# Words you can't pronounce
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 9, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279 "2012-04-09T17:23:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/1 "2012-04-09T17:23:36Z")
One of my co-workers simply cannot pronounce the word “inevitably.” She ends up with something closer to “in-ett-ably,” even when we tried to sound out individual syllables and put it back together. At least she has a sense of humor about it 🙂
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### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/2 "2012-04-09T17:31:50Z")
So_th_oth
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/3 "2012-04-09T19:42:51Z")
Apparently I pronunce Yale like jail. And like many Spaniards, bear and beer and soap and soup drive me up a wall and down another, specially since there seem to change pronunciation with dialect; the pronunciation which was fine in Place A triggers laughter and ridicule at the “ignorant foreigner” in Place B.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/4 "2012-04-09T20:05:17Z")
Rural.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/5 "2012-04-09T20:06:11Z")
I invariably say “ex_plan_ation mark” for “exclamation mark”. No idea why. It just comes out that unless I really stop and think and sound it out syllable for syllable.
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### Author:  [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/6 "2012-04-09T20:39:23Z")
Instead of going to, or gonna, I often say something like guh noo. This has earned me a few moments of ridicule in the past, but I still do it.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/7 "2012-04-09T20:46:29Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> And like many Spaniards, bear and beer and soap and soup drive me up a wall and down another
This surprises me as you actually have all those vowels. It’s as if they were spelled in Spanish as ber, bir, sop, and sup. I figured you’d have more problem with vowels like the u in cut or the oo in book.
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### Author:  [@Nuveena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuveena)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/8 "2012-04-10T00:09:32Z")
> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> Rural.
+1
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### Author:  [@Tracyfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracyfish)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/9 "2012-04-10T03:04:18Z")
February.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/10 "2012-04-10T03:41:32Z")
> [@Tracyfish](#):
>
> February.
Well, that’s more the category of “Words NO ONE pronounces all of”:
Everyone just says _FEB-you-ary_. You’d sound odd if you pronounced the first R.
Like _Antarctica_. Most people leave off the first C.
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### Author:  [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/11 "2012-04-10T03:47:35Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> And like many Spaniards, bear and beer and soap and soup drive me up a wall and down another, specially since there seem to change pronunciation with dialect; the pronunciation which was fine in Place A triggers laughter and ridicule at the “ignorant foreigner” in Place B.
Well, we’re even, because I can speak Spanish fluently, but I can’t roll my r’s (rr in Spanish), and I’ve been trying for 20 years. It’s very frustrating.
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/12 "2012-04-10T03:48:17Z")
Hello. No matter how hard I try it comes out “yellow”. So much so that some friends automatically reply “blue”.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/13 "2012-04-10T04:13:49Z")
> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> Rural.
+2. First thing that came to mind. Hate that friggin word.
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### Author:  [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/14 "2012-04-10T07:13:34Z")
Anesthesiologist
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### Author:  [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/15 "2012-04-10T07:27:46Z")
Shibboleth.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/16 "2012-04-10T07:54:01Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> This surprises me as you actually have all those vowels. It’s as if they were spelled in Spanish as ber, bir, sop, and sup. I figured you’d have more problem with vowels like the u in cut or the oo in book.
But those vowels are not the same as the Spanish vowels; the ones in bear and beer are longer than ours and have inflections, the r is different, and the vowels change by location. The vowels used in your dialect may be those four, but they are not the same ones used everywhere. And the u in cut, depending on which cut (present or past) and which dialect, is the one I identify with the Spanish u.
Book is pronounced búk, of course, same as baloo is pronounced balú.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/17 "2012-04-10T08:18:58Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> Apparently I pronunce Yale like jail.
I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/18 "2012-04-10T08:48:33Z")
> [@Nobody](#):
>
> I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way.
What, you always hear it with a ‘J’?
I can’t pronounce “legislative” unless I stop and think. It comes out lezhslllitttuvv like I’m drunk or someone’s slowed down the tape.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/19 "2012-04-10T08:50:14Z")
> [@jjimm](#):
>
> What, you always hear it with a ‘J’?
:smack: Oh, that’s what she meant. I thought meant ale = ail.
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### Author:  [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/20 "2012-04-10T08:58:51Z")
I say “bolth” for both. Both isn’t right, I don’t care what anybody says.
+whatever to rural. Horrible word.
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