These Are Words That Smart People Cannot Pronounce.
Linguist and Internet author of “Because” Gretchen McCulloch asked her Twitter followers to share words they can’t really write without relying on a spell check. The answers she receives will comfort and edify you.
Writers, teachers, engineers, scientists and other smart people shared their problem words. Here are some of the most popular answers, as well as our spelling tips:
- rhythm: these are rh and th , each followed by one letter.
- judgment: No movement is, in this decision.
- Bureaucracy: For the sake of beauty, I think of a cartoon character saying, “You are a bee-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-hey!” Say the word ” eau in bureaucrat” in your mind as well. Imagine a handsome bureaucrat .
- bourgeoisie: (adj bourgeois.) They drink bourbon around the world (geo), and you yourself … Easy on its own.
- fuchsia: you might think s comes first. But fuchsia fucks you.
- hierarchy: you are higher ( t-e ) in the hierarchy.
- vacuum: See mud once, subcutaneously oo r twice.
- Millennials: They Only Want Two! (Uh, sorry.)
- business: it is employment. Or you take the bus to business.
- privilege: I have no legs to stand.
- sickening: Imagine nau tical ce asick m ous e.
- Nietzsche: You learn about him at the Zee school .
- Fibonacci: Mathematics teacher HP Read has a great trick: “The letters b, n and c follow the start of the Fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2.”
- addiction: It’s all e .
- resistance: Speak as if you are French.
- Service: There are ten ants in the main room.
- harassment: One g and two ss ‘s like (sorry) “ass”.
- embarrassment: two R “s, two ss” s. Say this in your mind while rolling r .
- graffiti: spray paint becomes fffff .
- appetizers: Call them appetizers.
Double with s and s is a common problem. It’s hard to learn them all at once, but here’s the thing:
- Reason: Sometimes you cough, cough, sneeze.
- Accommodation: You must accommodate two children and two men.
- Necessary: Twitter user Taya says that it is necessary for a shirt to have one gr ollar and two s Leeves.
- Broccoli: Reporter Sarah Simon portrays one l Adi serving broccoli two gr ATS.
Librarian Wayne Jones points to Patrice O’Neill’s classic passage about how he cannot spell the word “restaurant” (starts at 4:18):
If you have the same problem, imagine a bull knocking over porcelain: taurus us in a restaurant.
See Other hard words on the original Twitter thread .