Thousands of South Africans turned to Google this year to avoid embarrassing mispronunciations — from French pastries and tricky English spellings to international names that leave even the most confident speakers stumped.
According to Google search data, “schedule” topped the list with 74,400 searches, followed closely by “croissant” with 70,800 and “charcuterie” with 69,600. Other challenging words include “Aoife”, the famous “Worcestershire sauce” and “dachshund”.
The full list of South Africa’s most commonly mispronounced words (with their correct pronunciations and the number of searches) is:
- Schedule (“SKEJ-ool”) – 74,400 searches;
- Croissant (“Krwah-SAHN”) – 70,800;
- Charcuterie (“Shar-KOO-tuh-ree”) – 69,600;
- Aoife (“EE-fah”) – 57,600;
- Worcestershire (“WUSS-ter-sheer”) – 56,400;
- Jalapeno (“HAH-lah-PEH-nyoh”) – 46,800;
- Dachshund (“DAKS-hund”) – 44,400;
- Acai (“Ah-SIGH-ee”) – 43,200;
- Quinoa (“Keen-waa”) – 40,800;
- Chateau (“Sha-TOH”) – 32,700;
- Qatar (“KAH-tar”) – 31,200;
- Tuesday (“Chooz-day”) – 28,800;
- Gyro (“YEE-roh”) – 25,200;
- Nutella (“Nuh-teh-luh”) – 27,600; and
- Niche (“NEESH”) – 24,000.
The survey also revealed regional quirks, highlighting which words residents in different provinces struggle with most:
- Mpumalanga: Worcestershire – 5,455 searches;
- Limpopo: Croissant – 6,726;
- Northern Cape: Persuasive (Per-SWAY-siv) – 980;
- Eastern Cape: Nonchalant (Non-shuh-LAHNT) – 5,731;
- Free State: Achieve (Uh-CHEEV) – 1,492;
- North West: Jalapeno – 4,042;
- Western Cape: Cocoa (KOH-koh) – 5,472;
- Gauteng – Agile (AJ-ile) – 7,038; and
- KwaZulu-Natal – Cautious (KAW-shuhs) – 5,501.
Randoh Sallihall, spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com, which conducted the research, said the results offer an interesting lens on South African culture. “Exposure to new words through media, music, pop culture and social platorms drives curiosity. People often look up pronunciations if there is a gap between how a word or name is spelt and how it sounds,” he said.
Even words and names that appear in everyday media are often mispronounced, reinforcing the global fascination with correct speech
— Babbel
English spelling can be particularly tricky, he said. “English language is irregular. Words like ‘Colonel’ and ‘Wednesday’ defy phonetic expectations. English spelling only matches pronunciation about 75% of the time,” he said, citing University of Oxford research.
Sallihall referenced a Cambridge University survey that found more than 60% of English speakers regularly mispronounce at least one common word. “Correct pronunciation is closely tied to perceived intelligence and competence.”
The desire to pronounce words correctly is “a mix of avoiding social embarrassment and simple curiosity”, he said. “No wonder people are searching for how to pronounce words.”
The research covered search activity between January 1 and November 3 using Google Trends for “How do you pronounce” and “How to pronounce”, and marketing platform Ahrefs to tally search volumes.
“We looked at 100 search variations for top mispronunciations,” added Sallihall.
The trend isn’t unique to South Africa. Language-learning company Babbel recently released its own lists of commonly mispronounced words in the US and the UK for 2024, which included foreign terms like semaglutide, as well as names of public figures such as Barry Keoghan and former US vice-president Kamala Harris.
Foreign brands also made the list, including Shein.
“Even words and names that appear in everyday media are often mispronounced, reinforcing the global fascination with correct speech,” said Babbel.
This list just shows that whether it’s food, names or English quirks, South Africans are clearly eager to get it right — one Google search at a time.
TimesLIVE
