There are two reasons why someone like you should not be mispronouncing names of places. First, it’s kind of a bummer when you are in a place and you want to blend in quickly with the locals and make the mistake of pronouncing the name of their place incorrectly. Second, I would assume you’re someone who cares about the fine use of language and its proper use, and mispronouncing anything would be counterintuitive. That’s why you really shouldn’t mispronounce the names of the places below, and there’s a chance you’ve been doing that your whole life. Thrillophilia took the liberty of highlighting the top places people mispronounce and put them in contrasts and we hope they appeal to you. Please let the community know in a comment which ones you have actually got right in the first place.
Bangkok, Thailand
Melbourne, Australia
Reykjavik, Iceland
Dubai, UAE
Beijing, China
Budapest, Hungary
Phuket, Thailand
Brisbane, Australia
Colombia
Yosemite Park, USA
Iraq
Montreal, Canada
Qatar
The River Thames, UK
Versailles, France
Worcester, UK
Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem
Helena, USA
Kissimmee, USA
Lafayette, USA
La Jolla, USA
Niger
Pakistan
Worcestershire, UK
You missed one of the classics.. The state between California and Washington is not “AHR-uh-GAHN”. The first syllable is OR, as in ‘and/or’… The vowels in the next two syllables are shewas.. “OR-uh-gun.”…. and the river that Portland is on is the “wil-LAM-et” (not ‘wil-a-met’)
All these explanations how to prounounce is not so easy when you use English,
much better would be to use the rules of esperanto, more logic, clear and understandable.
One letter – one sound
Can the pronunciation for Worcestershire apply to the sauce as well?
It does!
Yep
The other one we hear is Kabul (Kar-bull). I was taught many, many years ago it should be pronounced as in cobble.
IPA would be the best choice.
Thai people do not call their capital city Bangkok, they call it Krung Thep. However at one time that area was called Bahng Gawk, so there is some reason.
More interesting is the little country to the east. Locals call it Kampuchea, the French colonized it and called it Cambodge, but the rest of the world called it Cambodia. The capital city is Phnom Penh which nearly every non-Khmer person says wrong. Some say Fnom pen or most commonly Nom Pen. The true pronunciation is P’num Ping.
Thai people do not call their capital city Bangkok, they call it Krung Thep. However at one time that area was called Bahng Gawk, so there is some reason.
More interesting is the little country to the east. Locals call it Kampuchea, the French colonized it and called it Cambodge, but the rest of the world called it Cambodia. The capital city is Phnom Penh which nearly every non-Khmer person says wrong. Some say Fnom pen or most commonly Nom Pen. The true pronunciation is P’num Ping.
Wooster sauce, don’t need the “shire”
Yes, I totally agree with you.
Can’t understand, Dubai. Pakistan and Montreal what difference between wrong and right?
And T in MonTreal pronounced?