An American dictionary has published the most difficult words to spell for English-speakers and most of them come from the French language.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary has joined forces with the language-learning company Babbel to analyse 10 years of data to see which words were most likely to eliminate contenders during the well-known US spelling contest Scripps National Spelling Bee.
As English borrows some of its vocabulary from French, here are five French words which are often misspelled by English-speakers.
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Clafoutis (pronounced cla-foo-tee)
A dessert consisting of a layer of cherries covered with batter and baked. -
Bourrée (pronounced boo-ray)
This is used for dancers. It is a ballet combination that consists of small crossing steps. -
Pissaladière (pronounced pee-sa-la-dyair)
This is a pastry topped with olives, onions and anchovies, a speciality in the South of France. -
Réseau (pronounced ray-zoh)
The Oxford dictionary defines this as a network or a grid (it has the same meaning in French). But it can also be used in astronomy for a group of meteorological stations. -
Paillasson (pronounced pie-ya-son)
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as a coarsely woven natural or synthetic straw used for hats. In French paillasson means door mat.
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