The 5 Words Americans Mispronounce the Most

They say English is a hard language to learn. There are so many spelling and grammar rules that most of us can't even begin to keep up with them. There's also the fact that there are so many regional accents that a word can be pronounced several different ways and still be correct, as we will see when you get to the list.

I remember Dan Rather talking about the fact that he used to pronounce the world nuclear as "new kler" and people making fun of that inspired him to learn the pronunciation of as many words as possible so that he would never make a fool of himself on live TV.

Here are the top 5 most mispronounced words in the English language.

Dictionary.com came up with the five words we mispronounce most.  Technically it's the words we use most but have a hard time with.  They based it on how many people click the audio button next to a word online, to see how to pronounce it.

1.  Coupon.  (Pronounced KOO-pon.)  The most common mispronunciation of this word is Q-Pon. I used to say it that way all the time until a listener called me up to correct me.

2.  Mischievous.  (Pronounced MISS-cheh-vous.)  It's three syllables, not four.  But a lot of people says "mich-CHEE-vee-ous." That's another one I mispronounced.

3.  Reservoir.  It's very common for people to ignore that 2nd "R" in reservoir and just say "res UH vor".

4.  Prerogative.  It starts with a "P-R-E."  So it's "PRUH-rogative," not "PER-ogative."

5.  Espresso.  A lot of people say "EX-presso", but there's no "X" in there. This is one of my pet peeves and yet another that I grew up mispronouncing.

Here are few other words that give us problems:

Another one was "quinoa".  (Pronounced KEEN-wah.)  Which you might know how to say now, but not the first time you said it.

Also, the dessert "sherbet". (Pronounced SHER-bit)  Some people say "sher-BAY".  And "sher-BERT" has become so common it's considered an alternate spelling now.

And remember, you don't pronounce the "L" in almond. It's AH Mond.