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Hardest Words to Pronounce in English

These are the words that defeat everyone, usually because they stack r and l sounds close together (rural, squirrel) or repeat similar syllables (anemone, phenomenon). The difficulty is motor coordination, not knowledge. Slow them right down, then speed up gradually.


15 words · advanced · your accent and voice are remembered across the site. More options on the settings page.

The words

More lists like this

There, their and they're; write and right. Different spellings, identical sound. Hear the matches.
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Strength, twelfths, sixths: dense consonant runs with no vowel to help. Hear them said cleanly.
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Quinoa, gnocchi, bruschetta, acai: menu words that trip everyone up. Hear each one correctly.
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Anaesthesia, ophthalmologist, angina: essential medical vocabulary said clearly and correctly.
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Subpoena, plaintiff, voir dire, tort: courtroom vocabulary with unpredictable pronunciation.
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Cache, GIF, Linux, tuple, SQL: developer vocabulary that even engineers argue about.
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Keep practising

Browse every practice list or the word index, hear two accents back to back on Compare, or test your ear with the listening quiz.

To read the rules behind these words, see the pronunciation guides — including silent letters, word stress and American vs British. Or hear each accent on its own page: American, British, Australian.