The 10 words below are commonly mispronounced in English.
The first five are the top results from Googles auto-fill for the phrase How do I pronounce… Im no prescriptivistwords are yours to do with as you will, so pronounce em however you like.
Gyro
Im starting with a tricky one.
Gyro is either a shortened form of gyroscope or the name of a Greek lamb sandwich.
The greek sandwich,according to Websters, is called a yee-roh or a zhir-roh.
Its rhymes with hero.
If so, its pronouncedaa-saa-ee.
We arent used to starting words with an ng sound.
There is no right answer.
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a county in England where they invented a delicious condiment in the 1830s.
Its not pronounced Wor-chest-tir-shire.
Neither is exactly how Vietnamese people pronounce it, because pho contains a sound English doesnt include.
Library
Its not lie-berry or lie-bear-y Its llai-breh-ree.
But if you say it quickly without careful enunciation, it will sound like lie-bree anyway.
Its just an awkward word because of that middle syllable.
Often
That t in often should not be there.
Its not in the word when you say it, because its pronounced aa-fn.
), Neesh is a newer pronunciation.
nich is the classic.
But both are fine.
The same rule applies to Antarctic, which also has an inconvenient t sound youre supposed to pronounce too.
This wasnt always the case.
Cache
This is an easy one!
A cache is a group of hidden things.
Some people say kaysh, probably because of the ending e. Some people say kash-ay, but.
if you do that, youre using the word cachet, which means prestige.
Forte
Forte (a persons strong suit) hasno agreed-upon pronunciation.
you could say fort.
Or you could say for-tay, or for-tay.
No matter how you say it, someone will think youre wrong.
But if youre using forte to talk about the musical notation for play loudly, its always for-tay
