Ever find a word or name that you just can't pronounce?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My cousins are French Canadian. One of them I’ve always known as Ariane, but when I stayed with them for the first time I discovered that Ariane is her middle name and it’s what non-French speakers call her. Her first name is Laure.

And I just. can’t. pronounce it!

It’s “Lu-a-o-re” or something like that but despite my best attempts I just got giggles and “you’re still not doing it right!”. So she’s Ariane to me.

But it’s odd – I’ve never had something so unpronouncable to me. I can even do tough German words with enough prompting.

Anyone else have similiar problems?

2

Brewery.

3

‘vapid’, ‘rabid’ and ‘celibacy’

hmm…

4

Do phrases count? “Rural Route”.

5

“Specific,” and all its variations. I just say “pacific” and let it go at that.

6

“Edited it.”

7

“Regularly”

I can pronounce it, but I have to do it somewhat slowly or else I’ll sound drunk.

8

“Cinnamon” and “synonym”. I start saying one, and the other comes out.

9

Technically, I believe that there isn’t a single French word that a non-French person can ever truely pronounce correctly.

I’m taking a class and there is a French woman in it.

Teacher EEliot?

Student No AAleeeot.

Teacher AAleeeot?

Student No AAleeo

Teacher AAleeo

Student no EEleeeo

In short if you repeat it back to them just as they pronounce it, they will change the pronunciation.

In NYC this can be found with the people who sell on of my favorite sandwiches.

Me I would like a gyro.

Them You want tomatos and white sauce on your GHI-Ro?

Me No tomatoes.

the next customer I would like a GHI-Ro.

Them You want white sauce and tomatoes on your gyro?

10

I had to give a public talk recently, and use this phrase, ‘metatechnological dramaturgy.’

I sounded like Prince George in Dish and Dishonesty trying to wrap his tonsils around antidisit…antidesi…antidisestis…antidistinctly…minty…monetarism…

11

Phenomenologically. I get stuck in a loop somewhere in the middle and end up with phenomenonomenonomeno…

12

Analogously.

I had no problem with this word until I had to read it aloud.

13

Albermarle. (It’s a place name in England.)

Something about the second ‘r.’ My Canadian tongue can’t get around it.

14

“Statistics” and its evil cousin, “statistician”, never come out of my mouth the right way.

15

Rolls Royce.

16

Er, there is no second “r”. It’s Albemarle. Does that help?

I have trouble with “epitome”. I know how it’s pronounced but I still mentally say “EP-py-tome” and then trip up over it and correct myself. I think it’s because as a child I saw some stupid comedy show where some guy pronounced it like that.

On a similar note, I always mentally pronounce the abbreviation “cwt” as “kilowatt” even though I know full well it’s “hundredweight” :smack:

17

Hyundai. Which is a bit unfortunate, because my husband just acquired one. The previous owner called it Blackie II. No wonder.

18

There is a word in Danish I’ve never been able to pronounce. It’s vrøvl, an exclamation which means ‘nonsense’ or ‘poppycock.’ The ‘ø’ is difficult enough, but add the r’s and the v’s and it becomes impossible. I can say rød grød med fløde, reputedly the trickiest phrase to say, but not that word. Too bad, because it’s a really good one.

19

particularly is a mouthful.

particulully is how it comes out, and if I concentrate, I say partick-you-lar-lee with an emphasis on the whole “lar lee” part.

20

Vietnamese names! I’ve got Nguyen down pretty well (nnnnwin), but Ngoc, or Huong, or Xuan, or Doahn…nope. The closest I can get to those is Knock, Hong, Zwan, and Dawn, respectively. Luckily, most of the Vietnamese people I know have English nicknames.