The most mispronounced words in Australia have been revealed - including a common baked good

For many, mispronouncing a word can immediately send them into embarrassment. But Aussies tend to take it in stride, often mispronouncing names, places, and even foods that come up in everyday conversation.

Unscramblerer.com took it upon themselves to find out which words trip us up the most, analysing data from Google Trends over the past 11 months.

Despite their prominence in our palates, Aussies have a lot of trouble pronouncing common foods like cacao (pronounced kuh-kow), which was ranked the 14th most searched with 64,800 searches and is also the most mispronounced word in the Northern Territory.

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Also included was gyro (pronounced YEE-roh) at number 12 with 66,000 searches, spaghetti (spuh-get-ee) at number 11 with 69,600 searches.

Paella was the tenth most mispronounced with 72,000 searches, being pronounced pie-ELL-uh.

The ever-famous tongue-twister Worcestershire sauce came in at number nine with 74,400 searches (in case you're curious, it's wuss-tuh-shuh sauce), with Queenslanders in particular having trouble with it, being their number one mispronounced word.

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Some of the trendier foods took up the top slots, with charcuterie (shar-koo-tuh-ree) being number eight with 76,800 searches and acai (assa-ee) coming in at number seven with 78,000. Acai is also the most mispronounced word in Western Australia.

But the number one mispronounced food took us by surprise, since it has been a bakery staple for generations and across oceans – the humble croissant.

A whopping 79,200 Aussies had to look up how to pronounce the word, which is in fact pronounced "kwah-son". Despite Victoria's vibrant cafe culture, the French pastry is their number one most mispronounced word, while it is the fifth most mispronounced name in Australia.

Unfortunately for many of our Irish friends, their names feature heavily in the top 20 most mispronounced words.

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Number 17 is Clodagh, which racked up 42,000, and is pronounced KLOE-duh. Number 15 is Oisin, coming in at 61,200 searches, and is pronounced uh-SHEEN.

Caoimhe, pronounced KEE-vuh, garnered 78,100 searches, while Saoirse, known for the actress Saoirse Ronan and pronounced SER-sha, had 79,500 people scrambling.

But the biggest head scratchers topped the list, with Aoife (pronounced ee-fuh), receiving 90,000 searches and being the second most mispronounced word, while the title went to Niamh (pronounced NEEV), with a whopping 97,200 searches. Niamh was also the most mispronounced word in NSW

Other words on the list include people, places, and things like the South Australian capital Adelaide (pronounced AD-uh-layd), which also happens to be the most mispronounced word in it's home state with 22,600 searches.

Likewise, the most mispronounced word in Tasmania is it's renowned city Launceston (pronounced Lon-cess-ton), while the most mispronounced word in the ACT is dulce de leche.

Also included are the words Qatar (pronounced kuh-tar) with 55,200 searches, dachshund (pronounced daks-und) at 80,400 searches (also nabbing the third spot), schedule (pronounced shed-yool) with 66,000 searches, niche (pronounced neesh) at 40,800 searches, and the name of 17-year-old Aussie sprinter Gout Gout (pronounced Gowt Gowt), with 19,200 searches at number 20.

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Four letter name is most mispronounced in the world

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented, "Our research about the most searched for mispronunciations gives an interesting insight into Australia's culture.

"Exposure to new words through media, music, pop culture and social platforms drives curiosity. People often look up pronunciations if there is a gap between how a word or name is spelled and how it sounds. English language is particularly irregular in this regard (Colonel and Wednesday defy phonetic expectations).

English spelling and pronunciation only match about 75 per cent of the time, according to research from the University of Oxford, while a Cambridge University linguistics survey had 60 per cent of English speakers admit that they regularly mispronounce at least one common word.

"Correct pronunciation is closely tied to perceived intelligence and competence. The desire for correct pronunciation is a mix of avoiding social embarrassment and simple curiosity. No wonder people are searching for how to pronounce words."

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