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For both native and non-native English speakers: what word or phrase do you find especially difficult to pronounce? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I used to think the "th" sound is hard because it is uncommon in my language, we do not use our tongues to hit the top teeth like that. But then, it became 2nd nature after living abroad for almost 20 years.

Recently i happen to work with a lot of architects and designers and 1 word comes up which I think is the most difficult to pronouncr: AESTHETIC.

It sounds very simple but if you break down the syllables, your tongue needs to do a bit of work.

For the British English version, the "t" in tic is pronounced quite strong, as in "tick". Mostly, your tongue only needs to worry about the "THE" sound, i.e. ES-THE-TIC.

In US English, the "t" is most often pronounced as a soft "d". This means "TIC" will sound like "DIC". So your tongue needs to flick up for the "THE" sound and then immediately flick down for the "DIC".

This gets even harder if you consider the adverb: AESTHETICALLY. A lot of tongue gymnasium involve...

Any other words or phrase that you think is dificult?

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[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I used to find words that had the letter R followed by an L difficult. Like girl, world, etc. They're still a bit tongue twisty tbh

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Those 'r's are silent. The previous vowel just gets lengthened.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Just drop the “r” English-style - “guhl”, “wuhld”. Easy!

Or you could go the other way and roll the “r” like the Seventh Doctor.

[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 points 3 weeks ago

You know, a funny thing with the rolled R is that as a young kid I couldn't do it, so in 0th grade I basically had to take additional special classes to practice it, but then a couple of years later when we started 2nd grade and thus started english, I had trouble unlearning to roll my R's as it was so ingrained in my brain by then lol :3. So I basically flipped my problem around