Words like half (and similarly, calf) are difficult for Brits to say in an American accent, mainly because the 'a' sound is so vastly different from what they are used to. So instead of saying HAAHF, they should be pronouncing it HAY-AHF.
9 English words that are hard to say in British and American English
26 related questions found
What is a very British thing to say?
I'm knackered – I'm tired. Cheeky – Mischievous or playful. Bloody – This is a very British thing to say – meaning very. I'm pissed – Not meaning the regular “angry”, in British talk it actually means you're very drunk and is used quite a lot when you are out drinking with friends.
What are tricky words? Tricky words are those words which cannot be sounded out easily. Emergent readers may find them difficult to read as they have not yet learned some of the Graphemes in those words.
The longest word in English has 189,819 letters and takes 3 hours to pronounce. This is a technical term for the chemical composition of titin. Titin is the largest known protein responsible for maintaining the passive elasticity of the muscles.
The majority of English-speaking countries, the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia, each have "coolly" and "minuscule" listed as their most-misspelled words, according to WordTips.
Trick words are phonetically irregular words that your child needs to memorize. They are selected for their high frequency of use in English school-aged texts. These words are important for students to master for both reading and spelling.
There are plenty of examples of tricky words out there, basically any word that features different sounds to individual phonics and phonics blends could be classed as a tricky word. For Phase 2, words like 'I', 'no' and 'into' are tricky because they can't be correctly pronounced by using phonics.
The word “mate” is very common in Australian and British English and can help you sound a lot more natural when speaking Englsih in these places. Although it's not used in American English, it is understood by English speakers all over the world.
'Innit? ' is a contraction of the tag question 'Isn't it? ' and people use it to prompt a response from the listener. So if someone says 'Nice weather, innit?
