24 Places People Have Mispronounced Their Entire Lives.

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


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13 thoughts on “24 Places People Have Mispronounced Their Entire Lives.”

  1. 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’)

  2. 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

  3. Elizabeth Algie

    The other one we hear is Kabul (Kar-bull). I was taught many, many years ago it should be pronounced as in cobble.

  4. Norman David Ens

    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.

  5. 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.

  6. Can’t understand, Dubai. Pakistan and Montreal what difference between wrong and right?
    And T in MonTreal pronounced?

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