On a recent Reddit thread, user JustATreeNut, asked people from around the world to submit English words they struggled with most.

 

Top of the list is the name of an English county (and a great British condiment), which although pronounced 'wuss-ter-sheer' seems to confound most non-English speakers when they attempt it.

 

In the top ten, which was put together by Mamamia, apparently¹ easy words such as 'specific' and 'squirrel' took second and third place.

 

And certain words which appear on the list, including 'brewery²' and 'edited', seem rather straightforward³ to an average Brit.

 

Others, including 'phenomenon and 'February', are notorious tongue twisters even for native English speakers.

 

The last two words to make the top ten wereDerby, which is (confusingly for foreigners) pronounced 'darby', and 'heir'.

 

Of course, we've all had our embarrassing slips when attempting to pronounce unfamiliar⁴ words.

 

None more mortifying⁵, perhaps, than John Travolta's linguistic⁶ misstep at the 2014 Oscars, where he pronounced Frozen star Idina Menzel's name as: 'Adele Dazeem', for the entire world to see.

 

And let's not forget Benedict Cumberbatch, the Oscar-nominated British thespian⁷ who famously recorded an entire voiceover for a 2009 BBC nature documentary pronouncing the word 'penguin⁸' as 'peng-wing'.

 

Speaking later on BBC America's The Graham Norton Show, the 38-year-old blamed his producers for failing to correct him at any point during the recording⁹.

 

THE TEN HARDEST ENGLISH WORDS

 

1. Worcestershire

 

2. Specific

 

3. Squirrel

 

4. Brewery

 

5. Phenomenon

 

6. Derby

 

7. Regularly

 

8. February

 

9. Edited

 

10. Heir

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