This week, we're looking at the 10 most difficult words that ESL students...

Welcome back!

This week, we're looking at the 10 most difficult words to pronounce if you're an ESL learner!

Today, I'm gonna teach you how to kind of cheat at saying them.

So you'll still have the correct pronunciation,

but...

it's little bit cheating.

The first word :

Asked

Like many regular verbs in the past tense,

ESL learners have problems with them.

This is definitely no exception.

So,

"Asked" /ɑːskt/

That's the correct way to pronounce it, however,

usually, you'd just hear people say

for example,

"I asked him blah blah blah"

Listen again!

"I asked him blah blah blah"

That doesn't sound like "I asked him", it sounds like "I ast"

"I ast him"

Again, British English can be quite lazy,

so, if you pronounce it like "I ast him",

it basically sounds the same!

Now, it'll be easier for you to pronouce!

"I asked him blah blah blah"

Next one!

Clothes

Oh my God, this one is ridiculous for non-English speakers to pronounce!

Firstly, mostly, because it's got the 'th' /ð/ sound,

which most languages don't have.

Clothes

"Clothes" is the correct way of saying it,

but,

if you say this word,

"close"

again, in lazy English, it kind of sounds the same!

So, for example, if you said :

"I am not wearing any clothes"

I said "I am not wearing any close"

But, in general speech, you won't hear people pronounce "clothes",

you'll hear real British people say "close",

which is natural!

Again, it's got that 'th' sound,

but this time, not a /ð/, but a /θ/

The correct way :

Months /mʌnθs/

But how do you say the easy way?

Say this word : Munts

If you say it a little bit fast, it sounds the same.

"I've been here for 6 months (munts)"

This one causes a lot of problems :

How do we pronouce this?

You've seen in one of our videos that the "el" cound sound like a "ew",

so,

first part of the word :

Jewel

you could just say like "jool"

What's left?

"ry"

Jewellery (jool-ry)

You say it : jewellery

"I'm wearing a watch, but I don't like wearing jewellery"

You trying to say it :

Sausage

Sau - sage

Sausage

Sausage

That's a fun way to say it!

Next one is what I am right now, because this is very "this word" :

Come - for - table? No!

Comfortable /kʌmftəbl/

Take out the middle :

We really only pronouce it :

Comf -

- table

Comf - table

Comf - table

Comfortable

The same with this word :

Vegetable

We don't say ve - ge - ta - ble, no,

Vegetable /veʤtəbl/

A comfortable vegetable

This one is pretty difficult..Ok, let's try!

Let's break it down in easy sections :

so, "Li-"

" - tra -" (tera)

" - cha" (ture)

Li - tera - ture

So, this T would be like a glottal T.

Li /lɪ'/

tera /ʧrə/

ture /ʧə/

Literature /lɪʧrəʧə/

You try it : Literature

Then, speed up : literature

"What did you study?" - "I studied literature"

The end finishes in "-ture"

The first :

Culture (cool)?

No, it's a /kʌ/

Culture /kʌlʧə/

Culture

Culture

"In London, you'll see many many different cultures"

The next two kind of go together :

I always hear this pronounced as /su:ɪt/

or "sweet"

Yes, there's an "I" there, but we don't pronounce the "I"

It just sounds like /su:t/

The same with this one :

Fruit

Fruit /fru:t/

Challenge for you! In the comments section, make the longest sentence possible using all of these words!

Ready for the next lesson?

Click here!

Non-automatic English subtitles by Julie Descaves