More than a billion people globally speak English, making it the most spoken language in the world. But that doesn’t mean it’s the easiest language to pronounce — it’s not, mostly because it lacks a common set of rules. It’s also a hodgepodge of words borrowed from, or inspired by, other languages, such as Greek, German, and Latin.
The language can be especially hard to pronounce for non-native English speakers who haven’t mastered English. These individuals often apply the rules of their first tongue to English, linguists say, making it tough to get their tongue around some words.
And that can be a particular problem at call centers, which frequently employ heavily accented individuals as agents. The issue is that when making a service call, Americans generally prefer to communicate with an agent who pronounces words as they do.
Representatives who do not are often judged as being less knowledgeable, resourceful, or even intelligent. Customers can sometimes become impatient or annoyed during call interactions, which can delay or prevent problem resolution. That’s why some companies, like Tomato.ai, are deploying AI accent softening platforms to augment agent speech in real time.
Let’s look at some of the English words that can give people, including call center agents, the most trouble.
Why Are Some Words So Hard to Pronounce in English?
In English, there is often a difference between the spelling and pronunciation of some words. For one thing, many English-language words are spelled with letters at the start that are silent when pronounced. Look at “knife,” pronounced as “nife,” and “gnash,” pronounced as “nash.” Then there’s “mnemonic,” pronounced as “new-mon-ic,” and “pneumonia” — “new-moan-ee-a.”
English also has many words that end with the same letters that aren’t consistently pronounced the same. While “rough” is pronounced “ruff,” “cough” is pronounced “coff,” for example. And isn’t “through” pronounced “throo”? Then why is “although” pronounced “all-tho”? There’s a lot of that in the language.
10 of the Hardest Words to Pronounce in English
Here are the hardest English words to pronounce, according to Berlitz.
1. Rural.
Pronunciation of this seemingly benign word is rendered difficult by the double “r” followed by what’s called a contradictory “l.”
2. Mischievous.
While it’s pronounced “miss-chee-vus,” people often want to say, “miss-chee-vee-us,” adding an extra “i.”
3. Colonel.
If this word is spoken the way it’s spelled, the pronunciation is “co-lo-nel,” not the accurate “ker-nel.”
4. Epitome.
The “e” here is not silent, although that may be the intuition. So, it’s “epi-toh-mee,” not “epi-tom.”
5. Draught.
A British-English variant referring to beer, this word is pronounced in a way that is completely counterintuitive: “draft.” It’s certainly not pronounced “drought.”
6. Hyperbole.
This word derives from the Greek, and like many others with such origin, the “e” at the end isn’t silent. Still, instead of “hahy-per-buh-lee,” it’s often spoken as “hahy-per-bohl.”
7. Nauseous.
This is commonly pronounced as “naw-zee-us” rather than the accurate “naw-shus,” although there’s seemingly no rhyme or reason for it.
8. Sixth.
This is another basic yet tricky-to-pronounce word. What’s challenging is properly pronouncing the “x” and “th” combination. It’s common for most people to simply pronounce the word as “siks.”
9. Thorough.
This word is often confused with “through” and is pronounced as such — “threw” — rather than the correct “thuh-ruh.
10. Worcestershire Sauce
This has been ranked the hardest English word to pronounce. There are a variety of ways people say it, but most commonly it’s “Wor-cest-er-shi-er.” The accurate pronunciation for showing off to friends is “Woo-ster-sher.”
The Takeaway
Yes, English is widely spoken the world over. It’s also an important and beautiful language. However, some words can be tough to pronounce, mostly due to inconsistent rules. That can especially confound offshore call center employees, many of whom are from non-native English-speaking countries, and are already subject to accent bias. The good news is companies can now use AI accent softening platforms such as Tomato.ai to clarify offshore agents’ voices as they speak.