21 foreign words that British people just love to try to pronounce correctly

Pronouncing common foreign words can be tricky for British people, especially given our complicated relationship with other languages in general (in short: we’d like to be able to speak them but don’t).

You also don’t want to make a prat of yourself by either trying too hard to pronounce a foreign word and/or going for it and getting it completely wrong.

My partner grew up in London and does know a couple of languages besides English, but for those he does not know, he deploys what I call his “foreign voice.” The word in question becomes vaguely but definitely not-English.

— Temple42 (@jnqh4mbd96) September 9, 2024

The guys at Very British Problems asked Twitter/X about the words that British people go out of their way to pronounce the right way.

What’s a word from a foreign language that Brits absolutely love to try and pronounce very correctly?

I’ll go for: “croissant”

— VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) September 9, 2024

And it usually, if not always ends in cringe.

1.

Mange tout (Rodney)

— BLAIM GAME (@BLAIMGame) September 9, 2024

2.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape https://t.co/KwtYzDLZkt pic.twitter.com/QkZZAtGU4c

— Briony Mulligan-johnson (@Beemj93) September 9, 2024

3.

I love to hear Brits make a hash out of pronouncing the names of French and Italian colognes and perfumes. Ask 100 random Englishmen to say “Guerlain Habit Rouge.” You’ll be laughing for hours.

— Owen Bawn (@Boyle_OReilly) September 9, 2024

4.

Sauvignon Blanc.

— Rob Boyd, Esq (@AvonandsomerRob) September 9, 2024

5.

I’d love to hear Brits learn to say Jalapeño without making me cringe

— Adam Brown (@itsadambrown) September 9, 2024

6.

Latte

— Stefan Hyjek (@HyjekStefan) September 9, 2024

7.

It sure as fuck isn’t chorizo, but the very same people can pronounce Ibiza correctly. https://t.co/hgUZ3STrZm

— Cookie Urch (@Cookieurch) September 9, 2024

8.

Tagliatelle, fettuccine, – any Italian dish! And Hyundai.

— copycontentwriter (@copycontentw) September 9, 2024

9.

No-one has ever fully committed to saying “pain au raisin” at a Caffe Nero. Everyone goes hard on the “panno” and then chickens out and says “rayzun.”

But also if you ask for panno razzah’ at Neros you aren’t getting one as they won’t have a scooby about what you’re saying. https://t.co/69Jzumpa55

— Dan M ⚒ (@SirArthurIndeed) September 9, 2024

10.

The amount of people who don’t know how to pronounce “quinoa” yet is worrying https://t.co/XVsgru8VcN

— ℎ , . (@RooTheWakening) September 10, 2024

11.

Ciabatta has to be the winner here

— £200 a minute since 2005 #glazersout (@glazersleavenow) September 9, 2024