We all know the feeling. You’re deep in conversation and need to finally say that new word that has sneaked into society’s vocabulary. You may have seen it on a million memes or read it in every article that week, yet when you come to say it, you suddenly feel tongue-tied. After all, how do we know we are pronouncing words correctly if we’ve never heard nor said them aloud?
Be it the latest TikTok trend, holiday hotspot, or even covid variant, we encounter new and often challenging terms every day. Many of which leave us fumbling around consonants and vowels or muttering it out and hoping nobody notices.
From city names to consumer brands, musicians to movie stars, and a whole host of sports stars, too, we all struggle with mastering pronunciation from time to time. But what are the most commonly mispronounced words?
This sent WordTips on a mission to discover the most tongue-twisting terms. Using the online pronunciation dictionary Forvo.com, we delved into the listen-to-count data of a range of words, names, and places to see which terms people struggle with the most.
Key Findings
- With 7,000,000 listens on Forvo, people struggle to pronounce Rio De Janeiro more than any other city in the world.
- Saoirse Ronan has the most mispronounced actors name with 95,000 listens.
- Ed Sheeran might be a household name, but 154,000 listens prove the singer’s name is hard to pronounce for some.
- MVP Players Jokic, Embiid and Antetokounmpo amongst most mispronounced NBA Stars.
- When it comes to consumer brands, Google racks up 1,300,000 listens for its pronunciation.
Holiday Hotspots Prove to be the Most Mispronounced City Names
Whether Buenos Aires (bweh·nos ai·ruhz) in Argentina or Baghdad (bag-dad) in Afghanistan, each country has at least one city that’s bound to leave your tongue in a twist. Take a trip around the globe on a pronunciation odyssey to see which cities trip up the most people.
With 195 countries speaking over 7000 languages and dialects, there’s bound to be some bemusement when it comes to nailing the correct pronunciation. With some of the most contested and confusing pronunciations resulting from city names.
Much like learning a language, the trick to mastering the correct pronunciation of city names is to decipher each syllable. Sarajevo is a place that catches plenty of English speakers out as the J is said softly ‘sa·ruh·yay·vow’ while Chicago (shuh·kaa·gow) may confuse some non-natives as ‘Ch’ is pronounced as ‘Sh.’
A-List Actress Saoirse Ronan Has the Most Mispronounced Name
Despite being nominated for multiple Academy, Bafta and Screen Actors Guild awards, not to mention winning a Golden Globe, Saoirse Ronan (Ser-Scha Row·Nuhn) tops our list as the actor with the most commonly mispronounced name. Gaelic names like Saoirse’s can certainly be trickier to pronounce, thanks to the prevalence of double or triple vowels that leave many of us scratching our heads.
Saoirse’s Ladybird and Little Women co-star Timothée Chalamet also features in our Top 10 most mispronounced actors’ names. Commonly mistaken as Timothy(ti·muh·thee), the correct pronunciation hails from his French heritage, where the double ee and accent make it ‘Timo-tay Shala-may.’ However, both stars of the big screen seem to be fairly laid back about others mispronouncing their tongue-tying names.
City Names Dominate Most Commonly Mispronounced Words
Cities have some of the hardest names to master, according to our study. With eight of the top ten hardest city names racking up over a million listens, this category eclipsed any other. Taking the top spot with a whopping 7,000,000 listens was Rio de Janeiro (Ree-oh dey zhuh-nair-oh). As Portuguese is a notoriously tricky language to get right, especially as pronunciation varies.
One theory as to why we might struggle with the correct pronunciation of city names is down to the fact they are sometimes translated to simplify or better suit the syllables used in different vernaculars. While London is simply London (luhn·dn) to an English speaker, London becomes Londres in French, causing some confusion when it comes to pronunciation.
On the other hand, some cities are just downright difficult to decipher. Scotland’s capital Edinburgh is a prime example, often mistakenly pronounced as ‘ed-in-borough’ or with an overemphasis on the gh, similar to Pittsburgh. The correct pronunciation is ‘ed-in-bruh,’ with advice from locals being not to dwell on the vowels and say the last ‘bruh’ section faster and softer.
German Car Brands Drive the Most People to Practice Pronunciation
Brand names are some of the most common terms that confuse and confound us. As new companies emerge and grow, we are often left trying to figure out once and for all how their name should be pronounced. We found that some of the biggest brands in the world still stump the most people, with search engine supremo Google (Goo-guhl) taking the top spot with 1.3 million listens.
Although German cars are renowned for their high performance and luxurious ride, plenty of people seem to struggle when it comes to correctly pronouncing their names. So much so, a quartet of German car manufacturers, including Porsche (Por-shuh), BMW (bee em double yoo), Mercedes Benz (mer-say-deez benz) and Audi (Ow-dee), all appear in our top 10 mispronounced brand names.
While BMW is, in fact, an acronym, standing for Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works, the initials themselves are still pronounced very differently in various dialects. While in English we know it as ‘bee em double yoo,’ being a German brand, the original pronunciation is more akin to ‘bee em vee.’
Sergio Agüero Tops the Table as the Most Mispronounced Footballer Player
As a truly global sport, it’s no wonder we frequently come across football players whose names prove trickier to pronounce than scoring the perfect panenka penalty. Whether a legend of the game like Lionel Messi (Lee-oh-nell mess-i) or a star of tomorrow in Kylian Mbappe (Kee-lee-an M-bap-pay), getting the pronunciation spot-on in soccer is no easy task.
During last summer’s EURO 2020 tournament, organizers Uefa even released a cheat sheet ahead of the quarter-finals to help fans gain a better grasp on some of the harder pronunciations. With the World Cup occurring in Qatar later this year, now is the perfect time to brush up on your delivery before cheering your favorite players on. With 8 of our top 10 footballers likely to feature at the tournament, including Polish trio Wojciech Szczęsny (Voy-chekh Sh-chen-sni), Jakub Błaszczykowski (Yak-oob bla-wa- ko-sk-i) and Krzysztof Piątek (Kshish-tof Pee-yon-tek).
When it comes to Polish phonology, many people struggle to get their heads around pronunciation, thanks to an abundance of complex consonant clusters. This is where we encounter a series of successive consonants without any vowels. Although this occurs in many languages, including English, we see it much more frequently in Polish words, sometimes finding as many as six consonants in a row, just as in Jakub Blaszczykowski’s name.
MVP Players Jokic, Embiid and Antetokounmpo Amongst Most Mispronounced NBA Stars
Much like their fellow professional footballers, basketballers often face the same perils when it comes to mispronunciation. With the NBA drawing the world’s best players to the US to practice their trade, we see names from around the globe appearing on jerseys, ready to boggle the mind of unsuspecting fans.
In fact, throughout the last couple of years, we have seen prominent basketballers challenge announcers, match officials and broadcasters for consistently getting names wrong. WNBA stars Natalie Achonwa( Na-ta-lee uh-chon-wuh)and Aari McDonald (Air-e Muk-don-uhld) recently made a stand, claiming these mistakes are disrespectful and discriminatory, with there being no excuse for such errors, given that pronunciation guides are provided to prevent such gaffes.
Ed Sheeran Takes the Top Spot in Most Mispronounced Musicians Chart
Ed Sheeran (Ed- Sheer-an), Shakira (Shuh-keeuh-ruh) and Justin Bieber (juh·stuhn bee·buh) are perhaps some of the most popular musicians on the planet today. Their catchy songs are known word for word by millions of people; however, their names don’t seem to roll off the tongue quite as easily.
Billie Eilish (Bi-Lee Eye-lish) is another musician at the top of their game, boasting the biggest vocabulary of any modern-day pop star, along with two best-selling albums to boot. Billie finds herself at the top of a very different chart here, though, as she lays claim to the fourth most mispronounced musician name in our top 10 and her name being one of the most difficult words to come out of 2021.
The Most Mispronounced Words
Millions of people turn to online pronunciation dictionaries such as Forvo.com when faced with a particularly devilish word.
The average American is said to know, understand and utilize 20,000 words in their vocabulary, plus another 22,000 words that are known passively. Considering there are over 170,000 words in the English lexicon, that means we have a grasp on less than 25% of our own language.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that so many words, names and places prove difficult to pronounce. Remember the next time you stumble on a tricky word, try to break it down into syllables, look for letter combinations you know or utilize online pronunciation databases to hear it expertly spoken by a range of different speakers.
Methodology and Sources
To find the most mispronounced words, we utilized the largest pronunciation dictionary in the world: Forvo.com. Forvo uses sound clips in many different languages in an attempt to facilitate the learning of languages and correct pronunciation of words.
After drawing up a seed list of actors, brands, sports stars, musicians and cities, we were able to delve into the data to discover how many times each name or place had been listened to in order to learn the correct pronunciation.
Once the listen count for each term had been recorded, we found the Top 10 entries by the number of listens for each category.
To find the most mispronounced city in every country, we searched for cities with populations over 100,000. If no cities matched the criteria for a country, up to 10 most populous cities were selected depending on availability. The city name with the highest listen count was then selected for each country.
This article originally appeared on Word.tips and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
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You won’t believe how much Elvis Presley still makes 45 years after his death
Elvis Presley may have died 45 years today, but you would never know it by looking at the data. According to the streaming service Spotify, he averages roughly 16.5 million listeners every month, thanks to the enduring popularity of such songs as “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and countless others.
Graceland, his Memphis estate, greets approximately 500,000 tourists every year, making it the second-most-visited formerly private home in the United States. The first most-visited is the White House. Indeed, the saying that “the King is gone but not forgotten” is a major understatement.
Estimates suggest his estate earned roughly $23 million in 2020 alone, with nearly half of that coming from Graceland.
Despite Presley’s continued dominance over American popular culture since his death on Aug. 16, 1977, there are still a lot of facts about his life and career that many people don’t know.
Read ahead to find out about some pretty fascinating facts that you may not know about the king of rock ‘n’ roll, even if he’s your hunka hunka burning love.
Wikicommons / Public Domain
While Elvis Presley sang some of the best-known songs in pop history, he wrote exactly none of them. His first single, “That’s All Right,” was written and performed by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and Presley performed songs written by other artists for his entire career.
Wikicommons / Public Domain, Photographer Unknown
Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, approximately half an hour after his twin brother Jesse Garon, who was stillborn. Jesse was buried the next day in an unmarked grave.
Wikicommons / Angjett
Elvis grew up dirt poor, supported by a father who mainly worked odd jobs. In 1938, his father ,Vernon, spent the better part of a year in prison for forging a check for four dollars, but who knows? Maybe it inspired his son to perform “Jailhouse Rock.”
Wikicommons / Public Domain, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.
Elvis graduated from high school in 1953, becoming the first member of his immediate family to do so. But while he did well enough to graduate, there was one class that he could not master and for which he received the dreaded grade of “F” – music class!
Wikimedia Commons / KenLund
Coming from a working-class family, it was natural for Elvis to go out and get a job after finishing school. His first jobs included working at a machinist shop and driving a truck, but in 1954, before he had finished his first year in the workforce, he recorded “That’s All Right,” bringing his blue-collar career aspirations to an end.
Wikicommons / Bjoertvedt
In 1957, Elvis bought his mansion, Graceland, for approximately $100,000. He was the ripe old age of 22.
Wikimedia Commons / Maha
If you haven’t heard of Junichiro Koizumi, that’s OK – he was Prime Minister of Japan in 2006 and a huge Elvis fan. He visited Graceland that year with former President George W. Bush, who was himself the first sitting President of the United States to visit the mansion.
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis’ manager was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in Holland. He changed his name to Tom Parker and worked as a carnival barker and later as a dog catcher before starting a career managing country musicians.
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis was drafted into the army in 1957. Rather than demand V.I.P. treatment, he conducted himself as a model soldier and achieved the rank of sergeant before being honorably discharged to return to his career.
IMAGE elvis-sworn-in | Wikicommons, Public Domain, Associated Press/Standard-Sentinel March 25, 1958, page 1
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
While some might have worried that putting Elvis’ career on hold while he served would do it harm, the opposite was true. The soundtrack to the first movie he made after his discharge, “G.I. Blues,” topped the Billboard chart for 10 weeks and it stayed on the chart for 111 weeks, the longest of any album in his career.
IMAGE elvis-army-framed | Wikicommons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0, Nic shad
Nic shad / Wikimedia Commons
No one would debate the fact that even in death, Elvis is a global superstar. What’s more incredible is that he achieved that status without ever performing anywhere except in the United States, and a few dates in Canada.
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1956 to a television audience of 60 million people, but while the performance inspired a lot of audience members to pick up guitars and practice their dance moves, not everyone who saw it was happy. Mobs in Nashville and St. Louis took to the streets in a state of outrage over his swiveling hips and burned him in effigy.
Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain, CBS
In 1964, Elvis bought a yacht called the Potomac, which had previously belonged to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He donated it to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, who sold it to raise money.
Wikimedia Commons / Christopher J. Wood
Elvis performed a benefit concert in 1961 that generated more than $50,000 for the completion of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Hawaii, a tribute to the more than 1,000 people who died in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Construction of the memorial had paused when it ran out of money, but the benefit concert generated enough money to finish it, and it was dedicated a year later.
Wikimedia Commons / Adamdiemond
Elvis’ first commercially-released single may have been “That’s All Right,” but it wasn’t his first time in a recording studio. That happened in 1953, when he paid a grand total of four dollars to record a song for his mother as a birthday present The song has never been released publicly.
Miloš Jurišić / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis was a seventh-degree black belt in karate, and he was eager to show off his skills in a 1971 hotel room encounter with shock rocker Alice Cooper. Cooper said that Presley handed him a loaded gun, which he knocked out of Cooper’s hand with a kick. But Cooper said that in the split second that he held the gun, he was briefly tempted to achieve greater stardom by becoming “the guy who killed Elvis.”
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
While every single iconic photo of Elvis Presley depicts him with jet black hair, he was actually fair-haired until his teens. When he got famous, he could afford all the black hair dye he wanted, but up until then, he achieved his signature look with heaping helpings of shoe polish.
United Artists
Forbes magazine did the math and determined that in the period from October 2018 to October 2019, Elvis earned $39 million, despite being dead for over 40 years. He would have held the number one spot if not for Michael Jackson, who earned a staggering $60 million during the same period.
Wikimedia Commons
Elvis never wrote any of his own songs, but he still appears as co-writer on some of them, since his record label demanded that certain songwriters give up partial credit in exchange for having Elvis record their songs. This was reportedly the case with “All Shook Up,” which Presley said in an interview was the closest he ever came to writing a song, since he came up with the title.
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis starred in more than 30 movies, but the one that contains the highest number of his songs is the 2002 Disney movie “Lilo & Stitch.” That movie contains five original Elvis songs and two Elvis songs performed by other artists.
Disney
Elvis recorded over 600 songs in his career, and 15 of those songs have the same word in the title – blue. They include “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis’ mother Gladys died of a heart attack in 1958 while he was serving in the army. According to those who knew him and also according to numerous books on the subject, her passing had a devastating effect on him, and he was never the same again afterwards.
Wikimedia Commons / Darrin Lee Memmer
Graceland is owned today by Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and its status as a tourist attraction has been very good for the city in which it resides. The city of Memphis has been estimated to receive approximately $150 million annually from tourist pilgrimages to the mansion.
Wikimedia Commons / Terry Waggoner
In the 1970s Elvis began wearing jumpsuits for his live performances, and the jumpsuits were really heavy. They became more so as they were gradually more embroidered and bejeweled. One such jumpsuit weighed in at a hefty 75 pounds.
Wikimedia Commons / Takashi Hososhima
Vaccine hesitancy isn’t new – when Jonas Salk’s miracle cure for polio was rolled out, people lined up to get it, but teenagers were slow to get the jab. Elvis quite happily rolled up his sleeve and let doctors inject him with the vaccine, and the photograph of the event made teenagers decide to get the shot themselves. Too bad he’s not here today.
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis liked guns. He really, really, really liked guns. According to a former girlfriend of his, Ginger Alden, he fired a gun at a TV set – hey, we hate commercials too – and also shot a headboard above her while she slept, to “grab her attention.” It worked!
Read more about his antics with guns at the Elvis History Blog.
Elvis History Blog
Elvis filmed a commercial for Southern Maid Donuts in 1954 that consisted of him singing the product’s jingle. The fact that he was paid for this service with a box of donuts is perhaps a sign that he was not yet a household name. The fact that the commercial was never released is probably a sign of the same thing.
Wikicommons / Public Domain
Elvis had performed once in Las Vegas in 1956 and didn’t return until 1969. After that, he performed 837 consecutive shows, until December 1976.
IMDB.com / MGM Studios
Despite racking up hundreds of sold-out shows in Las Vegas in the 1970s, his success in that city was far from guaranteed. He had played there in 1956, when it was still very much the domain of the Rat Pack, and a Las Vegas Sun critic wrote of his performance, “He shakes and shivers like he is suffering from itchy underwear and hot shoes.”
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, but that hasn’t stopped legions of fans from entertaining fantasies that he’s still alive. Some of them have even gone ahead and created their own digitally-enhanced versions of what he might look like if he were alive today, perhaps fresh off of hanging out with Tupac Shakur and Harambe the gorilla.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Wikimedia Commons / Colesterol Matemático
LagunaticPhoto / istockphoto
Featured Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
