I used to think the "th" sound is hard because it is uncommon in my language, we do not use our tongues to hit the top teeth like that. But then, it became 2nd nature after living abroad for almost 20 years.

Recently i happen to work with a lot of architects and designers and 1 word comes up which I think is the most difficult to pronouncr: AESTHETIC.

It sounds very simple but if you break down the syllables, your tongue needs to do a bit of work.

For the British English version, the "t" in tic is pronounced quite strong, as in "tick". Mostly, your tongue only needs to worry about the "THE" sound, i.e. ES-THE-TIC.

In US English, the "t" is most often pronounced as a soft "d". This means "TIC" will sound like "DIC". So your tongue needs to flick up for the "THE" sound and then immediately flick down for the "DIC".

This gets even harder if you consider the adverb: AESTHETICALLY. A lot of tongue gymnasium involve...

Any other words or phrase that you think is dificult?

My sister can't say sea minerals without it sounding like semen roll.

Legislative.

I used to find words that had the letter R followed by an L difficult. Like girl, world, etc. They're still a bit tongue twisty tbh

When I was younger I read and listened to a lot of English but didn't speak too much. It took me years to get a better hang of "Three" and "Free".

I have trouble with "sixths".

You could always claim you learned English from Irish English speakers: they commonly substitute dental frictives with the plosives, so /th/ with /t/ or /d/.

I can not wrap my tounge around ambulance while in a sentence.
So as an Aussie I just call them ambos.

For me, probably "specific" and "interdisciplinary"

And the nimmins are replaced by addabs.

Any combination of "th" and "s". Like "months", " clothes", etc.

and "twelvths"

Native English speaker here. Aside from catching crap for regional accent differences, I didn't have any noticeable, repeating problems until COVID. I can't, for the life of me, properly pronounce comorbidity. Even when I really concentrate on it, it tends to come out as comorbibity. It really makes me sound stupid as hell.

My children's optometrist is a place called "Tropical Optical". I can't do it.

Unique New York

Ostentatious Austin, Texas

Stumbled on this tongue twister in the wild. It's freaking impossible.

Soldier shoulder surgery.

Months. The S after the TH as in THink vs THe, is difficult.

Sphere or Sphincter

I am becoming more convinced that I should have been a voice actor......

Thats ok, there are entire regions of London that have the same problem.

non native here

girl, world, rivalry

in ascending difficulty, i generally find soft Rs hard to say, tho after a few years, it became easier

I'm from the American Southeast. I speak with a tarheel drawl. To listen to me speak, you'd think the word "rural" has four Rs in it. Rrrrl.

Most native speakers do not really pronounce the "ths". Typically you hear "mons".

Most native speakers do not really pronounce the "ths". Typically you hear "mons", "close".

"probably" is awkward for me. I used to drop the b's and pronounce it "pro'ly", but now I make the effort to use "likely" instead

"Assthedick"

Now you'll never forget.

As a native english speaker, obsequious.

February. I'm happy I don't have to say it often.

English speaker - corollary.

Its a lot easier if you think of it as the same sound you'd get at the end of badum tiss

The ones with "ch", the laboratory coworkers laugh when I pronounce "chemistry"

How are you trying to pronounce it? At least in my accent, the “ch” is just pronounced like a “k”…

KEM-ist-tree

“Prolly” is how I pronounce it in speech, especially in the middle of a sentence.

I feel like one of the hardest things to master for non-native speakers, especially those who speak Romance languages, is the pronunciation of consonants that occur in the middle of phrases. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and depends on the speaker, but those said middle consonants are often very understated, especially in fast speech. I can always tell a Spanish or French native speaker because they would pronounce it: pro-Ba-BLEE, with the clear, distinct, staccato-like intonation of their mother tongues.

UK native speaker. I tend to pronounce it "feb-ə-ree"

Non-native but spent a lot of my life living in English-speaking contexts. I know how to pronounce it, but my tongue seems to like tripping up over "hospital".

Czech has this special Ř sound, which is somewhere between a rolling R and the S in vision (/ˈvɪʒən/). I'm learning Czech as a fifth language, so while I can pronounce it standalone or at the start of a word it takes all my focus to manage mid-word.

Everything is difficult (I'm from Spain).

"Phthalates"

Australian here and with my bigan arse accent I struggle to pronounce the word "regularly"

I break it up to much when I read it into reg-u-lar-ly

If i say it is just roll through the last have and get regurrrly

To be fair, r is a secret vowel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7DuvWVazpk

Is your accent the one where "oh, no!" sounds like "ohr, nohr!"

In my tarheel accent, a consonant Y often gets sanded to an uh sound. Especially when speaking quickly it's not uncommon to hear a Carolinian say "REG-uh-lurr" rather than "REG-yew-lurr".

That's not an English word, that's a space catholic word.

I have a disdain for technical latin, Stop telling me I have hypernatremia; high blood salt is exactly as detailed and like 54 syllables shorter.

Is there anywhere on earth that pronounces the R? FEB-you-air-EE.

We'll eventually give up and thesaurus it.

Rrrrl. Rrrrl. RRRRL. Out inna woods.

Grew up in the US (the Deep South)… moved to England, have been here for like a bajillion years and unfortunately still sound American 😕

But for me it is crisps. Why do we have to say this word when it is so awkward?!?

I have pretty much no split between four and thaw. Can’t even hear the difference when someone else does it.

I could see that in an Irish accent, but no I never hear that.

Just drop the “r” English-style - “guhl”, “wuhld”. Easy!

Or you could go the other way and roll the “r” like the Seventh Doctor.

Pacific

Here's a demonstration of what in taking about: https://youtu.be/o8WeXem5YMQ?t=551

He does say this is in American English specifically tho.