I used to think the “th” sound is hard because it is uncommon in my language, we do not use our tongues to hit the top teeth like that. But then, it became 2nd nature after living abroad for almost 20 years.
Recently i happen to work with a lot of architects and designers and 1 word comes up which I think is the most difficult to pronouncr: AESTHETIC.
It sounds very simple but if you break down the syllables, your tongue needs to do a bit of work.
For the British English version, the “t” in tic is pronounced quite strong, as in “tick”. Mostly, your tongue only needs to worry about the “THE” sound, i.e. ES-THE-TIC.
In US English, the “t” is most often pronounced as a soft “d”. This means “TIC” will sound like “DIC”. So your tongue needs to flick up for the “THE” sound and then immediately flick down for the “DIC”.
This gets even harder if you consider the adverb: AESTHETICALLY. A lot of tongue gymnasium involve…
Any other words or phrase that you think is dificult?
Months. The S after the TH as in THink vs THe, is difficult.
Its a lot easier if you think of it as the same sound you’d get at the end of badum tiss
Most native speakers do not really pronounce the “ths”. Typically you hear “mons”.
When I was younger I read and listened to a lot of English but didn’t speak too much. It took me years to get a better hang of “Three” and “Free”.
Thats ok, there are entire regions of London that have the same problem.
You could always claim you learned English from Irish English speakers: they commonly substitute dental frictives with the plosives, so /th/ with /t/ or /d/.
My sister can’t say sea minerals without it sounding like semen roll.
I used to find words that had the letter L followed by an R difficult. Like girl, world, etc. They’re still a bit tongue twisty tbh
Those 'r’s are silent. The previous vowel just gets lengthened.
Just drop the “r” English-style - “guhl”, “wuhld”. Easy!
Or you could go the other way and roll the “r” like the Seventh Doctor.
My children’s optometrist is a place called “Tropical Optical”. I can’t do it.
Unique New York
Ostentatious Austin, Texas
I can not wrap my tounge around ambulance while in a sentence.
So as an Aussie I just call them ambos.Stumbled on this tongue twister in the wild. It’s freaking impossible.
Soldier shoulder surgery.
I have trouble with “sixths”.
and “twelvths”
Any combination of “th” and “s”. Like “months”, " clothes", etc.
Most native speakers do not really pronounce the “ths”. Typically you hear “mons”, “close”.
I could could see that in an Irish accent, but no I never hear that.
Native English speaker here. Aside from catching crap for regional accent differences, I didn’t have any noticeable, repeating problems until COVID. I can’t, for the life of me, properly pronounce
comorbidity. Even when I really concentrate on it, it tends to come out ascomorbibity. It really makes me sound stupid as hell.Comorbibbity babbity boo.
I’m from the American Southeast. I speak with a tarheel drawl. To listen to me speak, you’d think the word “rural” has four Rs in it. Rrrrl.
To be fair, r is a secret vowel
February. I’m happy I don’t have to say it often.
Is there anywhere on earth that pronounces the R? FEB-you-air-EE.
In India, it’s usually feb-ru-(v)a-ree. Our languages write words as they are pronounced, and we’re too lazy to make an exception for English.
Yeah English phonics is a garbage fire. Just look at that last sentence.
English speaker - corollary.
The ones with “ch”, the laboratory coworkers laugh when I pronounce “chemistry”
How are you trying to pronounce it? At least in my accent, the “ch” is just pronounced like a “k”…
KEM-ist-tree
In spanish is like “chocolate”
Mistry
