These Are The Words We Brits Struggle Most To Pronounce

On the?JJ Barnes Blog, I check out research from Slotbox into which words we are struggling most to pronounce, and find the correct way!

If like me you grew up learning new words from reading them, not hearing them, the correct way to pronounce them could often be a mystery.?Slotbox?experts looked at average Google searches over the past year to determine which British words are most difficult to pronounce.

Aoife

It discovered that the most difficult name for Brits to pronounce is “Aoife,” a feminine name from Ireland. How to pronounce it is searched for more than 9,260 times per month, nearly 2,000 times more than second place. The common Irish name should be pronounced “ee-fa.”

Saoirse

“Saoirse,” another historically Irish name, comes in second. It is one of five names on the top ten list, and there are more than 7,710 monthly searches for how to pronounce it. The most widely used and accepted pronunciation is “sur-sha,” but some people with the name also prefer “seer-sha” as the pronunciation.

Omicron

With 5,830 monthly searches for assistance with pronouncing the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, “Omicron” comes in at number three on the list. Following the media’s coverage of the new COVID-19 variant at the time, which was named after it, searches for the word’s pronunciation reached their highest point in late 2021. It should be pronounced either “oh-MY-kron” or “OM-uh-kron.”

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