English Words That Are Difficult To Pronounce Words For Thais ?

[SinglePot]

Blackburn Rovers.

Not a problem now though.

[Adryan]

"Lash Live" = Flashdrive

This Word make ne Crazy. My GF speaks real good English and is learning by her self UK and US Letter friends.

But yesterday she told me she need a Lash Live! She wana go buy a Lash Live. I ask more then 10. Times what she means!

On MBK we found the Lash Live and it was just simple a Flash-drive.

F's, R's and V's are problems for English speaking Thais.

[lazeeboy]

Electricity is one that normally comes out as Electric city

[SinglePot]

Sh is the most common sound in Chinese.

Big Japanese boss says to small Japanese boss: 'what we call new car?'

Small Japanese boss says: 'we call new car...Colt Starion'.

True story.

[Raybo]

When the wife is watching the Thai entertainment new, I yell back at the TV when I hear the Thai reporters saying that

Someone is making a new, "Al-uh-bum".

Chulai 6768

[Sudgirl]

Falange aloe Vera very

[jackw]

is there a list of common English words that are difficult to pronounce for Thai speakers?

Yes. It's called a dictionary.

The fact is the only word I've ever found that Thais could typically pronounce correctly and easily is "a".

[Buckaroo]

For a laugh, and my own personal sense of humour, each year I would get my classes to try and say "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" If its not Christmas, get into a discussion about "rubber robbers", still makes me chuckle just remembering about it.

[SinglePot]

For a laugh, and my own personal sense of humour, each year I would get my classes to try and say "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" If its not Christmas, get into a discussion about "rubber robbers", still makes me chuckle just remembering about it.

I'm assuming you are not teaching in the South then!

Thais may not be able to talk the English talk but that doesn't mean they don't comprehend.

[richard_smith237]

Squirrel

Chrysanthemum

I once had semen on my car... my reaction appeared quite irrational and strange until I realised it was cement and they realised what semen is.

On a separate occasion I was a little taken aback at having to drive 5 km past the semen factory when receiving directions from a Thai friend.

[ongchart]

'Sh'... shopping becomes 'chopping'

[Buckaroo]

For a laugh, and my own personal sense of humour, each year I would get my classes to try and say "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" If its not Christmas, get into a discussion about "rubber robbers", still makes me chuckle just remembering about it.

I'm assuming you are not teaching in the South then!

Thais may not be able to talk the English talk but that doesn't mean they don't comprehend.

No I wasn't teaching in the south, but there are more kinds of rubber than just trees

[mrwallettt]

On a different note....My wife has mastered the phrase, "No not tonight dear".

[JO1973]

Difficulty? Try 26 letters and every combination thereof.

[Briggsy]

Anything with consonant clusters.

e.g. sleep, test, spread, sex, three, belt. The list goes on for ever.

They avoid using the most common vowel sound in English, the schwar or neutral vowel.

Doctor (British), potato, delivery, container

[Nickthegreek]

Two that took me ages to work out what they were saying were, Rally and Error and a new one recently which makes me laugh is Orangutan, I never knew this had so many L ' S. !!!

Just tried the Mrs on Clock...Fab !!

[BrooklynNY]

Necessarily (Problem pronouncing when say it in a whole sentence)

En route (Rout? or Root?) This word confuses me when pronounce it. I heard people pronounce either way.

[wolf5370]

My favourite is "Grill" - my wife speaks good English (she lived in the UK for 14 years), but can not get this word.

When I used to teach, I used to have a series of flash cards with words they confused - both pronunciation and recognition - I used to play a game where they would deal out the cards face down, pull out a card and read it aloud and see if their partner could recognise it in their pack. Some of the words:

Save / Safe / Shave / Sheep / Ship / Sip / Chip / Ray / Lay / Raw / Law / War / Wall / Rule etc

[BoonToong]

"Yes, I swallow"

[wolf5370]

Necessarily (Problem pronouncing when say it in a whole sentence)

En route (Rout? or Root?) This word confuses me when pronounce it. I heard people pronounce either way.

This is always a problem with Thais here - if they have had any English training, they learn the pronunciation of the teacher's locale.

I remember teaching kindergarten kids years back (a fun day) - I had pictures of cartoon things beiningging with three letters "Z", "W" and "Y" I think. Anyway, the cartoon Madagascar had just come out, so for "z" I used the Zebra. Holding up the picture I say "Zed-bra", the say "Zee-bra" straight back at me

It must be really quite difficult to them given the tonal language they use day to day.

[Pinot]

I love the word "firefly".

[SICHONSTEVE]

Hmmm, so many people deviated from the OP.

My GF says sa-peek and sa-leep on purpose to wind me up, but she can say them properly. She can't, however, pronounce "dumpling" always saying dum-ping, even though she can say ling (monkey) perfectly well.

The reason that she says sa-leep and sa-peak is because she is supposed to according to the Thai language rules.

If two consonants (that are not a consonant cluster) do not have a vowel between them then you insert an 'oh', if you have three consonants that do not contain vowels then you put 'uh' between the first two and an 'oh' between the last two.

if there is no vowel between the first two but a vowel between the last two then you insert 'uh' and then pronounce the vowel present between the last two.

[SICHONSTEVE]

Blackburn Rovers.

Not a problem now though.

Unless she is a Burnley clarets fan that is!!!!

[Joe Mamma]

My Thai wife has trouble saying "thank you", fortunately I am a constant reminder in formidable utilization.

[WaatWang]

Like Adryan, I was also stumped when my husband wanted to buy a new flash drive. He got very frustrated with me because I didn't understand!

We are also still working on Ford, Chevrolet, and refrigerator.

[sirchai]

A very difficult one is " Rollerblading." Tried it with my wife and we're divorced now.-

[sirchai]

Hmmm, so many people deviated from the OP.

My GF says sa-peek and sa-leep on purpose to wind me up, but she can say them properly. She can't, however, pronounce "dumpling" always saying dum-ping, even though she can say ling (monkey) perfectly well.

The reason that she says sa-leep and sa-peak is because she is supposed to according to the Thai language rules.

If two consonants (that are not a consonant cluster) do not have a vowel between them then you insert an 'oh', if you have three consonants that do not contain vowels then you put 'uh' between the first two and an 'oh' between the last two.

if there is no vowel between the first two but a vowel between the last two then you insert 'uh' and then pronounce the vowel present between the last two.

My wife still loves to eat Sapaghetti.-

[LisuLover]

School - they say Serkoon. Cold - they say Colns.

[rfukata]

School

becomes schoon. L, I beleive is pronounced N

i.e. Ubol Ratchathani = Ubon Ratchathani

[Buckaroo]

School

becomes schoon. L, I beleive is pronounced N

i.e. Ubol Ratchathani = Ubon Ratchathani

Yeah, what is it with the L and N swap, I just don't get it