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English as a second language learners: what words were really hard for you to pronounce? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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If English wasn't your first language, maybe if you learned English later in life, were there any words that you had a really hard time learning how to pronounce? Do you think that had to do with the sounds made in your first language?

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[–] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

This one's actually funny to me. It's a bit of a meme that francophones struggle with squirrel and anglophones struggle with écureuil, but I personally had no trouble with it. You just have to hear it once.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    My francophone wife practiced saying squirrel for like 7 years before she was able to get it kinda right, so that's very impressive if true. It doesn't help that in my accent, it's pronounced as one syllable. Even good approximations of the pronunciation that I've heard by French speakers are usually done in two syllables.

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