# 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:** 2
### Author:  [@MildlyObsessed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MildlyObsessed)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/21 "2012-04-10T10:03:54Z")
As a foreigner who learned English at school I probably have a ton of words I mispronounce, but I mostly struggle with understanding the logic behind certain words. For example why on earth is Nike not pronounced the same way as Ike? I understand it in Ikea because there is the -a at the end but it’s not Nikea… Why is the -e not silent as it logically should?
Another one that baffles me is aluminium - I’ve only heard it pronounced as aloo-mi-num but always see it spelled out aluminium instead of aluminum. So confusing! I understand that in English you don’t necessarily pronounce each letter but cutting them of at random makes it harder for foreigners to learn. I’ll keep studying tho maybe one day I’ll be able to carry a conversation without people making fun of me 🙂
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/22 "2012-04-10T10:58:44Z")
Synecdoche.
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/23 "2012-04-10T10:59:49Z")
> [@MildlyObsessed](#):
>
> As a foreigner who learned English at school I probably have a ton of words I mispronounce, but I mostly struggle with understanding the logic behind certain words. For example why on earth is Nike not pronounced the same way as Ike? I understand it in Ikea because there is the -a at the end but it’s not Nikea… Why is the -e not silent as it logically should?
>
> Another one that baffles me is aluminium - I’ve only heard it pronounced as aloo-mi-num but always see it spelled out aluminium instead of aluminum. So confusing! I understand that in English you don’t necessarily pronounce each letter but cutting them of at random makes it harder for foreigners to learn. I’ll keep studying tho maybe one day I’ll be able to carry a conversation without people making fun of me 🙂
Nike is named after a Greek goddess, and the final “e” is pronounced in Greek. In British English, many people do pronounce Nike to rhyme with Ike, although the “correct” pronunciation is “Nike-ee”.
As for aluminium, are you in Britain or the USA (or elsewhere)? Aluminium is the British spelling, and we do pronounce it “al-yoo-MIN-yum”. Aluminum is the US spelling, and it is pronounced “a-LOO-min-um”. Both pronounced as they are spelled.
I can pronounce most English words fine, but I can’t roll my Rs.
My wife has real trouble with the word “vanilla” - she always says “valinna”, which oddly I find MORE difficult to say!
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/24 "2012-04-10T11:04:11Z")
> [@MildlyObsessed](#):
>
> Another one that baffles me is aluminium - I’ve only heard it pronounced as aloo-mi-num but always see it spelled out aluminium instead of aluminum.
Americans spell _and_ pronounce it “Aluminum” whereas most other English speaking countries spell _and_ pronounce it “Alumin **i** um.”
So you’re confused because of country of origin of where you read or hear it.
---
### Author:  [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/25 "2012-04-10T11:32:48Z")
**Ammunition**
[del]am-uh-ni-shun
am-you-shun
amma-shun[/del]
Bullets.
---
### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/26 "2012-04-10T11:41:45Z")
“ostensibly”
I can never say it!
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/27 "2012-04-10T12:01:38Z")
Pwned
---
### Author:  [@MildlyObsessed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MildlyObsessed)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/28 "2012-04-10T12:04:33Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> Nike is named after a Greek goddess, and the final “e” is pronounced in Greek. In British English, many people do pronounce Nike to rhyme with Ike, although the “correct” pronunciation is “Nike-ee”.
>
> As for aluminium, are you in Britain or the USA (or elsewhere)? Aluminium is the British spelling, and we do pronounce it “al-yoo-MIN-yum”. Aluminum is the US spelling, and it is pronounced “a-LOO-min-um”. Both pronounced as they are spelled.
Thank you for this clarification! I live in Europe but have lived a while in the States, never even visited Britain. It was at first rather difficult to understand the American English as we mostly study the British English over here. I wish I could pick up the British accent as it sounds so much more sophisticated 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/29 "2012-04-10T12:36:53Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> 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.
I say Feb **r** uary and Antar **c** tica. 😕
I have trouble with _colloquial_, and even more problems with _colloquially_. I really have to think before pronouncing them.
---
### Author:  [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/30 "2012-04-10T13:32:55Z")
Can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I was always amazed though how many teachers I had who had problems with the word “statistics.”
---
### Author:  [@lizlizliz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizlizliz)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/31 "2012-04-10T13:46:11Z")
My mother couldn’t pronounce “Eukanuba” to save her life. I wonder if that’s part of why she switched the dog to a different brand of dog food.
---
### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/32 "2012-04-10T16:32:26Z")
Adirondack
I pronounce it “A-deer-on-dack”
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/33 "2012-04-10T16:37:45Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I say Feb **r** uary and Antar **c** tica. 😕
Ditto. I also usually pronounce _Wednesday_ correctly.
---
### Author:  [@Tracyfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracyfish)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/34 "2012-04-10T16:40:54Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> 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.
I try to pronounce it with the first ‘r’ but it always comes out awkward, like “Febrary” instead of “February”.
---
### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/35 "2012-04-10T16:46:01Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> …
> As for aluminium, are you in Britain or the USA (or elsewhere)? Aluminium is the British spelling, and we do pronounce it “al-yoo-MIN-yum”. Aluminum is the US spelling, and it is pronounced “a-LOO-min-um”. Both pronounced as they are spelled.
>
> …
This is off topic, but I think it is interesting.
From the wiki article on Aluminum:
> [@](#):
>
> The earliest citation given in the Oxford English Dictionary for any word used as a name for this element is alumium, which British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy employed in 1808 for the metal he was trying to isolate electrolytically from the mineral alumina. The citation is from the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: “Had I been so fortunate as to have obtained more certain evidences on this subject, and to have procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium.”[63][64]
>
> Davy settled on aluminum by the time he published his 1812 book Chemical Philosophy: “This substance appears to contain a peculiar metal, but as yet Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state, though alloys of it with other metalline substances have been procured sufficiently distinct to indicate the probable nature of alumina.”[65] But the same year, an anonymous contributor to the Quarterly Review, a British political-literary journal, in a review of Davy’s book, objected to aluminum and proposed the name aluminium, “for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound.”[66]
---
### Author:  [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/36 "2012-04-10T17:01:15Z")
I cannot pronounce “bag” and “egg” the way Jeff Probst does on Survivor. I hear him say “bag” on many episodes and try as I might, I just can’t say it.
---
### Author:  [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/37 "2012-04-10T17:22:37Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> Apparently I pronunce Yale like jail.
That could cause some confusion:
“How is your family?”
“Thank you for asking, everyone is fine. And our son is going to jail!”
> [@](#):
>
> the pronunciation which was fine in Place A triggers laughter and ridicule at the “ignorant foreigner” in Place B.
May I ask you, since I suspect I may not get a completely honest answer from my Spanish friends who want to spare my feelings, what do native Spanish speakers think of someone who is otherwise fluent, but cannot pronounce “rr” correctly, and just makes it a hard “r”?
---
### Author:  [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/38 "2012-04-10T17:30:10Z")
Comfortable. I invariably say “comftorble”
Email. It always comes out as “emell”
---
### Author:  [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/39 "2012-04-10T18:12:21Z")
Thesaurus.
Theseus.
Thessalonica.
I have a lisp.
---
### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279/40 "2012-04-10T18:51:54Z")
Van Gogh. 😛
I used to stumble over cacophony, continuity and applicable.
I’ve got them down now.
I think… 😃
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-cant-pronounce/618279.md?page=3)