Poorly pronounced Spanish words

Spanish is either a fast language or Spanish speakers just talk faster; at least that’s what linguists and researchers are saying. Last year researchers from University of Lyon carried out a study on 59 native speakers from different countries and found out that Spanish was the second fastest language.

As a learner you might notice that Spanish is a strong and passionate language that is rich in expressions. Beginners may find that proper pronunciation can get a little bit difficult. Finding the correct vowel to stress or pronouncing “George” as “Jorge” or the “r” as “rr” will take a little time to get used to.

Based on the study conducted by SpinVox (an American company integrating speech technology into human intelligence), the worst pronounced Spanish word is “viniste” usually mistaken with “veniste”. The second word is “trastorno” pronounced as “transtorno”, as it seems people mistakenly follow pronunciation patterns set by similar words like ‘transporte’ and “transcripción”.

Another fact that this study has revealed is that not being able to pronounce certain words in the right way often makes Spanish speakers laugh or simply amuses the person he or she is talking to. 47% of Spanish learners said they were embarrassed when they couldn’t pronounce a word correctly, and one in five respondents admitted feeling uncomfortable if their conversation partner was having difficulties with pronunciation. In addition, more than half of those questioned said they try to avoid using words that are difficult to pronounce to avoid looking funny while 43% of people admitted that they correct someone who makes pronunciation mistakes. In fact, having someone correct our pronunciation mistakes is the best way to learn Spanish, as many words are hard to say and when we try to pronounce them correctly, we become aware of how we actually talk.

Have you ever had difficulty pronouncing Spanish words or, if you are native Spanish speaker, do you correct the people you talk to? Some of the most poorly pronounced Spanish words are shown below. Maybe you can add more words which you think are not often said correctly.