The hardest word in the English language for foreigners to the pronounce is 'Worcestershire', according to a recent poll.
根据民意投票,对外国人而言,英语里面最难发音的一个单词是'Worcestershire'(伍斯特沙司,英式辣椒油)。
On a recent Reddit thread, user JustATreeNut, asked people from around the world to submit English words they struggled with most.
在Reddit上,最近用户JustATreeNut邀请来自世界各地的朋友们提交他们认为最难拼的英语单词。
Top of the list is the name of an English county (and a great British condiment), which although pronounced 'wuss-ter-sheer' seems to confound most non-English speakers when they attempt it.
榜首是一个英国城镇的名字(也是大不列颠调料)——虽然发音为“wuss-ter-sheer,但这么发音好像把大部分非母语是英语的人搞糊涂了。
While 'squirrel' proves particularly tricky for Germans.
而'squirrel'(松鼠)对德国人而言是特别难发音的。
THE TEN HARDEST ENGLISH WORDS:史上最难发音的十个词:
1. Worcestershire
2. Specific
3. Squirrel
4. Brewery
5. Phenomenon
6. Derby
7. Regularly
8. February
9. Edited
10. Heir
And certain words which appear on the list, including 'brewery' and 'edited', seem rather straightforward to an average Brit.
榜单上出现的其他的一些词,包括'brewery' 和'edited',对一般英国人而言太简单了。
Others, including 'phenomenon and 'February' are notorious tongue twisters even for native English speakers.
其它的,包括'phenomenon 和'February'都是臭名昭著的绕口词,甚至对英国本土人而言。
The last two words to make the top ten were Derby, which is (confusingly for foreigners) pronounced 'darby', and 'heir'.
排名前十的最后两个单词是Derby,发音为’darby’(让外国人很困惑),还有'heir'。
Of course, we've all had our embarrassing slips when attempting to pronounce unfamiliar words.None more mortifying, perhaps, than John Travolta's linguistic misstep at the 2014 Oscars, where he pronounced Frozen star Idina Menzel's name as: 'Adele Dazeem', for the entire world to see.And let's not forget Benedict Cumberbatch, the Oscar-nominated British thespian who famously recorded an entire voiceover for a 2009 BBC nature documentary pronouncing the word 'penguin' as 'peng-wing'.
当然,试着去念不熟的单词,我们都会有很多很尴尬的过失。也许,没有比约翰·特拉沃尔塔在2014年的奥斯卡上的发音错误更丢人的,全世界的人都知道他把伊迪娜·门泽尔的名字念成了阿黛尔·达奇姆。我们也别忘了本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇,获得奥斯卡提名的英国著名演员,在2009年英国广播公司自然纪录片上把单词'penguin'读成了'peng-wing'。
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