How to Actually Pronounce 'Worcestershire,' 'Açaí,' and Other Commonly Mispronounced Words

The 10 words below are commonly mispronounced in English. The first five are the top results from Google's auto-fill for the phrase How do I pronounce..." The rest are words that people often don't know they're messing up, so would be unlikely to search up on the web.

I'm no prescriptivist-words are yours to do with as you will, so pronounce em however you like. Correct" pronunciations are just what we call the way words are usually spoken according to the general consensus of English speakers. But there's no governing body-if enough people pronounce a word wrong" it stops being wrong, so keep saying fried skrimp" or Anartica" like I do.

Gyro

I'm starting with a tricky one. Gyro" is either a shortened form of gyroscope" or the name of a Greek lamb sandwich.

In the unlikely event that you're talking about gyroscopes enough to need to shorten the word, it's pronounced jeye-roh." The greek sandwich, according to Websters, is called a yee-roh" or a zhir-roh." It's rhymes with hero."

Interestingly, the Greek word for to turn" is the root of the word for both the sandwich and the machine, but the terms came into the language at different times, so we don't say them the say way.

Acai

The berries from the Acai palm tree that grows in South America have become popular enough that you may be called upon to say their name at brunch. If so, it's pronounced aa-saa-ee. It doesn't seem to make sense based on the spelling, but those accents over the c" and the I" tell the story: The word's root is from Portuguese, and the accent over the c" means soft s sound," and the mark over the i" means long e."

Nguyen

Nguyen" is a common last name in Vietnam, and Vietnamese is a little tricky for English speakers. We aren't used to starting words with an ng" sound. To add complexity: Nguyen" is pronounced differently in different parts of Vietnam. In south Vietnam, it's pronounced close to win" or wen." In the north, they're more likely to say something like nuh-win," but as close to one syllable as possible.

Gif

It's pronounced Jif" like the peanut butter, according to Steve Wilhite, the creator of the Graphics Interchange Format. Or it's pronounced with the hard g" sound because that makes more sense to you. There is no right answer.

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a county in England where they invented a delicious condiment in the 1830s. It's pronounced wu-stuh-shr. It's not pronounced Wor-chest-tir-shire."

Ph

This Vietnamese noodle soup is pronounced fuuh," according to Websters, but foe" seems to be catching on fast, at least if you're an English speaker. Neither is exactly how Vietnamese people pronounce it, because ph" contains a sound English doesn't include.

Library

It's not lie-berry" or lie-bear-y" It's llai-breh-ree." But if you say it quickly without careful enunciation, it will sound like lie-bree" anyway. It's just an awkward word because of that middle syllable.

Often

That t" in often" should not be there. It's not in the word when you say it, because it's pronounced aa-fn." See also: castle," mortgage," listen," soften," and a slew of other words with silent t's.

Niche

Niche" can be pronounced neesh" (rhymes with sheesh") or it can be pronounced nich" (rhymes with pitch."), Neesh" is a newer pronunciation. nich" is the classic. But both are fine.

Arctic

It's annoying, but they" say you're supposed to pronounce the hard c": So it's aark-tuhk," not ar-tuhk." The same rule applies to Antarctic," which also has an inconvenient t" sound you're supposed to pronounce too.

This wasn't always the case. The word used to be spelled artic" and pronounced ar-tik" but it was changed in the 17th century to match the Latin spelling. It's all a mess.

Cache

This is an easy one! A cache" is a group of hidden things. It's pronounced kash." Some people say kaysh," probably because of the ending e." Some people say kash-ay," but. if you do that, you're using the word cachet," which means prestige."

Forte

Forte" (a person's strong suit) has no agreed-upon pronunciation. You can say fort." Or you can say for-tay," or for-tay." No matter how you say it, someone will think you're wrong.

But if you're using forte" to talk about the musical notation for play loudly," it's always for-tay"