Do ❌NOT❌ Say These 5 Words Wrong!

00:00 Introduction
00:48 Echelon
01:41 Pathos
03:35 Isthmus
05:17 Asthma
05:50 Grievous
07:25 Sherbet
10:10 Etcetera

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Improve your American Accent / spoken English at Rachel's English with video-based lessons and exercises. Rachel uses real life English conversation as the basis for teaching how to speak English and how to sound American -- improve listening comprehension skills. Study English vocabulary and English phrases such as phrasal verbs, as well as common expressions in English. Learn American idioms and American slang.

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[tracydacy]

I was in college working on my master’s degree the first time I ever encountered the word “hyperbole” in a speechwriting class. I was actually reading out loud about this tactic when I came to the word and mispronounced it “hyperbowl.” Though I was corrected with care and consideration I felt very embarrassed. Fast forward 15-16 years later, I heard my son, a sophomore in high school, use it correctly to point out that his sister was grossly exaggerating about something they were arguing about.

[jeanadams]

I correctly pronounce all of the words in this lesson. When I was in first grade, about 1948/49, while reading aloud in front of the class, I pronounced island as iS land. It was the first time I had seen the word in print. I was mortified when corrected by the teacher. It may seem a small thing, but it had a pronounced affect on me, psychologically. From then on, I always strove to pronounce, and spell, correctly. There have been a lot of words over the years that I knew only from reading. I never spoke those words aloud. I am 80 years old now, and I am able to make use of the internet to learn how to say those words. I love the internet. :)

[emilyb]

It's interesting, because I think grammar and pronunciation are important, and for most words there is a clear "right" and "wrong" way to pronounce them. I read a lot as a child, but because the more obscure or advanced words were never spoken near me, I often mispronounced them - debris was "deb-Ris", and so on. But on the other side of the coin, I have seen a lot of people argue over correct pronunciations or phrases - when the difference is accent or casual versus formal speech. "Are you well" is the more technically correct term, but almost no one will misunderstand when you ask someone "are you good?", and linguistics argues for multiple "correct" pronunciations of words that completely vary by accent. I just find it interesting that there can be so many variations and shades of "correct" - clearly incorrect, clearly correct, and then in other cases, not technical but forgiven, and so on.

[leopoldbloom]

For non-native speakers, there’s another problem: once you learn a new word, you have to find out if it is differently used, spelled or pronounced in different parts of the English speaking world. Router, privacy, either, … - the list of linguistic traps goes on and on.

[snoopybrown]

The objective for any language learning and usage thereafter is helping learners to acquire the skill to understand what others are saying and also to be understood by others what they are saying. Pronunciation even with other languages varies with people from the same race but different countries. To me it is essential that the focus is on the ability to use the language effectively. Fluency precedes accuracy. After all, all spoken language is just a tool for communication IMO..🙏

[KathleenMc]

I found it interesting that you mentioned sherbet and then said the definition is like a dairy based sorbet.
For us in the UK, sherbet is a sweet, effervescent powder. We often dunk liquorice into it.

[BruceLyeg]

My recently passed mom (Ruby) was a voracious reader and read everything from romance novels to biographies and history books. One time she was in some training class and it was her turn to read something aloud. She came to the word "scenario" and pronounced it just like she had in her head a thousand times before "seen-er-oo", she said. The instructor laughed, the class laughed and my mom laughed (even though she was a bit embarrassed). My mom was a strong woman with a great sense of humor. Before they got back to doing whatever it was they were doing, the instructor said to my mom that she like her pronunciation better and several others agreed. Made my mom feel better. I teased her about it constantly. I spent as much time as possible with her before she passed and got to learn that there were several other words she had her own unique way of pronouncing. Sometimes I told her, sometimes I didn't. But the only one I teased her about all the time was "seen-er-oo". I miss that. Miss you mom

[piperatoms]

Sarah Silverman is super helpful now a days. I never thought she’d be helping me with my pronunciations with no curse words. So nice, thank you Ms, Silverman. You’re a national treasure.

[kwstaskwtidis]

Pathos is a Greek word, and if you were in Greece, your pronunciation would be just fine! lol (pah-thaws)

[MrLargePig]

An interesting point: In English, many words have different pronunciations of the root, depending on the form. The example that stands out, from your list, is pathos. we say "pay-thos", but we don't say "pay-thetic", despite both forms proceeding from a common root. Likewise, consider potent and impotent, same root, different syllabic emphasis. I tend to think that this is foundational- a word that's changing in front of our eyes. I believe it was the Spanish playwright, Miguel Unamuno, who said, " The pure language is the dead language."

[nneichan]

Working in an ER I learned to understand all sorts of different ways to say words. I always felt it wasn't a problem as long as I understood what they needed. I really feel that learning a language should not embarrass anyone, and any corrections would be very carefully and gently handled.

[AntiqueAgenda]

Not sure how I found this video, but am happy to have learned something today!!! Thank you Rachel!!!

[JohnyTanguero]

As a Greek, I can confirm that "pathos" is pronounced in the "wrong" way, and the words "isthmus" and "asthma" do have a distinct, although short, "th" sound. Especially the word "asthma", when you speak Greek, you need to have the "th" sound, otherwise you are saying "asma" (pronounced "azma") which in ancient, archaic and modern Greek means "song". That being said, these words are brought into the English language, and as such, they are yours to pronounce them whichever way you want!
By the bye, I want to see a video about "nucular" lol!

[StergiosMekras]

As others have mentioned, "pathos", "isthmos"/"isthmus", and "asthma", should be read as written. The problem is with the accepted pronunciation of Greek among non-native speakers (going all the way back to a thought experiment by Erasmus). It's physically painful to those familiar with the language, ancient or modern.

[xoreign]

Coming from a linguistics background, I can say that languages are always going to change. It's impossible for a language to remain "correct" and unchanging. There will always be idiosyncratic variation, and the check to ensure that this variation is accepted is whether or not it's still comprehensible to other people. If the alternate pronunciation can still be understood, it might stick around. People often say that consistency is necessary for language and communication, but fail to realize that words usually never approach the extreme level they're referring to as being "bad". The language someone currently speaks originally came from a dialect of another distant language, that might have, at one point, been considered incorrect, yet communication never seems to have pockets of unintelligible language in history. Nature is a pretty good balance. Language has one goal; to allow for communication among your community. That's it. As long as that gets done, no need to shove a "correct" and equally arbitrary pronunciation down someone's throat. (not saying this video is doing that, just talking in general!)

[scottanderson]

I’m very impressed by her teaching but I find her articulation marvelous; she is a true master of the language.

[deniborraccini]

I should mention that in school I had 4 years of Latin. At the time I was upset to be given a dead language. Now that I am older I can figure out what most words mean from their Latin roots. This has helped me tremendously.

[kwstaskwtidis]

In Greek, the θ sound is pronounced very clearly in isthmus and asthma. Anyway, very interesting video!

[txshtkckr]

Native speaker here. Similar to “grievous” is “mischievous”, which frequently gets the analogous mispronunciation and misspelling. I pronounce “asthma” as if it were spelled “athzmuh”, that is, with a clear /θ/ *before* the /z/, similar to how sounds are transposed in words like “iron”. Many words of Greek origin are commonly mispronounced, such as the literary devices “hyperbole” and “litotes”.

[danielleearl]

"Hyperbole" was one I read incorrectly out loud in a grade 9 english class and never lived it down for the rest of the semester. I said "hyper-bowl" 😅