What is the most commonly mispronounced English word by foreigners?

Elsa Kristian

Smart Brains Spotlight

What is the most commonly mispronounced English word by foreigners?

Elsa Kristian

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Thank you, Youtube – LetThemTalkTV.

What is the most commonly mispronounced English word by foreigners?

There are so many words in the English language, but they can be learned by a foreign speaker with time and perseverance. But the one word that is just so English sounding, but so difficult for some foreigners to say, is yes.

Of course I can say yes, and even pronounce it correctly. But as soon as I feel comfortable or relax a bit, yes quickly turns to já. And nothing sounds weirder or more foreign to a native English speaking person than someone saying já.

Both my sister and I have the problem, and it persists even after several years of speaking English in the United States. We realize some things will be very difficult to change, like our odd Nordic accents, and I suspect that will never really go away.

My sister has even tried to use a southern US accent, complete with the charming second person plural, y’all. But it only makes her Icelandic accent turn from odd, to downright bizarre. We already look like elves, we don’t need to sound like extraterrestrials.

But we should be able to manage to say yes, instead of já.

My sister and I have come up with all kinds of games to help rid us of the dreaded já affliction. We have at various times, pulled each other’s braids, punched each other in the shoulder, or paid a dollar for each indiscretion.

But we just end up doing a whole lot of punching, pulling and paying, and at the end of the day we both are still saying já.

So we’ll both keep trying, probably with questionable results. When we concentrate and focus, a nice American sounding, yes, will roll out. But as soon as we get distracted or get tired, a huge and very foreign já will rear its ugly head.

The one good thing is that we can always type yes instead of já. So at least that’s a start.