Difficult Words to Say

A glance at an internet search of English words that are hard to say and often mispronounced shows some surprising results. There are some relatively simple and common words that made the Top 25 list that I checked out recently. While I expected to find the word Worcestershire (as in sauce) on the list, I would never have guessed that the words sixth, choir, and squirrel would have been included.

I found it interesting that the word “squirrel” was used by the English in WWII during conversations with suspected German infiltrators as a trap. It seems that, at the time, it had a different meaning to Germans, and their reaction to the word would give them away as German. 

It came as no surprise to me as I looked through several lists of words that are hard to say that missing from the lists were the three words many would often consider the most difficult to say with truly heartfelt meaning—"I am sorry.” 

It’s easy to apologize with an “I’m sorry” when we find ourselves caught red-handed in an obvious gaffe, but how often are those apologies but a figure of speech meant simply to appease in the short term? How often are they truly sincere, and are we contrite and humble in expressing them? Are they not, in those instances, just words meant to diffuse what could become an uncomfortable conversation, one that puts the onus for resolution directly on us? In other words, they are just words, sometimes rather empty.

Perhaps we need to look at what our own expectations of an apology are when we feel one is needed because we have been wronged by another in some way. Don’t we prefer to know that the apology was offered in such a way that we know there is no superficiality behind it? A heart-felt apology, meaningfully and humbly offered, leaves behind no doubts about either the true intent of the apology nor the heart of the apology giver.

I’m guilty of offering a perfunctory “I’m sorry” at times to avoid that messier conversation that I inwardly know will come if I don’t shut it off in such a manner. How wrong is it of me not to take it one lever higher in the semantics scale by offering an “I am sorry”, or an “I am so sorry” which would indicate much more heart in the apology? If nothing else, it would, I think, make it much easier for the other person to accept it and forgive the behavior leading to the apology, and perhaps to even open the door for further adult, mature conversation about the matter.