The foreign foods that Canadians have the hardest time pronouncing

Mar 8 2023, 7:57 pm

We all mispronounce things sometimes, and while there’s absolutely no shame in that, it can lead to some pretty funny mistakes.

According to a study by Holidu, a holiday rental search engine based in the UK, there are a handful of foreign foods that Canadians tend to mispronounce more often than others.

The methodology of this study involved collating a list of the foreign food names that folks get wrong the most, followed by analyzing search data relating to phrases such as “how to say,” “pronunciation of,” and “how to pronounce.”

When it comes to which food names Canadians trip over the most, it’s the French language that seems to stump people more often – ironic, considering that it happens to be Canada’s second language.

Coming in at the top with the most mispronounced word is “charcuterie”; the proper pronunciation is “shaa-koo-tuh-ree,” but it turns out that a heck of a lot of people say it like “char-cute-erie.”

The average monthly search volume for how to say charcuterie comes in at 3,510, making it the most searched by Canadians across the board.

The other most mispronounced words include açaí (which is pronounced as “ah-sah-ee,” not “ah-kye”), gnocchi (“naw-kee,” not “guh-no-kee”), and Phở (“fuh,” not “po”).

The list of the top ten mispronounced words according to this study are as follows:

  1. Charcuterie – “shaa-koo-tuh-ree”, not “char-cute-erie” (3,510)
  2. Açaí – “ah-sah-ee”, not “ah-kye” (3,490)
  3. Gnocchi – “naw-kee”, not “guh-no-kee” (3,310)
  4. Phở – “fuh”, not “po” (2,800)
  5. Croissant – “kwah-sahn”, not “kras-sant” (2,350)
  6. Chipotle – “chi-poat-lay”, not “chi-pot-ul” (1,840)
  7. Quinoa – “keen-wah”, not “keen-oh-ah” (1,160)
  8. Bolognese – “boh-loh-nyay-zeh”, not “bo-lo-naiz” (1,140)
  9. Caprese – “kuh-pray-zay”, not “kah-prees” (1,050)
  10. Crêpe – “kr-ehp”, not “kr-ape” (930)

Next time you’re searching how to properly pronounce something so as not to embarrass yourself in front of your friends (or a restaurant server!) just know that you’re not alone – there are a lot of folks out there fumbling through an order of bolognese.

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