Every year we are confronted with new names, words and phrases that no matter how hard people try, they just can’t seem to pronounce right, and 2018 was no different.
The language learning app Babel teamed with the U.S. Captioning Company to come up with the 10 most commonly mispronounced words and names in 2018. The list is based on a survey of U.S. Captioning Company members, and features words that most newscasters and TV folks had trouble with this year.
Top mispronounced words and names include:
- Beto O'Rourke [[BEH-toe oh-RORK]] – Democratic Senate candidate in Texas
- Brett Kavanaugh [[BRETT KAV-a-naw]] – New Supreme Court Justice
- Daniel Kaluuya [[DAN-yull ka-LOO-yuh]] – “Get Out” and “Black Panther” actor
- Entomophagy [[en-to-MOF-o-jee]] – the practice of eating insects
- Freekeh [[FREE-kah]] – a cereal food that some consider a “supergrain”
- Halapoulivaati Vaitai [[ha-la-poo-lee-VAH-tee VIE-tie]] – Offensive Tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles
- Jamal Khashoggi [[ja-MALL ka-SHOW-gi]] – murdered “Washington Post” journalist
- Mukbang [[MUCK-bahng]] – an online video where people eat large quantities of food
- Saoirse Ronan [[SIR-shuh ROE-nin]] – Oscar-nominated actress
- Xhosa [[*click* O-sa]] - an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe
Source: USA Today