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?

  • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    i used to have difficulty pronouncing the “th” sound as a child too. i would use the same accent my parents did when they used it in words like “three” and i can remember celebrating the moment i realized that i said the number “three” correctly, naturally and without a thought.

    ever since then, i’ve struggled with NOT pronouncing the “th” sound when i speak words that require the hard rolling-r sound like in the spanish word “tres”, so go figure. lol

  • iusemybrain@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    I don’t know why but “drawer” was a word that was difficult for me to pronounce. In specific the ‘aw’ sometimes I say it as dr-awe-re other times i pronounce it as d-roar I don’t know why it’s strange to prononounce.

  • KumaLumaJuma@feddit.uk
    4·
    6 days ago

    Grew up in the US (the Deep South)… moved to England, have been here for like a bajillion years and unfortunately still sound American 😕

    But for me it is crisps. Why do we have to say this word when it is so awkward?!?

    • Truffle@lemmy.ml
      2·
      6 days ago

      You are not alone on this one.English is not my first language so I have to make a conscious effort with words that have STS sounds like: Ghosts, forests, dentists and crisps. Lol.

      • KumaLumaJuma@feddit.uk
        2·
        6 days ago

        Glad to know I’m not alone, I don’t really understand why humanity has made things so hard for humanity at times… surely this can’t also be linked to greed like so many other issues?!? 😅😅

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      That’s not an English word, that’s a space catholic word.

      I have a disdain for technical latin, Stop telling me I have hypernatremia; high blood salt is exactly as detailed and like 54 syllables shorter.

  • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    1·
    6 days ago

    Paw and Poor sounds like the same word in my dialect, so I have to put in effort to switch to Received Pronunciation when I need to differentiate

  • Chaser@lemmy.zip
    1·
    6 days ago

    +1 for “th”. I’m from germany and it’s like impossible to pronounce for me.

  • MrWrinkles@leminal.space
    2·
    7 days ago

    “probably” is awkward for me. I used to drop the b’s and pronounce it “pro’ly”, but now I make the effort to use “likely” instead

    • Cheesus@lemmy.ca
      1·
      7 days ago

      “Prolly” is how I pronounce it in speech, especially in the middle of a sentence.

      I feel like one of the hardest things to master for non-native speakers, especially those who speak Romance languages, is the pronunciation of consonants that occur in the middle of phrases. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and depends on the speaker, but those said middle consonants are often very understated, especially in fast speech. I can always tell a Spanish or French native speaker because they would pronounce it: pro-Ba-BLEE, with the clear, distinct, staccato-like intonation of their mother tongues.

  • PetteriPano@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 days ago

    Czech has this special Ř sound, which is somewhere between a rolling R and the S in vision (/ˈvɪʒən/). I’m learning Czech as a fifth language, so while I can pronounce it standalone or at the start of a word it takes all my focus to manage mid-word.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
    1·
    6 days ago

    Non-native but spent a lot of my life living in English-speaking contexts. I know how to pronounce it, but my tongue seems to like tripping up over “hospital”.