Pronunciation difficulties
 

Just had a conversation with someone who was trying desperately (and failing) to pronounce the Worcestershire in Worcestershire sauce, bless her. It made me giggle, especially when I told her to try using 'wuster-sure' or even just 'wuster' and those in the know would undertand what she was talking about. Cue the glazed-over look... :)

Any other words you get a kick out of listening to people on this side of the world struggle with? Or any words you get told you aren't pronouncing properly?

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

I haven't been told that I am not pronouncing it properly, but I have to repeat myself, several times, when I say "thirty". "Earls" is another one where I am misunderstood. I think it is because I am Scottish and rrrrolll
my rrrr's.:)

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

How often does that come up in conversation?

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Not too often, but it is the name of a restaurant chain in Western Canada, so comes up when planning to go out for a bite to eat.:) I suppose I could just suggest Tim Hortons instead and the locals would understand me.

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Ah right :lol:

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

water - nearly every time
Canadians just dont understand me - conversation a couple of weeks ago went like this:
receptionist - would you like a refreshment? We have coffee, tea and water
Me - Please can I have a glass of water
Receptionist - what?
me - :confused:

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

My husband drives me mad when he says mirror, it comes out as mirrow - and chalk is chock - I have lots of big mirrows in my house and we are packing and marking the backs of furniture with chock...and now he tells me that it's going to be me that sounds like the funny foreigner!

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

I will never be able to say me-er the way North Americans do. For that, I am grateful;)

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Yes, lots of people I know say those words like that too - and "hawk" is 'hock' and "dawn" is 'don'.

After 10 years in Canada - and blending my accent - some people still struggle to understand me at times.

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Also Scottish, and looking forward to hamming-up the Scottish accent when we get over there :D

A worm will be a "wurrom" and a "squirl" will be a "Squirral" ;)

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Words I have to say really loud for them to understand me are.

****
******
**** **
**** ** *** **** ****** ****

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Place names constantly, e.g. Scarborough.

Coeur D'Alene is the one that gets me, you think Americans are hard on English, they're even worse on French. E.g. coupé. A coop is somewhere you keep your chickens.

Americans say "Core Dah Lane", Canadians say: "Curr Duh Lean".

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

Or "garage", the American way of saying it is as though you own a Bentley.

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

A common one is the way people say Edinburgh - usually they say Edinborrow.

Re: Pronunciation difficulties
 

I was talking to a French fella yesterday about his boat. He pronounced it bateau. Silly ****er:thumbdown: