Niagara Falls the seventh most mispronounced landmark in the world
Published March 22, 2023 at 2:02 pm
An online language learning platform, Preply, has determined that Niagara Falls is the seventh most mispronounced landmark in the world.
Before you scoff and wonder how anyone could not know how to pronounce it, keep in mind the results come from around the world and English is not the most foreign-friendly of languages.
Aside from that, look at some of the other names on the Top-20 list below and ask yourself how well you’d do. Several are pretty tricky.
To determine their results, Preply gathered and analyzed Google Search data for 140 of the most popular tourist attractions around the globe to reveal which are the most troublesome to pronounce.
Native language experts then investigated the linguistic background of the most mispronounced attractions, shedding some light on exactly how to pronounce them correctly.
What made the top of the mangled pronunciation list? Believe it or not, the Louvre art museum in Paris, home of the Mona Lisa. Preply discovered that the France landmark had an average of 25,920 people searching for its proper pronunciation guidance on Google each year.
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Language expert Yolanda Del Peso at Preply noted, “The key to getting the pronunciation right for attractions worldwide is to know, and understand, the language their name originates from. For example, Burj Khalifa, seems like it should be pronounced ‘Berj-Ka-Leaf-Fa’ to an English speaker, but knowing that it’s derived from Arabic tells us that we should follow such rules of pronunciation. That means the ‘kh’ had the guttural sound of the ‘ch.’”
“While non-native speakers may still find it tricky to get the pronunciation spot on, understanding the general pronunciation rules of the language is a huge help and will make any trip abroad run smoother,” she added.
It seems French is the language that trips most people up, since after the Louvre, number two and three are Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.
As the seventh most mispronounced landmark in the world, Niagara Falls sees 4,440 searches each year by consumers looking for pronunciation help.
While we are posting the Top-20 most mispronounced attractions list below, if you want more information, check it out HERE.
