10 best bits from the blog – 2015

2015 was our busiest year yet on the blog. We tackled difficult spellings, confusing words, ‘hello’ and… the Queen. Here are the 10 best bits, in case you missed them:

10. OUGH

A THOROUGHLY confusing spelling, found in BOUGHT, THOUGH, ROUGH. Karen went THROUGH the rules.

9. Strange Spellings

What do COLONEL, MORTGAGE, QUEUE and YOGHURT have in common? Yep, they have anything but common spellings – here’s how you pronounce them.

8. Alternative Pronunciations

For EITHER, do you say /aɪðə/ or /iːðə/? Does it make any difference? Not really – Sophie found 10 words that can be pronounced in 2 ways.

7. 7 Ways to Say Hello

What does HELLO mean? Depending on the intonation and stress you use, it can mean anything from ‘I’m scared’ to ‘I really like you’ – here’s how to get it right.

6. Commonly Confused Words

Some words look so similar, we just can’t help but mix them up. I WONDER if you’ve ever WANDERED into any of them?

5. Words Native Speakers Find Hard

It’s not only learners of English that find its pronunciation confusing. There are plenty of places where natives come undone, like in St. Pancras station.

4. The Queen’s English

This year the Queen became England’s longest serving monarch, and we needed no bigger excuse to look at probably the most famous accent in the world, ma’am.

3. More London Place Names

The sequel to ‘Horrible London Place Names’, this article got to grips with WIMBLEDON, HOLBORN and GROSVENOR SQUARE.

2. 10 Pronunciation Errors

What are typical errors in English pronunciation in your language? This year we added Mandarin, Greek, Russian, Portuguese and Korean to the series.

1. London Place Names

By far the most popular article on the blog this year with over 15,000 shares on Facebook – there’s no doubt that when it comes to pronunciation, London is a confusing place.