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?
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
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.
Hierarchy…
I know most Germans struggle with the word “squirrel”.
I have trouble with “sixths”.
and “twelvths”
My children’s optometrist is a place called “Tropical Optical”. I can’t do it.
Unique New York
Ostentatious Austin, Texas
Stumbled on this tongue twister in the wild. It’s freaking impossible.
Soldier shoulder surgery.
Months. The S after the TH as in THink vs THe, is difficult.
Most native speakers do not really pronounce the “ths”. Typically you hear “mons”.
Its a lot easier if you think of it as the same sound you’d get at the end of badum tiss
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.
We’ll eventually give up and thesaurus it.
Rrrrl. Rrrrl. RRRRL. Out inna woods.
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/.
And the nimmins are replaced by addabs.
My sister can’t say sea minerals without it sounding like semen roll.
I used to find words that had the letter R followed by an L 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.
You know, a funny thing with the rolled R is that as a young kid I couldn’t do it, so in 0th grade I basically had to take additional special classes to practice it, but then a couple of years later when we started 2nd grade and thus started english, I had trouble unlearning to roll my R’s as it was so ingrained in my brain by then lol :3. So I basically flipped my problem around
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?!?
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.
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?!? 😅😅
February. I’m happy I don’t have to say it often.
UK native speaker. I tend to pronounce it “feb-ə-ree”
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.
