Most Frequently Mispronounced English Nouns

When learning another language, it is important for students to learn how to pronounce each word.  Unfortunately, there are many words in the English language that are not pronounced the way they are spelled.  Some of the most common errors are caused by saying the word too quickly.  In these cases, it is important to slow down and carefully enunciate each word.  For the most common mistakes, check out the following list.  

SEE ALSO: How to Improve Spoken English?

Affidavit

For some reason, many people pronounce this word like “affidavid”.  Make sure to enunciate the [t] sound at the end in order to pronounce the word correctly.

Arctic and Antarctic

An easy mnemonic device for these words is to think of an arc of ants.  Instead of saying “Antartic,” pronounce the [c] sound.

Barbed Wire

People often say “bob wire” instead of “barbed wire.” It ends in –ed, so listeners should hear the suffix sound.

Business

A weird mistake some speakers make is to change the [s] in business (pronounced as a [z]) to a [d].  Instead of pronouncing the word “business,” they say “bidness”.  The mistake has been spreading rapidly across the United States, but is not the correct pronunciation of the word.

Cavalry

Be careful to say the [v] and [l] in the correct location.  Too many people switch their order and end up saying “calvary”.

Candidate

There are two d’s in candidate and both should be pronounced.  Avoid saying “cannidate”.

Clothes

There is a [th] sound in “clothes,” so be careful about accidently pronouncing it “close”.

Espresso

Although many people order an “expresso” in the morning, the correct way to pronounce it is without an [x] sound.

Film
In the south of the United States, many students like to drawl out the word.  Instead of saying “film,” they stretch out the word until it sounds like “fillum”.

Jewelry 

The root word for “jewelry” is “jewel,” so the pronunciation should reflect it.  Sometimes, people will say “jewlery” when they mean to say “jewelry.”

Lease 

Although “lease” and “leash” are entirely distinct words, it is common for South Americans to confuse the two sounds.  Students should remember that “lease” always ends in an [s] sound.

Library

For some reason, many English speakers do not like to have two [r] sounds close together within the same word.  For this reason, many people say “libary” rather than “library.”

Mayonnaise

When it comes to pronouncing a word lazily, “mayonnaise” is a favorite of English learners.  The long word is difficult to pronounce for people who do not speak English as a first language.  Often, they will say “mannaise” or “maynaise” instead of saying all of the sounds in “mayonnaise.” It should contain three syllables, not just two.

To prevent embarrassing mistakes, language learners should always make sure to carefully pronounce each word.  This takes practice.  Teachers can also help by stressing enunciation in the classroom and explaining how to pronounce the newly learned words correctly.