Free challenge · 20 words · about 3 minutes
Hard Words to Pronounce: Can You Say These 20?
clothes
/kloʊðz/
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Each word is scored from 0 to 100 against a standard American English pronunciation. A low score means the word came out further from that reference, not that people would not understand you.
Twenty English words that trip up native speakers and learners alike: silent letters, consonant pile-ups and spellings that lie. Hear each word, say it, and see your score for it. At the end you get your average, your weakest word and a card to share. Free, in your browser, no account.
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The 20 words, and why they are hard
Tap a word to hear it. The transcription is American English IPA; tap the IPA to open the word in the transcription tool.
One syllable. The th is so light that many Americans say “close” with a z: kloh-z.
Three written syllables, two spoken: WENZ-day. The first d is silent.
Most Americans drop the first r: FEB-yoo-air-ee. FEB-roo-air-ee is correct too.
Keep both r’s: LIE-brair-ee, not “lie-berry”.
It starts with sp: spuh-SIF-ik. Without the s it becomes “pacific”.
Two r’s around one short vowel, so the tongue barely moves: ROOR-ul.
In American English it is two quick syllables, SKWUR-ul, almost one.
Four consonants at the end: k, s, th, s. Say “six”, then add “-ths”.
Three consonants in front, up to four behind one short vowel: STRENGK-ths.
Spelled with ch, said with kw: KWIRE.
The dictionary gives kee-NO-uh; KEEN-wah, closer to the Spanish, is common too.
No l sound at all: KER-nul, exactly like “kernel”.
The th is silent for most speakers: IS-mus.
Four syllables with the stress on the second: ih-PIT-uh-mee, not EP-ih-tome.
Three syllables, stress first: MIS-chuh-vus. There is no “-ee-us” at the end.
Stress the second syllable and keep the n and m apart: fuh-NOM-uh-non.
uh-NON-uh-mus: the stress sits on NON.
AR-kun-saw. The final s is silent, unlike in Kansas.
mass-uh-CHOO-sits: the stress lands on CHOO.
WOOS-ter-sher: three syllables, and three written ones are never said.
What makes a word hard to pronounce
Three things, mostly. Silent letters: “colonel” has no l sound, “Worcestershire” skips three written syllables, “Wednesday” drops its first d. Consonant clusters: “sixths” ends in four consonants in a row and “strengths” packs up to seven consonant sounds around one short vowel. And spellings borrowed from other languages, such as “choir” and “quinoa”, which keep foreign spellings with English sounds.
Stress is the fourth trap. “Epitome” and “anonymous” are easy once you know where the stress goes, and wrong in a way everyone hears when you do not.
How the challenge is scored
You say one word per take. The engine compares your recording with a standard American English pronunciation of that word and gives it a score from 0 to 100: green from 85, blue from 70, then amber and red. Your result is the average of your twenty words, with the lowest ones listed first so you know which to practise.
The reference is American. A British “Worcestershire” or “February” is perfectly correct and may still score lower here, and two American pronunciations can both be fine (“clothes” with or without the th). Treat a low score as a word worth checking, not a verdict on your English.
How to say hard words better
Slow down and split the word into syllables first: “mis-chuh-vus”, “fuh-nom-uh-non”. Find the stressed syllable and make it louder and longer than the others, then speed up until it sounds like one word. For clusters like “sixths”, say the end on its own (“-ksths”) a few times before the whole word.
Then check it. Record the word, compare it with the audio, and record again. The full English pronunciation test scores five everyday words the same way, and the app has daily speaking practice with a score for every take.
More words people often ask about
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Questions
What is the hardest English word to pronounce?+
There is no single answer, but “Worcestershire”, “sixths”, “colonel” and “isthmus” are on almost every list: one hides three syllables, one ends in four consonants, and two are not said the way they are spelled. All four are in this challenge.
What does my score mean?+
It is the average of your twenty word scores, each one measuring how close your pronunciation came to a standard American English reference. It is not a level or a grade of your English. The most useful part is the list of your lowest words.
Is this a pronunciation test?+
It is a challenge built on the same scoring as the English pronunciation test. The test uses five everyday words chosen to cover the main English sounds; this page uses twenty famously hard ones.
Does it work with a British accent?+
Yes, but the reference is American, so a few correct British pronunciations (the r in “February”, the vowel in “anonymous”) can score lower here.
Is it free?+
Yes, it is free and needs no account. There is a daily limit on recordings per browser, enough to finish the twenty words and retry some.
What happens to my recording?+
It is sent to our server to be scored. The audio is not kept; the word and its score are stored with an anonymous id and a hashed IP address so we can see how the page is used.
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