One Hundred Most Commonly Mispronounced English Words by Jaku b M arian Second Edition, March 2 0 1 5 The PDF version has no associated ISBN The image of the head on the front cover is copyrighted by Andrey Ospishchev a n d lic e n s e d fr o m fo to lia .c o m . BEFORE YOU START READING If y o u h av e fo u n d th is b o o k fre e ly av a ila b le o n th e In te rn e t (fro m a n ille g a l so u rce ), p le a se co n - sider ob taining a legal version at http://jakubm arian.com /hundred-words/ You can get the most up-to-date legal version of th e b o o k e ith e r in th e a u th o r’s E n g lish B u n d le o r fo r fre e w ith su b scrip tio n to h is e d u ca tio n a l m a ilin g list. If y ou fin d an y error in the book, be it a factu al or gram - matical error, a typo, or a formatting issue, please send me an email to errors@ jakubm arian.com WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS BOOK This little booklet is based on my much larger book called Im p rov e y ou r E n glish p ron u n ciation an d learn over 500 com m only m ispronounced w ords which, apart from hundreds of additional words, describes also typical error patterns in English and contains an introduction to English phonology (w hich w ill help you read English words correctly in general). I h av e se le cte d 100 w ords from the original book that I consider to be the m ost im portant ones and com p iled them here in alph abetical ord er so that my readers can easily review them. This book also utilizes a sm aller page size and is better suited for read ing on e-book read ing devices. Pronunciation is denoted using a simplified ver- sion of IPA (In tern ation al P h on etic A lph ab et; th e notation used in the aforem entioned book is a bit more sophisticated). If you can’t read IPA yet, don’t worry; pronunciation is written also in a pseudo- English notation which will be explained before you start reading the list. If you want to learn m ore about the IPA , there is an appendix explaining all IPA sym bols a t th e v e r y e n d o f th e b o o k . TABLE OF CONTENTS Before you start reading .................................. 3 What to expect from this book ....................... 4 The notation ...................................................... 6 The list ................................................................ 8 Appendix: IPA ................................................. 3 2 Vowels .................................................................. 3 3 Consonants ......................................................... 3 7 Alphabetical Index ......................................... 4 4 THE NOTATION In order to be able to read the pseudo-English notation used here, you will have to rem em ber just three IPA characters; the rest shou ld be p ronou nced as you w ould intuitively pronounce it as an English word. The characters you have to remember are: [ə] is p ron ou n ced as “a” in “a book” (i.e. as th e in - definite article). It is a neutral sound, as if you were ju st releasing air throu gh you r vocal chord s. If you som etim es think th at th ere’s an “0” used in a place where you would expect “i” as in “pit” (o r co n - versely), don’t w orry; these tw o sounds are often in te rc h a n g e a b le . [æ] is a sound approximately between “a” in “fath e r” a n d “ e” in “ b ed”. The sym bol is used to rem in d yo u th at E n g lish “a” (as in “cat” = “ k æ t” , “bad” = “bæ d”, “sad” = “sæd” etc.) is pronounced som ew h at differen tly than you are used from you r mother tongue. [ʌ] is th e so u n d o f “u ” in “b ut” (bʌt) an d “o ” in “come” (kʌm). There are also a few groups of letters used con- sisten tly in th e p seu d o-E n g lish notation , bu t d on’t worry about them too much; you will remember them naturally as you start reading the list and if 7 100 COM M ONLY MISPRONOUNCED WORDS you skip to the next section rig h t n o w , y o u w ill p ro b a b ly do just fine. In ca se y o u a re in te re ste d : “ aw” is pronounced as in “law ”, “oo” as in “cool” , “ oo” (italicised) as in “good” (the sam e as “u” in “put”), “ee” (italicised) is used to denote the sam e sound as in “s ee” but sh ort, an d “oh” is used to denote [oʊ] w h ich is h o w Americans pronounce “oh”; in British English, “oh” is pronounced as “əu”. The pseudo-English notation uses dashes to di- vide each word into simpler parts, for exam ple “po- lic e ” = “ pə-lees”. The stressed part is bold. These parts often correspond to the syllables of the word, but they do not if this could lead to a wrong pro- nunciation, so don’t pronounce the dashes as any kind of pause. For exam ple “recipe” is denoted as “res-ip-ee”, although the syllables are in fact “res-i- pee”, but this would mislead som e people to pro- nounce the “i” as “aay”. If th e A m e rica n p ro n u n cia tio n d iffe rs fro m th e British one, the one just explained is marked by the sym bol UK o r US after th e g iv e n p r o n u n c ia tio n . THE LIST There is not much more to say; I hope you will enjoy the process of reading and learning som ething new . ability [əˈbɪləti] (ə-bil-ə-tee); ev e n th o u g h a n a b ility is s o m e th in g y o u a re able [ˈeɪbl] (ey-bl) to d o, th e re ’s n o “ey ” a t th e b e g in n in g o f “a b ility ” . albeit [ɔ:lˈbi:ɪt] (aw’l-bee-it); th is fa irly fo rm a l w o rd , meaning “although”, is not used much in sp eech , bu t is still q u ite com m on in literatu re. Once you remember that it is actually a combin- ation of three w ords “all be it”, you w ill no lo n g e r h a v e a n y p ro b le m w ith its c o rre c t p ro - nunciation. alien [ˈeɪliən] (ei-li-ən); a lio n w o u ld ce rta in ly b e a n unw elcom e alien at your hom e, but don’t pro- nounce them the sam e. Just rem em ber that an alien is not your ally [ˈælaɪ] (æ-laay). angel [ˈeɪndʒəl] (eyn-dzhəl); u n lik e m a n y o th e r words beginning with “ang-”, “angel” is pro- nounced with [eɪndʒ] (eyndzh) at th e b eg in n in g . Nevertheless, a derived word angeliC [æn 9 100 COM M ONLY MISPRONOUNCED WORDS ˈdʒelɪk] (æn-dzhe-lik) is stressed on th e secon d syllable an d the vow els are p ron ou n ced d iffer- ently. Arkansas [ˈɑ:kənˌsɔ:] (aak-ən-saw) UK, [ˈɑ:rkənˌsɔ:] (aark-ən-saw) US; th e n am e o f o n e o f th e U S states so u n d s like a sy m b o l for a n ew religiou s movement: “ark and saw”. However, this is how it is re a lly p ro n o u n c e d . ballet [ˈbæleɪ] (bæ-lei) UK, [bæˈleɪ] (bæ-lei) US; som ew h at surp rising ly, the final “t” rem ains si- le n t in E n g lis h . beige [beɪʒ] (beyzh); th is w o rd is o f F ren ch o rig in and inherits its French pronunciation. The “g” is pronounced the sam e as in “m assage”. bomb [bom] (bom) UK, [bɑ:m] (baam) US; th e “ b ” in “m b” in English is usually silent. This w ord is perhaps even more confusing than the others in th a t it a lso e x ists in m o st o th e r la n g u a g e s in th e sam e w ritten form bu t w ith the “b” pron ou n ced . The sam e pronunciation is used also for bomb- ing [ˈbomɪŋ] (bom-ing) UK, [ˈbɑ:mɪŋ] (baam-ing) US. THE LIST 10 bull [bʊl] (bool, with short “u”); so m e p e o p le p ro - nounce the “u” wrongly as [ʌ], a s in “ cu t” , b u t it is th e s a m e “ u ” a s in “ p u t” .