How on earth are you meant to pronounce these British towns and cities?
A while back, I made a simple video on pronunciation of British towns and cities and it went crazy.
People were so shocked at how they are truly pronounced.
Today, I'm going to make it really easy for you.
I'm going to teach you loads of commonly mispronounced place names in English.
And we will do this by looking at 10 common place name suffixes, that's the end of words.
Once you know those, you'll be able to pronounce so many place names without anyone laughing at you.
Of course, there'll be a quiz at the end of the video.
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Okay, let's begin.
And remember I am teaching my pronunciation of these places with my modern received pronunciation accent.
First, how do you pronounce this town in central England.
It's a really long word, but a short pronunciation.
Loughborough.
Loughborough.
So the suffix here, borough, means a fortified settlement, but is usually pronounced brough.
But you will hear some people add an extra vowel sound and say borough.
Loughborough.
Loughborough, I say Loughborough.
Some more places, with this suffix, are Scarborough Marlborough, or Marlborough sometimes, and Peterborough.
Or with that extra vowel sound, Scarborough, Marlborough or Marlborough, and Peterborough.
Now, if you're in North America, you're probably used to pronouncing the ending of these words very differently.
In North America, the suffix is often pronounced borough.
An example from my American friend.
Scarborough, Marlborough, Peterborough.
Thanks, buddy.
Now, the Scottish spelling for this suffix is B-U-R-G-H.
So, with that in mind, how would you pronounce this Scottish city?
That's right, it's Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, although the N sound, the N, often changes to an M, N, in a process called assimilation.
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, very similar.
Okay, number two.
How do you pronounce this city in the heart of England, not too far from Loughborough?
This is Derby, Derby. derby.
Now, we need the long R vowel sound here, not er.
It's not derby.
And we pronounce the BY suffix, be, not by.
Can you think of any other places ending in the BY suffix?
Well, we have rugby.
Tenby and Formby, to name but a few.
Okay, this next one, number three, causes so many headaches.
How do you pronounce this city in the Midlands where afternoon tea was invented?
Well, it's much easier than it looks.
In fact, let's just get rid of these letters here.
How about now?
Okay, it's Leicester.
Leicester.
So we usually pronounce this C-E-S-T-E-R suffix, st, st.
So that means these lovely places here are Bicester, not Bicester, Bicester.
Worcester, not Worcester, Worcester.
And Gloucester, not Gloucester.
Bicester, Worcester, Gloucester.
Now be careful though, this is English.
We always have exceptions.
This place, which is next to Gloucester, is Cirencester, Cirencester, Cirencester.
Okay, number four, we are heading further south to this beautiful historic market town.
How do you pronounce it?
It is Hartford.
Hartford, not Hertford, Hartford.
Now the noun ford, meaning a place where a river is shallow enough to walk across, is pronounced with the strong or vowel ford.
But notice how it weakens to a schwa as a suffix.
Bradford, Chelmsford, Salford, not Salford, Salford.
You will notice that all of these suffixes have weak vowels in them, usually the schwa, this sound.
So remember, Hartford, not Hertford.
Okay, we're up north for this next city.
How do you pronounce it?
It's Durham, Durham, not Durham.
See why people would say durham, though.
It looks like a durham, but durham.
The H is silent.
The H-A-M suffix is often reduced to M, like in Buckingham, Oldham, and Birmingham.
I know it's tempting to say Birmingham.
It's Birmingham.
Now, be careful.
If we have an S before the H, then the letters combine to make a SH. like in Lewisham and Horsham.
Okay, for number six, we have this glorious seaside resort on the south coast.
How do you pronounce it?
Did you say Tainmouth?
I understand your logic, but it's actually , .
Again, the strong vowel we have in mouth, meaning the place where the river meets the sea, is reduced to an in the suffix .
Now, can you think of any other places that end with this suffix?
Well, naturally we have several coastal towns where the river meets the sea Plymouth, Bournemouth and Exmouth.
Okay, next up, we have an English county.
How do you pronounce this place?
Now we already know that C-E-S-T-E-R is often reduced to st, so we have Worcester, but how do we pronounce the S-H-I-R-E suffix?
Is it the shire, like in Lord of the Rings?
Worcestershire?
Sounds gorgeous, but no.
Again, we just need the schwa.
We love the schwa.
Worcestershire.
Worcestershire sauce.
Shire becomes sh.
I wish we did say shire.
I think that's beautiful, but it's sh.
We can also say shire, Bedfordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire.
Other counties ending with this suffix include Yorkshire or Yorkshire.
And according to my teacher who is coincidentally from this place, the best county in England, Lancashire or Lancashire.
To be fair, The Lancashire accent is one of my favourites.
It's warm and gorgeous.
I encourage you to go and find an example of it and see if you agree with me.
Okay, number eight.
If you've ever been to England, there is a chance you might have flown into this airport.
How do you pronounce it?
Is it Luton?
No, it's the schwa again, it's Luton.
Are you sensing a pattern here with the damn schwa?
We have loads of places that end in this suffix, places like Preston, Eton, and Bolton.
Okay for number nine.
We have a corner of London on the banks of the River Thames, not Thames, Thames.
How is this corner of London pronounced?
Did that silent W in the middle catch you out?
This is Woolwich or Woolidge.
Now, interestingly, many words ending in the W-I-C-H suffix can be pronounced idge or itch.
For example, Greenwich or Greenidge, Norwich or Norridge.
And one more thing to look out for with this suffix, The W or the W isn't always silent.
I know I'm sorry, it makes things very complicated, but there are quite a few places like Nantwich, Ipswich and Droitwich that all have the W sound.
Okay, time for our 10th and final suffix, and then you will officially be a British place name pronunciation pro.
That took me quite a few takes by the way.
Hard to say, British place name pronunciation pro.
How do you pronounce this place?
This is Wadsworth.
Wadsworth.
Like we had mouth reducing to mth in the unstressed suffix, worth becomes with.
Some more examples are Letchworth.
We also have Howarth, where the Bronte sisters lived and wrote their novels, and Wandsworth in London.
Okay, so as promised, we're going to end today's video lesson with a quickfire quiz.
I'm going to show you the place on screen and you simply pronounce it, or at least try to pronounce it.
Number one.
I went to university here and it took me ages to pronounce it correctly.
Number three.
It is not reading.
That's an activity you should do at home often.
It's reading.
Four.
Please don't say Warwick.
It's Warwick.
Warwick.
Number five.
Not Cambridge.
Cambridge.
Number six.
I did mention this one earlier in the lesson.
It's not Thames, it's not Thames, it is Thames.
Number seven.
It's not Southwark, it's Southwark.
I used to live there as well and I definitely called it Southwark when I first moved there.
Eight.
Not Holborn, Hoban.
Tobin.
Number nine... Not Leominster.
Lemster.
Lemster.
Sounds like a cool place.
And number ten... It's not Yeovil.
It's Yeovil.
Yeovil.
Okay, how many of these place names did you get right out of ten?
I'd love to hear if you've visited any of them.
And if you know of any other places with really weird name pronunciations.
Also, if you want to speak with my accent, that's Modern Received Pronunciation join my five-day British accent bootcamp.
It's the best place to start.
You get a massive discount and lifetime access if you click the link in the description box or scan the QR code there.
I will see you soon in another lesson.
Mwah!
