Top 10 Most Requested Words to Pronounce in 2024
from my American English Pronunciation Q&A Meetup group
Diversity and Complexity
This is the first time since I’ve been compiling the most frequently requested words from my American English Pronunciation Q&A Meetup group that there haven’t been 20 obvious choices. There were more diverse words requested this year and they were more complex words than in previous years. I took the top 10 because after that, there were 152 words that were requested twice.
2021
In 2021, the most requested words were not surprising to me at all. I think “world” is a difficult sound combination to pronounce and it looks so much different than it sounds. I think “literally” is a common request because it is heard so often. Since it was 2021, “vaccine” reflects what was going on in the world at that time.
2022
In 2022, the usual suspects, “world” and “literally” are there. The word I either get asked the most often about how to pronounce, or the one I correct someone who doesn’t notice they are pronouncing it incorrectly, is “comfortable” so I expect to see it on the list.
2023
In 2023, there were a lot of words that are pronounced differently than they are spelled. For example, the word, “interesting” has three main pronunciation options and there are silent letters in “subtle” and “clothes.”
2024
Here we are at a look back at the most frequently requested words in 2024. It’s not as clearly defined as in the previous years. There were fewer words that were requested repeatedly. “World” and “squirrel” didn’t even make it! “Literally” made the list though and I have it on there twice to show the two main pronunciations, one more common for US English and one more common for UK English.
I can still see the theme of words that are pronounced differently than they look/how they are spelled. It would be much easier to guess the pronunciation of “drawer” if it were spelled the way it sounds, “dror.” There are hidden sounds such as a “ch” sound in “mutual,” “j” in “individual,” and “zh” sounds in “luxurious” and “visual.”
Here’s what it looks like and you can copy the Google sheet.
Listen
I recorded myself pronouncing all these words just like I do after every Meetup. If you can’t attend the pronunciation or intonation Meetups, you can always watch the videos I make after each one to hear new words and sentences. Visit the whole channel with the link below or click on the video to go directly to the Top 10 list.
Adastra Speech YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@adastraspeech
Meetup sent me a notice to let me know it’s the 5th year of my Meetup group online. I’m grateful for all the wonderful people who have participated and kept it going this whole time. I learn a lot from the questions people ask about pronunciation and intonation. It reminds me to keep being curious and to keep learning new things! Thank you!