronunciation of each word.

Exercise 2: how many syllables?

Write how many syllables each word has when it is pronounced (British English). Write only the number.

Exercise 3: where is the stress?

Write on which syllable the main stress falls: 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Conclusion

To sum up in three ideas: difficult words are difficult for only a few reasons (syllables that disappear, silent letters, misleading letters, consonant clusters and unexpected stress), and knowing which one tells you how to fix the word; for every new word, listen to the audio, split it into syllables and say it from back to front; and tongue twisters train your mouth for the sounds that are hardest.

If you want to continue with pronunciation, I recommend my guide to the 12 most common pronunciation mistakes of Spanish speakers and the one on the schwa. Is there a word you cannot get right? Write to me and I will help.

This guide is part of the KSE Academy pronunciation series. You will find the complete map, with all the guides, in the complete guide to English pronunciation.

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See you in the next post. Until then, don’t forget to keep smiling! 🙂