How to Actually Pronounce Worcestershire, Acai, and Other Words That Are Often Mispronounced
The following 10 words are commonly pronounced incorrectly in English. The first five are Google’s top autocomplete results for the phrase “How do I pronounce…”. The rest are words that people often don’t realize they’re confusing, so they’re unlikely to be found online.
I’m not a prescriptivist: you can do what you want with words, so say them how you want. The “correct” pronunciation is what we call the way words are typically pronounced according to the general consensus of English speakers. But there is no governing body – if enough people say a word “wrong” it stops being wrong, so keep saying “fried shrimp” or “Anartika” like I do.
Gyroscope
I’m starting with the difficult ones. “Gyro” is either a shortened form of the word “gyro” or the name of a Greek lamb sandwich.
In the unlikely event that you’re talking about gyroscopes so much that you have to shorten the word, it’s pronounced ” jie -ro.” The Greek sandwich, according to Websters , is called ” i-ro ” or ” fat -ro”. It rhymes with “hero”.
Interestingly, the Greek word for “turn” is the root word for both a sandwich and a car, but these terms entered the language at different times, so we don’t say them the way they do.
Acai
Native to South America, the acai berry has become so popular that you might be asked to say its name at brunch. If so, it is pronounced aa-saa-ee . Based on the spelling, it doesn’t make sense, but the accents on the “c” and “I” tell the story: the root of the word is Portuguese, and the emphasis on the “c” means “soft s sound.” “, and the sign above the “i” means “long e”.
Nguyen
“Nguyen” is a common surname in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese language is a bit difficult for English speakers. We are not used to starting words with the sound “ng”. To add to the complexity, “Nguyen” is pronounced differently in different parts of Vietnam. In South Vietnam it is pronounced “vin” or “wen”. In the north they often say something like “nu-win”, but as close to one syllable as possible.
GIF
According to Steve Wilhite , creator of the graphics interchange format, it is pronounced “Jif”, like peanut butter . Or it’s pronounced with a hard “g” sound because that makes more sense to you. There is no right answer.
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a county in England where the tasty condiment was invented in the 1830s. Pronounced u -stuh-shr. It is not pronounced ” Vorst -Tir-Shir”.
Ugh
According to Websters, this Vietnamese noodle soup is pronounced ” fuuh ,” but the word “enemy” seems to catch on quickly, at least if you speak English. The Vietnamese pronounce this word differently because “phở” contains a sound that is not found in English.
Library
This is not a “liar berry” or a “liar bear.” This is “ llay -brekh-ri”. But if you say it quickly, without careful pronunciation, it will still sound like “li-bri.” It’s just an awkward word because of the middle syllable.
Often
That “t” in the word “often” shouldn’t be there. This word is not in the word when you pronounce it because it is pronounced ” aa -fn”. See also: “lock”, “mortgage”, “listen”, “mitigate” and many other words with silent “t’s”.
Niche
“Niche” can be pronounced “neesh” (rhymes with “sheesh”) or “nich” (rhymes with “pitch”). ” Neesh” is a newer pronunciation . “Nich” is a classic. But both are fine.
Arctic
It’s annoying, but “they” say you have to pronounce it with a hard “ts”: so it’s aark -tuhk, not ar -tuhk. The same rule applies to the word “Antarctica,” which also has an awkward “t” sound that also needs to be pronounced.
It wasn’t always like this. The word was formerly written “artik” and pronounced ar -tik, but it was changed in the 17th century to conform to the Latin spelling. It’s all a mess .
Cache
It’s easy! A “stash” is a group of hidden things. Pronounced “cash”. Some people say “kaish”, perhaps because of the “e” ending. Some people say “kash- ay “, but… if you do this, you are using the word “cachet”, which means “prestige”.
Forte
“Forte” (a person’s forte) has no generally accepted pronunciation . You can say “fort”. Or you can say for -tai or for- tai . No matter how you say it, someone will think you are wrong.
But if you use the word “forte” when talking about the musical notation of the word “play loud”, it is always ” forte “.