Which word in the English language is most often pronounced incorrectly?

hi everybody!

help me answer this please!

Hi, Fikry, These words are in the top 100 list of words most mispronounced, misused, and misspelled. I would vote for one of these words, then. Perhaps we could have a vote and other suggestions?

cacophony [kæ’kafêni] lambaste [lam bast] nuptial [nup shee ul] ostensibly persnickety(US)/pernickety(Scottish) peremptory prostate metathesis supremacist/supremist tenterhooks verbiage

hi Candy! Righto. but you didn’t hit the answer.

Usefule post Candy:!)

from my experience there are two words commonly mispronounced:

1. harrass – commonly pronounced with stress on the second syllable

2. mischievous – commonly pronounced mischev"i"ous

the English language word which is most often pronounced incorrectly is ( incorrectly )
…

geez Firky that is bad .. hahahahah but I laughed anyway :)

I’m going to take a stab at February…I remember when I was in 5th grade I finally got down the spelling and thought it was a bit absurd to have the two r’s since we never said the first one. Only later to find out I’d been mispronouncing it all along and so was most everyone else. Now I pronounce it correctly.

Oh but this should be interesting because with all of the different accents there are in the English language, I am curious what will be misprounced most often across the board.

Hi Christina! interested to be taught silent consonants in english. Just let me know…

You know Firky I probably do need a lesson in the rules of English and the grammar. My husband is a non-native speaker and I was helping him to prepare for the GMAT (he never took it but he was studying for a while) and the English portions were hard for him, so I did them and got all of the correct answers but it’s so intuitive and I don’t usually think about the rules.

Good question Fikry and a funny answer :). I just have a comment from my experience. Egyptians pronounce think as sink and thin as sin, haha. I still pronounce some words incorrectly which is ASKED as ASKEED. Lol! Anyone help me please.

righto Christina!
just I’ll start giving you some spelling rules first. Then if you need any particular rules just let me know plz.

ok!
let’s start…

a) never say the letter ( b ) if it is final and preceded by ( m ) as in :

1. tomb 2. comb 3. limb 4. bomb 5 climb

b) never say the letter ( g ) when followed by ( n ) as in :

1. sign 2. design 3. campaign 4. gnu 5. gnome.

c) never say the letter ( n ) when preceded by ( m ) as in….

1. autumn 2 . damn 3. column…

OK! Chirstina! i’ll continue the lesson later…

That was a good one, Fikry, most people put the accent on the first syllable instead of on the third one, right?

Fikry always with the fabulous posts. :) Good work Dude. :) I love reading what you have to say. :)

I envight u too lissen too migh franch pronounciatioune hir : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIzrCjEwCNE

Last time I clicked on one of links Patrick you were belly-dancing! :))

Thnx Marco! I’m here for you dude! You’ re marvelous sir!

As for your comment Candy, yes.. I’ll explain where to put the stress.

some nouns in english changed automatically into verbs if you move the stress from first to last syllables. e.g.

1.a) desert ( noun ) 1. b ) desert ( verb ) meaning to leave some one for some reason.

2.a ) present ( noun ) 2. b ) present ( verb ) give someone a speech or the like….. OK CANDY:)

make sure to stress the first syllable in 1 a and the second syllable in 1 b and the like in 2 ….

Hi prof. Hamdy! I’ll try my best to be of some help for you. The / th / can be pronounced in two different ways both of which you should touch the teeth ridge with the tip of your tongue when articulate both /th/ z , or /th/ s ….. again some few past regular forms like helped and asked are pronounced with t so change the d into t

ok PROF. LOVE YOU.

Thanks my teacher Fikry. I don’t have a problem with “th” but I forget sometimes the “t” rule in “asked” and “helped”. My native friends get bored of reminding me of it. I hope you won’t. Haha!

Sure Hamdy.
1. verbs like ( worked ) erroneously pronounced “work/id/” with two syllables, instead of just one, “work/t/.”

2. second syllable with the “-ed” ending is only necessary when the last sound (not the last letter) is a /t/ or /d/, for example, “wanted,” “decided,” “needed,” or “invited.” The last sound for the words “want” and “invite” is /t/. The last sound for the words “decide” and “need” is /d/.

3. For English past tense pronunciation of regular verbs, the “-ed” ending has the following three distinct pronunciations:

/id/

/t/

/d/

Examples of /id/ Endings for Past Tense Verbs

“want” becomes “wanted” and is pronounced “want/id/” (two syllables)

“need” becomes “needed” and is pronounced “need/id/” (two syllables)

“decide” becomes “decided” and is pronounced “decide/id/” (three syllables)

“dedicate” becomes “dedicated” and is pronounced “dedicate/id/” (four syllables)

4.Examples of /t/ Endings for Past Tense Verbs

“laugh” becomes “laughed” and is pronounced “laugh/t/” (one syllable)

“walk” becomes “walked” and is pronounced “walk/t/” (one syllable)

“kiss” becomes “kissed” and is pronounced “kiss/t/” (one syllable)

“finish” becomes “finished” and is pronounced “finish/t/” (two syllables)

5. Examples of /d/ Endings for Past Tense Verbs

“clean” becomes “cleaned” and is pronounced “clean/d/” (one syllable)

“dream” becomes “dreamed” and is pronounced “dream/d/” (one syllable; note that “dreamt” is the British English version of the past tense of "dream")

“save” becomes “saved” and is pronounced “save/d/” (one syllable)

“enjoy” becomes “enjoyed” and is pronounced “enjoy/d/” (two syllables)

“marry” becomes “married” and is pronounced “marry/d/” (two syllables)

ok doc. have a nice time with it….. TATA

Thank you very much Fikry. You are really a kind friend. Do you speak Arabic? I can see that you are from Libya, is it true?

I’m originally Egypto, they say! and fortunately i lectured in Teacher’s college ( Ain Shams ) . twice in a row . Mum is Turkish. Dad ’s multinational guy.British-libyan. OK! Thax for your compliment:)

Oh so we are relatives then if u are egyptian ;). But you have not answered my question, Do you speak Arabic?

The most important grammar rule to know in English is:

Rules are meant to be broken!

Sandra is my leader! :)