Commonly Mispronounced Words

Advanced · Tricky Words

Some everyday words are pronounced very differently from how they look, and even confident speakers get them wrong. Learning the real pronunciation of these high-frequency words removes a lot of small errors at once.

Many of them "swallow" a syllable (comfortable, vegetable) or hide their stress in a surprising place.

Say it like this

comfortable → KUMF-tuh-bul · vegetable → VEJ-tuh-bul · Wednesday → WENZ-day · colonel → KER-nul

Rules & examples

  1. Words that lose a syllable in speech.

    The written syllable is "swallowed".

    • comfortable → "KUMF-tuh-bul"
    • vegetable → "VEJ-tuh-bul"
    • chocolate → "CHOK-lit"
    • every → "EV-ree"
  2. Words with surprising spellings vs sounds.

    The spelling misleads you.

    • Wednesday → "WENZ-day"
    • colonel → "KER-nul"
    • receipt → "ri-SEET" (silent p)
  3. Words learners often stress wrongly.

    Fix the stressed syllable.

    • comFORtable (not comfor-TA-ble)
    • deTERMine
    • deVELop
  4. Tricky common words.

    Worth memorizing individually.

    • clothes → "klohz"
    • answer → "AN-ser" (silent w)
    • island → "EYE-land" (silent s)

Tips to remember

  • Learn these as whole "sound shapes", not letter by letter.
  • When in doubt, tap the speaker button and copy it a few times until it feels automatic.