English can be a very strange language with its odd rules of pronunciation and spelling — so it’s understandable that people mispronounce a few words here and there.
Unscrambled Words said in a press release that it wanted to know what words stumped the most people. Basically, they stalked Google data over the span of a year about the words that most commonly complete this sentence: “How to pronounce …”
The word hitting #1, with a total of 20,400 hits, is açaí, which Merriam Webster says is pronounced like “Ah-sa-EE.”
The Greek community will cringe to hear the second-most mispronounced word: “gyro,” pronounced “YEE-ro,” with 17,660 searches.
Surprisingly, COVID-19 made a showing on this list with the word “omicron” coming third with 15,530 hits. The word is pronounced “OH-muh-kraan.” In fourth was “charcuterie” — “sharh-koo-tuh-ree” — with an impressive 15,140 searches.
The Vietnamese surname “Nguyen” is fifth, which can be said in several ways — most commonly “n-WIN,” “Win” or “noo-yen,” the publication suggests.
“Gnocchi” — or “nyoh-kee” — is sixth, while the highly contentious word “GIF” made seventh place. Basically it can be said as “gif” or “jif” — like the peanut butter — and you’ll be correct, says the publication.
In eighth place is “Worcestershire,” which definitely takes less time to say out loud — “wu-stuh-shr,” per Merriam Webster.
Elon Musk‘s beloved cryptocurrency, “Dogecoin” — pronounced “dohj-coin” — came in ninth, while the delicious dish “pho,” said like “fuh,” completed the top 10.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.