8 English words most Indians mispronounce

What is the correct way to pronounce 'suit'? Is it soot or sweet?
Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

It's no secret that English is a funny language.

It is full of words that can be infuriatingly hard to pronounce.

Presenting eight such words that are most often mispronounced:

1. Picture

Incorrectly pronounced by a lot of people as pitcher or pikshur, the right way to say it is pic- ch.

2. Specific

The right way to say this word is Speh-si-fik and not sp-si-fik.

3. Suite

Commonly mispronounced as 'soot', the correct way to say it would be 'sweet'.

4. Queue

This word should be pronounced 'cue'.

5. Clothes

When you say clothes the 'th' sound followed by an 's' is very difficult to produce, especially the voiced TH and zz ending.

The word has only one syllable; 'e' is silent and 's' makes a 'zzz' sound.

6. Almond

A lot of people pronounce this word as Al-muh-nd. The syllable 'L' is silent.

The correct way to pronounce it is Ah-muh-nd.

7. Humour

This word is pronounced as hyoo- muh. R is silent.

8. Height

Most people follow the pattern and say 'heighth', with a th at the end of the word. The correct way to pronounce it is 'hait'.

To pronounce words more accurately in English and to improve fluency, one needs to pay attention to stressing on the right syllable.

If you stress on the wrong syllable, the word is going to sound incorrect even if you pronounce every single vowel and consonant correctly.

Manit Parikh is country head, India, Elsa Corp, an edu-tech headquartered in the US. He can be contacted on ga@rediff-inc.com.