Follow this English pronunciation guide below to discover 100 of the most difficult English words to pronounce and how to practice them.

Th

Many ESL learners have problems pronouncing the Anglo-Saxon ‘th’ sound. There are two types of ‘th’; voiced and voiceless.

Voiced ‘th’

The voiced ‘th’ is pronounced with a ‘tha’ sound at the front of your mouth. The tongue does not meet the teeth like the voiceless ‘th’.

Voiced ‘th’ words include:

That, than, the, their, then, there’s, they, they’d, they’ll, they’ve, this, those, themselves, therefore

Mother, other, bother, brother, breathing, clothing, father, feather, gathering, lather, rather, soothing, weather, worthy, brotherly, together

Speaking practice

Try some of these tongue twisters to practice.

• They’d rather those other clothes belonged to my brother.
• There’s their mother, gathering feathers with their father.
• Therefore they’d rather go together.

Voiceless ‘th’

The voiceless ‘th’is pronouncing with a lisped ‘thee’ sound by placing your tongue against your teeth.

Words pronounced with a voiceless ‘th’ include:

Thank, thick, thief, thin, think, thing, three, thousand, Thursday, thirty-eight, thunderstorm.

Athlete, author, nothing, toothache, wealthy, everything, worthwhile, anything.

Bath, earth, teeth, cloth, north, myth, mouth, youth, faith, underneath.

Speaking practice

Try these tongue twisters to see how they are different from a voiced ‘th’ word, such as ‘they’ or ‘those.’

• He thanked the wealthy author on Thursday for the third time.
• The athlete ran three thousand metres to the north.
• It is a myth that when you are thirty-three you have lost your youth.

Or and er sounds

You may not realise it, but the ‘or’ syllable in a word such as ‘world’ is actually pronounced with an ‘er’ to make /werld/.

Attorney /atterni/

World /werld/

Work /werk/

Worker /werker/

Worse /werz/

Worth /werth/

Word /werd/

Worship /wership/

Worm /werm/

Al and or sounds

Conversely the ‘al’ in words such as ‘talk’ is actually pronounced ‘or’ /tork/.

Chalk /chork/

Stalk /stork/

Talk /tork/

Walk /w-ork/

Warm /worm/

Kn

As you know when a ‘k’ comes before an ‘n’ then it is silent. These words include:

Knapsack /nap-sac/

Knee /nee/

Kneel /niel/

Knife /nife/

Knit /nit/

Knight /nite/

Knock /nock/

Knuckle /nuck-l/

Knot /not/

Know /no/

Ch

Most ‘ch’ words are pronounced with the proper ‘cha’ sound such as ‘chair’ or ‘china.’ However, there are a few words where the ‘ch’ is actually pronounced ‘k’. These words include:

Ache (i.e. toothache) /ake/

Character /kar-act-a/

Charisma /kar-is-ma/

Chemist /k-emist/

Chemistry /k-emistry/

Chemical /k-emical/

Chemotherapy /kemo-the-ra-py/

Choir /k-why-er/

Christian /k-rist-ian/

Christianity /k-ris-ti-an-iti/

Christmas /k-rist-mas/

Cuit

‘Cuit’ is actually pronounced ‘kit’ in English. There are only two main words with have this structure. These are:

Circuit /ser-kit/

Biscuit /bis-kit/

Ough

‘Ough’ is pronounced ‘uf’ or ‘off’. For example, ‘tough’ /tuf/. These words include:

Tough /tuf/

Cough /coff/

Enough /en-uf/

Rough /ruf/

Laugh /larf/

Silent ‘b’

Debt /det/

Subtle /sut-il/

Comb /com/

Lamb /lam/

Climb /clim/

Numb /num/

Other difficult to pronounce words

Anxiety /an-zi-et-ti/

Author /or-tha/

Clothes /clothz/

Depot /dep-o/

Flour /flower/

Heir /air/

Hierarchy /hi-ra-key/

Inherent /in-hair-ant/

Island /ireland/ (like the country)

Imagine /im-ag-in/

Image /im-age/

Literature /lit-ra-cha/

Mayor /may-er/

Mortgage /mor-gaeg/

Muscle /mus-il/

Patient /pay-shant/

Produce /pro-dus/

Product /pro-dukt/

Receipt /res-eat/

Recipe /res-i-pee/

Sword /sord/

Thought /thort/

Thorough /tha-ra-ow/

Taught /tort/ (past of ‘to teach’)/

Weigh /way/

Weight /wait/

Heteronyms

Heteronyms are words which are spelled the same, but pronounced differently. For example ‘tear’ /t-air/ as in, ‘to rip’ and ‘tear’ /tier/ as in, water from the eyes. To practise, write the pronunciation for each word on the board and model the difference. Next, ask students to give you an example sentence of each word.

10 common heteronyms

To close (v) /cloze/ ─ to shut

“Close the window please, it’s getting cold in here.”

to be close (adj) /CLOS/ ─ to be near

“The station is close to the post office. You can’t miss it.”

To lead (v)/leed/ ─  to be a leader, or to have followers

“The manager leads the team.”

Lead (n)/led/ ─ a type of metal

“We now use unleaded petrol in vehicles.”

Invalid (adj) /in-VAL-id/ ─ not valid.

“This passport is invalid. It has pasted its expiration date.”

Invalid (n) /IN-val-id/ ─ an ill person.

“Sadly, she has had this disease for more than 6 years. She is an invalid.”

Minute (n) /MIN-it/ ─ 60 seconds. 

“If you believe the pop songs, it only takes a minute to fall in love.”

Minute (adj) /my-NOOT/ ─ tiny, very small.

“This car is minute. How are we supposed to fit a family inside?”

To live (v) /liv/─ to inhabit, to be a living thing.

“He lives in the city.”

Live (n) /lie-v/ ─ to see a performance in person or to be connected to electricity.

“Oasis are playing live this summer.”

To permit (v) /per-MIT/ ─ to allow some event to occur.

“We can’t permit you to enter the building at this time. It is unsafe.”

Permit (n) /PER-mit/ –a document giving permission.

“Do you have a permit for this type of vehicle? Because they are not normally permitted in cities.”

To record (v) /re-KORD/ ─ to write down information for future use.

“We record all births and deaths in this city.”

Record (n) /RECK-ord/ ─ a list, a music record or when someone ‘breaks a record’ in a sports or activity challenge.

“We know all the transactions he completed yesterday from the bank record.”

To row (v) /ROH/ – to row a small boat with oars.

“They row down the river on a summer’s day.”

A row (n) /ROH/ (the same pronunciation as ‘to row’) ─ a line of numbers or seats.

“I have tickets to the theatre. We are in row 10.”

A row (n) /ROUW/- a verbal fight or argument (British English).

“My parents just had a row with their neighbours. They are now speaking to each other – how awkward!”

To tear (v) /TARE/ ─ to rip paper or material.

“I tear the paper because I am bored.”

Tear (n) /TEER/ ─ fluid in eye.

“A tear rolled down the girl’s face when she realised that she had forgotten her homework.”

To wind (v) /WINE-d/─ to coil, for example, ‘to wind a watch.’

“My grandparents wind the old clock every day.”

Wind (n) /WIN-d/- the blowing air.

“There is a lot of wind today. I think I’ll fly a kite.”

To hear these pronunciations, check out our short video on heteronyms on Youtube.

Past regular verb pronunciation rules

It is common to hear a student pronounce ‘worked’ /work-id/ instead of the natural pronunciation of /work-t/. They are doing this because they don’t understand pronunciation rules.

The ‘ed’ sound in regular verbs in simple past, changes depending on the sound of the last constant.

The rules

‘T’ sound: If the root verb ends with a ‘k’, ‘p’ or ‘h’, the past tense of the verb is pronounced with a ‘t’ sound. For example, ‘worked’, ‘stopped’ and ‘laughed’ are pronounced /workt/, /stopt/ and /laught/.

‘Id’ sound: If the verb ends in either ‘t’ or ‘d’, the past is pronounced with an ‘id’ sound. For example, ‘wanted’ and ‘decided’ are pronounced /wantid/ and /decided/.

‘D’ sound: For all other verbs the past is pronounced with a ‘d’ sound, omitting the ‘e.’ For example ‘stressed’, ‘rained’, ‘closed’ are actually pronounced /stress’d/, /rain’d/ and /clos’d/.

Common verbs to practice

Verbs which end with K, P and H: To work, to talk, to walk, to look, to like, to ask, to pick up, to cook, to park, to check, to escape, to jump, to stop, to hop, to help, to watch, to laugh, to push, to finish, to reach, to wash.

Verbs which end with T and D: To decide, to depend, to defend, to avoid, to divide, to include, to add, to attend, to create, to count, to taste, to hate, to want, to cheat, to last, to visit, to rent, to paint, to act, to contact, to invite, to print, to rent, to start, to treat, to wait, to waste.

Other verbs (a selection): to answer, to deliver, to call, to believe, to travel, to kiss, to stress, to travel, to listen, to arrive, to change, to play, to show, to study, to try, to use, to save, to pull, to move, to explain, to carry, to agree.

What words do you have difficulty pronouncing? Tell us in the comments below.