Gal Gadot, Weinstein most mispronounced words of 2017 Good to know, tough to pronounce

Los Angeles, Jan. 1: She was the most talked about stars with the success of “Wonder Woman” while his name became synonymous with the sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood, but Gal Gadot and Harvey Weinstein were some of the most difficult to pronounce names of 2017.

“Gal Gadot”, “coulrophobia” (an irrational fear of clowns) and “Weinstein” are among the top mispronounced words of 2017, according to a survey commissioned by the languagelearning app Babbel, reported Entertainment Weekly.

The company polled professional subtitlers at the US Captioning Company, National Captioning Canada, and the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters about the words, phrases, and names that folks had a hard time saying on TV.

Gadot’s name, for example, is pronounced with a soft T (‘gah-dott’) rather than a silent one.

Stephen King adaptation “It” may have contributed to the popularity of “Coulrophobia”. The word is pronounced ‘cool- ruhfoh-bee-ah’. Weinstein may have made the mistake of mispronouncing his name, according to some linguists. The producer, who will be forever linked to the biggest sexual harassment scandals and the subsequent movement against it, calls himself ‘winesteen’, but the linguists are of the opinion that his name should be pronounced as ‘wine-stine’.

Rounding out the top 10 list of mispronounced words in the US are ‘bokeh’, ‘dotard’, ‘fibromyalgia’, ‘Namibia’, ‘nuclear’, ‘Puerto Rico’ and ‘Pyongyang’. — PTI