With Gen Z vernacular making its way into the mainstream media, more and more words are tripping us up when it comes to the pronunciation.
Many broadcasters struggle with ensuring they pronounce the names of their talent and guests correctly, and Grammy-Award-Winning singer, Billie Eilish made it to the list for most mispronounced words for exactly that.
The list was released on Tuesday by U.S Captioning Company, which allows for live TV shows, courtrooms and more to be captioned.
The method for categorising which words made it to the list was based on which words TV presenters, and others on TV struggled to pronounce.
So get ready to confidently say the following words as they have kindly provided a phonetic, accurate pronunciation guide & definition!
- Cheugy (CHOO-gee): A trendy term popularised by Gen Z and used to mock an outdated and unfashionable aesthetic typically associated with millennials, such as "Live, Laugh, Love" signs.
- Chipotle (chih-POHT-lay): The American fast food chain became the centre of a viral trend this year challenging Baby Boomers to pronounce the name.
- Dalgona (tal-goh-NAH): A Korean treat made with melted sugar and baking soda, popularised in Netflix's "Squid Game." Touma notes that some speakers seem to produce a "K" instead of the "G" in the middle syllable.
- Dogecoin (DOHJ-coin): A divisive cryptocurrency that began somewhat ironically before being popularised by Elon Musk, causing its value to dramatically increase.
- Eilish (EYE-lish): The singer Billie Eilish, whose album "Happier Than Ever" was released this year to critical acclaim and nominated for the Grammy Awards' Album of the Year.
- Glasgow (GLAHZ-go): The host city of November's United Nations Climate Conference was mispronounced by both President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama.
- Omicron (AH-muh-kraan / OH-mee-kraan): A new variant of COVID-19 first identified in November, named in keeping with the World Health Organisation's system of identifying variants with Greek letters. Touma notes it's pronounced differently in the U.S. and the U.K.
- Yassify (YEAH-sih-fai): A popular trend in which multiple beauty filters are applied to well-known pictures or portraits for comic effect.
