10 Hardest Words to Pronounce

Learn the 10 hardest-to-pronounce words

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Lesson Transcript

Hello guys! Welcome back, I’m Jay, and today we are going to do Top 10 Hardest Words to pronounce. Let’s begin!

1. กรุงเทพมหานคร (grung-thêep-má-hăa-ná-khaawn) Bangkok

กรุงเทพมหานคร (grung-thêep-má-hăa-ná-khaawn)

If you go to Bangkok and you hear people talk about Bangkok they’ll say grung-thêep because conversation-wise it’s easier to pronounce it like that, grung-thêep. But a longer name is กรุงเทพมหานคร (grung-thêep-má-hăa-ná-khaawn). But do you know that the real name of Bangkok is actually the largest city name in the world! Even for Thai it’s very difficult to remember the whole name. So the whole name of Bangkok is Krung-thep-maha-nakorn-boworn-ratana-kosin-mahintar-ayudhya-amaha-dilok-pop-nopa-ratana-rajthani-burirom-udom-rajniwes-mahasat-arn-amorn-pimarn-avatar-satit-sakattiya-visanukam.

Yay! It’s like, I was rapping!

2. ข้าวขาว (khâao khăao) white rice

One is like higher than the other, so ข้าวขาว (khâao khăao) means “white rice”. The rice that we eat. That’s called ข้าวขาว (khâao khăao).

ข้าว(khâao) means “rice”, and ขาว (khăao) means “white”, so together it’s “white rice”. ข้าวขาว (khâao khăao).

3. ควาย (khwaai) buffalo

In Thailand there are a lot of buffalos in rural areas, but it looks very different from those in the states, like, in the states if you're talking buffalo it’s more of like a bigger, like more hairy, like hairy creators usually; but Thai buffalos look very different, like, they’re hairless, smaller in size. You can see a lot of that in Thailand.

4. ตัดทอน (dtàt thaawn) reduce

Actually the first word ตัด(dtàt) meaning “cut”, is like cut down something, so ตัดทอน (dtàt thaawn) means “reduce”. But it’s quite formal, for me I don’t really use this word, myself. personally I don’t really use this word, but you can see it in the documents, news. So, ตัดทอน (dtàt thaawn) reduce.

5. ทฤษฎี (thrít-sà-dii) theory

In Thai, it’s ทฤษฎี (thrít-sà-dii). Ok to tell you a secret, even I don't pronounce this word property when I talk, because it's very difficult to pronounce it correctly. In the lines I just say ทฤษฎี (thrít-sà-dii), ทฤษฎี (thrít-sà-dii), but it’s wrong though. So the correct way to pronounce it is ทฤษฎี (thrít-sà-dii).

6. ประพฤติ (bprà-phrúet) behave

ประพฤติ (bprà-phrúet) “behave”. Let's practice again, ประพฤติ (bprà-phrúet), (bprà) and then (phrúet), like the L sound, within the word, so it’s like ประพฤติ (bprà-phrúet).

7. รุนแรง (run raaeng) violent

รุนแรง (run raaeng) “violent”, the only difficult part is you have to click your tongue while you're speaking, like R, you can try, RRRRR, like that. And then when you use it, when you fought over it, it would be รุนแรง (run raaeng).

8. อร่อย (a-ròi) delicious

So อร่อย (a-ròi), อร่อย (a-ròi), อร่อย (a-ròi), and you say it faster, อร่อย (a-ròi). But don't confuse this word to “what”, which is อะไร (a-rai). For me, I have a foreigner friend, and I always ask him to say this sentence, which is “everything is delicious”, อะไรอะไรก็อร่อย (a-rai a-rai gâaw a-ròi), อะไร (a-rai) is “what”, so it’s “Whatever you eat is delicious.” อะไรอะไรก็อร่อย (a-rai a-rai gâaw a-ròi).

9. โรงเรียน (rong riian) school

Same as what I have taught you so far, the R sound. โรงเรียน (rong riian), so say it faster. โรงเรียน (rong riian), that’s “school”

10. ง่าย (ngâai) easy

10. ง่าย (ngâai) meaning “easy”, like thinking of “singing”, the NG sound, you used that sound in front of the word. ง่าย (ngâai), ง่าย (ngâai). Is it easy? ง่ายมั้ย(ngâai mái)? I don’t think it is, but it’s a good word to learn.

Now we are done with the lesson, how many can you actually pronounced? I know it's difficult, even for me it’s difficult, so don’t be discouraged by this lesson, just try practice it. But anyway, okay, thank you for watching, and don't forget to subscribe our channel, see you next time. Bye!