If you felt like half the news this year involved someone correcting a pronunciation, you were not alone. Between global elections, bizarre museum scandals and celebrity revelations, many Americans found themselves stumbling over names they had never encountered before.
And to make things official, the language-learning platform Babbel and closed-captioning experts The Captioning Group have now revealed the words public figures in the US struggled with the most.
Who struggled with Zohran Mamdani's name?
It turns out that Zohran Mamdani's rapid rise in US politics came with a surprising side plot: people constantly mispronouncing his name. Babbel listed the democratic socialist at the top of this year's pronunciation challenges, noting that his name, properly pronounced zoh-RAHN mam-DAH-nee, was often botched because speakers swapped the "M" and "N" in his surname.
Mamdani, who will become New York City's first Muslim mayor, and the first mayor born in Africa and of South Asian heritage when he takes office in January at age 34, has taken the confusion in stride. He has said he does not mind when someone tries and fails to pronounce his name correctly, but he does notice the people who get it wrong on purpose. During one mayoral debate, he even corrected former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying: "The name is Mamdani. M-A-M-D-A-N-I."
What was going on with the Louvre?
Then there was the international buzz around the jewel heist at the Louvre. As the scandal unfolded, plenty of people struggled with the name of the world's most-visited museum. Babbel notes the correct way to say it is LOOV-ruh, with a very soft ending that English speakers often find tricky.
Explaining the challenge, Babbel expert Esteban Touma said: "A lot of these words come from different languages, and so we have to adapt to a sound that we've never made before."
Which other names and words made the list?
A few familiar terms popped up again and again among captioners and viewers:
Labubu
Labubu emerged as one of the most-mispronounced words around the world, especially when toy collectors and pop-culture fans rushed to talk about the viral collectible doll. Many people mistakenly said 'LA-boo-boo or LA-foo-foo', placing stress on the first syllable and mis-rendering the vowels.
In reality, the correct pronunciation is luh-BOO-boo, with a relaxed 'luh' for the first syllable, a strong stress on the second syllable 'BOO', and a softer but similar 'boo' at the end.
Acetaminophen
The active ingredient in Tylenol is pronounced uh-SEE-tuh-MIH-nuh-fen. Donald Trump unintentionally boosted comedy writers this year when he stumbled over the word while urging pregnant women to avoid the painkiller, even though evidence linking excessive use to autism remains inconclusive.
Alex Murdaugh
The high-profile South Carolina attorney sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife and son in 2021, is pronounced AL-ick MUR-dock. The case remained in public view thanks to a Hulu dramatisation.
Mounjaro
This diabetes and obesity medication, part of a wave of treatments that became hugely popular due to weight-loss results, is pronounced mown-JAHR-OH.
Interestingly, several US terms also caused trouble on the other side of the Atlantic. Louvre and Mounjaro appeared on the UK list compiled by Babbel and the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters.
Storm Eowyn, which hit Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland in January, also left people scratching their heads. Babbel explains the name is pronounced ay-OH-win, said in a three-beat pattern.
Throughout the year, captioners keep track of recurring words that are hard to pronounce, hard to spell or brand new. Babbel's linguists monitor this too, identifying emerging challenges as they appear.
The surprise pronunciation of the year?
In a delightfully unexpected revelation, actor Denzel Washington told Jimmy Kimmel that both he and his father were originally named DEN-zul. The problem, he explained, was that the pronunciation created confusion. So his mother decided to use Den-ZELLE for him instead.