The Top 10 Hardest Words for Americans to Pronounce

Writing Tips has compiled data from the most popular Google searches based in the USA beginning with “how to pronounce”. Here are the ten words words Americans found the most difficulty pronouncing in 2022.

1. how to pronounce acai (18,000 searches)
2. how to pronounce nguyen (15,000 searches)
3. how to pronounce gyro (15,000 searches)
4. how to pronounce omicron (14,000 searches)
5. how to pronounce charcuterie (12,000 searches)
6. how to pronounce gif (11,000 searches)
7. how to pronounce gnocchi (10,000 searches)
8. how to pronounce kyiv (7,900 searches)
9. how to pronounce worcestershire (7,800 searches)
10. how to pronounce dogecoin (7,300 searches)

Some of these searches show what was on the minds of Americans last year, like Omicron, a more contagious strain of COVID-19; Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine; and Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency. Others are more timeless queries, like the proper pronunciation of GIF or Worcestershire.

Americans led the way globally in not knowing how to pronounce gyro: 88% of global pronunciation searches last year were made by Americans. In fact, four of these top ten hardest words for Americans to pronounce in 2022 were food-related.

Nguyen is the most common Vietnamese surname, and 71% of all searches for pronunciation guides last year were made by Americans.

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