Top 20 tongue twisting words Brits struggle with most

'Phenomenon' has been named the most mispronounced word in the English language.

The nine-letter word came top in a study of terms that Brits struggle to get their tongue around with most people mixing up the letters M and N on a regular basis.

Second place was 'anaesthetist', which causes problems due to the proximity of the TH to the two letters T at the end.

'Remuneration', which is often mispronounced as 'renumeration' was third.

The fourth most difficult word to pronounce, according to the 3,000 Brits polled, was 'statistics' which causes people problems due to the number of letters T and S.

'Ethnicity', which is awkward because the N follows a TH is at five. A spokesman for Spinvox - a voicemail to text message service - which carried out the research, said: "Many words are difficult to say and when we struggle to pronounce a word correctly it makes us self-conscious about the way we speak."

"Phenomenon is very hard to say because of the structure of the word."

Tongue-twister 'philosophical' came sixth, followed by 'provocatively' at seven and `anonymous` at eight.

'Thesaurus' and 'aluminium' completed the top ten.

But researchers discovered that for many people not being able to pronounce certain words is no laughing matter. A staggering 47% are left feeling red-faced when they can't get a word out.

More than a third of people even say they avoid using words they know they struggle with altogether so they don't end up looking stupid.

Almost half of the Brits polled also said that they always have trouble with the same words and don't think they will ever get the hang of how to say them properly.

But 43% of people admit they often correct someone if they say something in the wrong way, and a quarter of people even think it shows a lack of intelligence.

More than one in five also get embarrassed if their partner struggles to pronounce a word.

How to say the top 20 mispronounced words

1.	Phenomenon	(fi-nom-uh-non)
2.	Anaesthetist	(uh-nes-thi-tist)
3.	Remuneration	(ri-myoo - nuh-reyshun)
4.	Statistics	(stuh-tis-tiks)
5.	Ethnicity	(eth-nis-i-tee)
6.	Philosophical	(fil-uh-sof-i-kuhl)
7.	Provocatively	(pruh-vok-uh-tiv-lee)
8.	Anonymous	(uh-non-uh-muhs)
9.	Thesaurus	(thi-sawr-uhs)
10.	Aluminium	(al-yuh-min-ee-uhm)
11.	Regularly	(reg-yuh-ler-lee)
12.	February	(feb-roo-er-ee)
13.	Particularly	(per-tik-yuh-ler-lee)
14.	Hereditary	(huh-red-i-ter-ee)
15.	Prioritising	(prah-awr-i-tahyz-ing)
16.	Pronunciation	(pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn)
17.	Prejudice	(prej-uh-dis)
18.	Facilitate	(fuh-sil-i-teyt)
19.	Hospitable	(hos-pi-tuh-buhl)
20.	Onomatopoeia	(on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh)