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Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
Tue May 21, 2019, 02:31 PM May 2019

These are the hardest-to-spell words in the English language, CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/us/hardest-words-spelling-bee-trnd/index.html

__________________________________________________________________________________
By Mallory Hughes, CNN
Updated 1:41 AM ET, Tue May 21, 2019


Bondieuserie. Bewusstseinslage. Ayacahuite.

Most of us wouldn't even know how to pronounce those words, let alone spell them.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a week away and it is sure to be filled with a plethora of problematic words.

An international team of linguists from the language-learning app Babbel partnered with Merriam-Webster to analyze a decade's worth of words and find out what knocked out Bee contestants in the final round.

The analysis of nearly 400 words found that classical languages were the basis of most of the misspelled words. Study up on scientific, medical, and legal terms, which trace their origins back to Greek and Latin roots.

"English has always borrowed words from other languages, and once they are found in our dictionaries they are considered to be English words," said the editor at large of Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski, in a news release.

According to the linguists, nature and natural science accounted for 38% of misspelled words, followed by words related to medicine, arts, politics, and law.

From modern languages, words derived from French knocked out the most final-rounders. From living languages, it was German and Italian that lead to the loss.

"Every year we are inspired by watching these kids grapple with the toughest words in the Bee and we hope this list gives them an extra boost of confidence," said Babbel CEO Julie Hansen in a statement.

rest of article at link above..It doesn't matter to me, because I can't even spell the easy ones. I have been corrected by the spelling police at DU countless times....
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These are the hardest-to-spell words in the English language, CNN: (Original Post) Stuart G May 2019 OP
I can pronounce the first, guillaumeb May 2019 #1
They are all foreign words cyclonefence May 2019 #2
And yes, of course, these are words we use every day. PoindexterOglethorpe May 2019 #3

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
1. I can pronounce the first,
Tue May 21, 2019, 02:39 PM
May 2019

and have seen many examples of it in churches and gift shops.

It means religious art that is badly crafted.

Hint on the pronunciation: there are 4 syllables.

bon dieu se rie.

cyclonefence

(4,483 posts)
2. They are all foreign words
Tue May 21, 2019, 04:14 PM
May 2019

I was expecting genuine English words, like "foreign". Those words are marked "of (foreign language) origin," but they're not English words rooted in another language; they're foreign words in foreign languages. I call horseshit. (from the Dutch)

PoindexterOglethorpe

(25,746 posts)
3. And yes, of course, these are words we use every day.
Thu May 23, 2019, 10:28 PM
May 2019


None of those are remotely common. I consider myself someone with a pretty big vocabulary and the only one on that list I already knew was Bourrée, and that's because I know a little bit about ballet.

Those are simply examples of the words used in spelling bees which are hardly representative of the words any of us will ever need to write down.

In short, dumb article.
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