Tongue twisters: Google reveals South Africa's most mispronounced words

CM

Celeste Martin

7 November 2025 | 10:48

Here are the top 10 words that confuse us the most, including those that people in different provinces find the hardest to pronounce.

Tongue twisters: Google reveals South Africa's most mispronounced words

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A study conducted by Unscramblerer.com examined the words that cause us the most confusion.

They analysed data from 1 January to 3 November 2025, using Google Trends searches for “how do you pronounce” and “how to pronounce".

Here are the top 10 most challenging words for us:

  1. Schedule (74, 400 searches) - SKEJ-ool
  2. Croissant (70,800 searches) - Krwah-SAHN
  3. Charcuterie (69, 600 searches) – Shar-KOO-tuh-ree
  4. Aoife (57, 600 searches) – EE-fah
  5. Worcestershire sauce (56, 400 searches) – WUSS-ter-sheer
  6. Jalapeno (46, 800 searches) – HAH-lah-PEH-nyoh
  7. Dachshund (44, 400 searches) – DAKS-hund
  8. Acai (43, 200 searches) – Ah-SIGH-ee
  9. Quinoa (40,800 searches) – Keen-waa
  10. Chateau (32, 700 searches) – Sha-TOH

The research also revealed which words people in different provinces find most difficult.

Mpumalanga: Worcestershire

Limpopo: Croissant

Northern Cape:Persuasive

Eastern Cape: Nonchalant

Free State: Achieve

North West: Jalapeno

Western Cape: Cocoa

Gauteng: Agile

KwaZulu-Natal: Cautious

To listen to journalist Rebecca Davis speak on this topic with CapeTalk's John Maytham, click below [skip to 4:44].

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