What’s the last word you’ve Googled for its pronunciation? Maybe it’s a proper name you’ve seen in the news, an uncommon word that you rarely hear spoken aloud, or a common word that you try to avoid because you always trip over the pronunciation.
Analysts looked at Google search data from the past 12 months to find which words drew the highest number of pronunciation inquiries that included things like “how do you pronounce [word],” “pronunciation of [word],” “correct [word] pronunciation,” and “how to say [word].”
They used the results for a list of “10 Words That Are Tough to Get Right”:
1. Croissant. In French, it’s “kwa-son.” In English, it’s often pronounced “kruh-SAHNT.”
2. Açaí. It’s pronounced “ah-sigh-e.”
3. Schedule. Maybe people were just confused by “The Great British Baking Show”. In the U.K., it’s “sheh-dule”, while in the U.S., it’s “skeh-dule.”
4. Porsche. It’s “POR-shuh” with two syllables, not “Porsch.”
5. Genre. It’s pronounced with two syllables: “zhon-ruh” or “zhon-rah.”
6. Gyroscope. It’s broken down into three syllables: “jy-ruh-skohp.”
7. Worcestershire. The most accepted pronunciation in American English is “wuh-stuh-shr.” The key is to drop the first “r” and soften the “ce.”
8. Entrepreneur. It’s pronounced “on-tre-pruh-nur.”
9. Massachusetts. (???) It’s pronounced “mass-uh-CHOO-sits,” with the stress on the third syllable.
10. Hierarchy. It’s “HIGH-er-ar-key” or “hai-raar-kee.”
(Amusingly, this report MISSPELLS two of the 10 words: Massachusetts and Hierarchy. Maybe we should be Googling how to SPELL them?)
