87 percent of well-intentioned Brits try to speak the local language when abroad, yet roughly the same number (85 percent) admit they make mistakes when trying…
In fact, we stumble over our words an average of 50 times during a week-long break, with the top faux pas revealed as saying ‘grassyarse’ (25 percent) when they are trying to say ‘gracias’ for thank you in Spain.
17 percent have said what sounds like ‘messy bucket’ instead of ‘merci beaucoup’ in France – and one in six (15 percent) have mumbled ‘silver plate’ when trying to say ‘s’il vous plait’. One in ten (10 percent) Brits have even asked locals in Spain where the ‘el beacho’ is instead of ‘la playa’ or tried to order a taxi in Italy with ‘taxio’, when it should be ‘tassi’ (10 percent).
The research also found that food pronunciation is one of the most challenging areas for Brits with 18 percent having ordered ‘pie-ella’ instead of ‘pae-eh-yah’ when in Spain and 15 percent saying ‘- +crussant’ instead of ‘kwa-son’ in France.
While 12 percent have even said ‘pene’ instead of ‘penne’ with two separate n-sounds when ordering pasta, which is unfortunate as ‘pene’ translates to ‘penis’. Place names (44 percent), food (43 percent), people’s names (31 percent), names of attractions (28 percent) and small talk (25 percent) are the words and phrases Brits struggle with the most, along with names of drinks (24 percent) and hotel names (19 percent).
As a result, 80 percent say they feel embarrassed and self-conscious about their pronunciation skills when saying a foreign word, so much so that 71 percent have panicked about going into cafes and shops on holiday in case someone speaks to them in a foreign language.
In a bid to tackle this fear, one in three (35 percent) practiced what to say outside before going in, while a quarter (25 percent) of Brits go as far as only choosing to go on holiday where they know people speak English. 46 percent have even ‘faked’ a local accent in a bid to try and sound more fluent.
But it’s not just place names and food that Brits struggle with, Barcelona-based airline, Vueling, which commissioned the research, also found that Brits struggle to pronounce its own name correctly, with half (51 percent) thinking it is ‘View-ling’, a third (33 percent) referring to it as ‘Vwel-ling’ and just 10 percent correctly pronouncing its name ‘Bwel-ling’.
It is no surprise that more than a third (36 percent) of Brits rate their language skills as ‘not great’, with 28 percent saying they are good enough to just get by. As a result, 46 percent say they feel nervous when trying to converse abroad.
Eight in ten (80 percent) Brits admit they have winced when they’ve heard a fellow Brit mispronounce a word or phrase abroad, with almost half (48 percent) secretly judging people who struggle to speak a foreign language on holiday.
Despite this, 91 percent think that it’s important to try and make an effort to pronounce foreign words correctly and a further 91 percent agree that it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake as long as you are trying.
Top Holiday Language Faux Pas
- Saying ‘grassyarse’ instead of ‘gracias’ in Spain – 25%
- Ordering ‘pie-ella’ in Spain instead of ‘pae-eh-yah’ – 18%
- Saying ‘messy bucket’ instead of ‘merci beaucoup’ in France – 17%
- Pronouncing ‘pain’ instead of ‘pan’ when talking about bread in France – 16%
- Pronouncing Pho as ‘faux’ instead of ‘fuh’ – 15%
- Saying ‘silver plate’ instead of ‘s’il vous plait’ in France – 15%
- Pronouncing ‘crussant’ instead of ‘kwa-son’ in France – 15%
- Ordering a beer in Spain by saying ‘car-veh-sah’ when it should be ‘seuh-veh-suh’ – 12%
- Pronouncing ‘pene’ instead of ‘penne’ in Italy – 12%
- Saying ‘taxio’ to order a taxi in Italian instead of ‘tassi’ – 10%
- Saying ‘el beacho’ instead of ‘la playa’ when trying to find the beach in Spain – 10%
- Asking for ‘g-knock-ee’ in Italian when it should be ‘nyok-ee’ in Italy – 9%
- Ordering prosciutto by saying ‘pro-shootio’ instead of ‘pro-shcoot-oh’ in Italy – 8%
This research of 2,000 Brits was commissioned by Vueling and conducted by Perspectus Global during April 2025.
