The 10 most mispronounced UK place names revealed
How many times have you been left rosy-checked after mispronouncing a town to an Uber driver or colleague? Have you ever been too afraid to announce a place’s name to local residents?
A study by Preply revealed the most mispronounced UK place names and explains exactly how to pronounce each so you can avoid any tricky pronunciation predicaments.
Cholmondeley (Cheshire)
Many people try to pronounce this civil parish in Cheshire as Chol-mon-de-lee. However, this is incorrect. Chum-lee is the right way to say this village with a total population of a little over a hundred.
Bicester (Oxfordshire)
Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England, but the pronunciation of the place has been a struggle for some time. Many pronounce it as By-cester, but this is incorrect! The correct way to say this town is Bi-stuh – who’d have guessed?
Frome (Somerset)
Frome, a town in easter Somerset is thought to have derived from the ancient Brythonic word “ffraw”, meaning fair, fine or brisk, and described the flow of the river that runs through the town! No, it’s not pronounced from, but in fact pronounced froom!
Godmanchester (Cambridgeshire)
We can understand the misunderstanding here, with many pronouncing it as god-manchester, as in Manchester the city! That’s why it surprises people that the town is actually pronounced as god-muhn-cheh-stuh.
Omagh (Northern Ireland)
Omagh is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland and we can completely understand where people may not know where to begin with this one. Well, we can tell you… it’s Oh-ma – pretty simple!
Ynysybwl (Wales)
Ynysybwl is a village in Cwm Clydach in Wales, and again it’s pretty difficult to spell so we understand why it may be difficult to pronounce! An-is-abull is the correct way to pronounce the village, so if you ever visit please use that pronunciation.
Quernmore (Lancashire)
Quernmore is a village in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire and is home to some unusual pronunciations, with the correct pronunciation being Kwor-mer!
Woolfardisworthy (Devon)
Woolfardisworthy is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district in the English county of Devon, and many mispronounce the place as Wool-far-dis-worthy – we’ll save you the bother as it’s actually pronounced Woolzery!
Ballachulish (Scotland)
Ballachulish, a Scottish village, surprisingly goes by the correct pronunciation Ball-a-hoolish!
Beauchief (South Yorkshire)
Finally, Beauchief which is in Sheffield is one of the UK’s, and Yorkshire’s, most mispronounced place names with the correct pronunciation being Bee-chiff!
Not knowing how to pronounce place names can be mildly embarrassing and confusing. But Amy Pritchett, Student Success Manager at Preply, shares her advice on pronouncing them correctly:
“Break up the words into small sounds. Don’t get overwhelmed. Look at each syllable and try to say it alone before putting the sounds together to form the word.
Look at local signs, when entering the place some signs have the pronunciation alongside the place name!
Google! The internet is your best friend when trying to learn new words or names. You can easily find videos or sound clips of how to say each word.
Ask the locals. Local residents will hopefully know how to pronounce their place name. They will be able to advise you on how to pronounce it because probably other people have asked too!
Watch travel documentaries. Watching shows like Travelling Man or other Youtube videos can help you learn place names. Whether they are in the UK or abroad, you can easily pick up some pronunciation tips.
When you are not in the position to use Google, your best shot is just to give it a go and laugh it off if you get it wrong.”
