How to Pronounce UK Place Names - Anglophenia Ep 23

Anglophenia's Siobhan Thompson teaches Science Friction's Rusty Ward—and the rest of America—how to pronounce difficult British place names.

[duvalian]

I was once talking to two girls from Australia in London (I’m a cop), I asked where they were heading next and they said ‘LOOGA BAROOGA’ after some confusion they showed me the address they were going to be staying, and it turned out to be ‘LOUGHBOROUGH’ pronounced ‘Luffboro’ 😂😂😂, I nearly pee’d myself !

[krillcommunication]

As a Brit I struggled with some of these

[alfiefg]

Im from Leeds. It's pronouced Leeds

[debalynn]

As an American who lived in Cheshire, England for over 11 years, I can add a few tricky ones we learned after pronouncing them incorrectly. Keswick (Kez-ick), Warwick (War-ick), Greenwich (Gren-ich), Wybunbury (Win-bree) and Cholmondeley (Chum-lee). There were others, but those stood out! Some place names we never did learn.

[cunjoz]

Wait. "Ces" in "Bicester", "Gloucester", "Leicester" and "Worcester" is silent but not in "Cirencester"? Wow. I've been learning and speaking English for 19 years already, but British names are just wild. Albuquerque is easier to guess than those...

[kitt]

I'm from Ely and it's called Ely because it used to be an island in the fens surrounded by eels so was originally called the Isle of Eels which was shortened to Ely

[Phaede]

No need for the video: now we all know how to pronounce Leicester here in Italy ;)
Good job guys!

[thejamiedodger]

I'm British and I still didn't know how to pronounce half of these

[Richdbiskit]

I spat my water out all over my laptop when he said "DUMB FRIES"

[returntoselfhealing]

"The whole town is wrong." HAHAHAHAHA

[AleksandrPanzinAlex]

UK place names are barely English in nature. Some are Celtic, Norman, Latin and various Germanic.
It's impossible to know how to pronounce a name without knowing where it comes from... and, consequently, what grammar rules to apply.

[thejamiedodger]

You forgot Godmanchester which is pronounced gumster

[thomasbryant]

I'm from Reading and OMG FINALLY Someone said Redding, not reading like reading a book

[ScaryWombat]

I'm Scottish and am still learning how to pronounce some of our place names. And these are just the ones I'm familiar with.
Milngavie = "Mill-guy"
Culzean = "Kull-ane"
Auchtermuchty = "Uhk-ter-muk-tay"
Kirkcudbright = "Kir-coo-bray"

[jasoncollins]

Its a bit unfair giving him welsh place names as welsh is an entirely different language and hardle any English people can pronce them, but with welsh place names in mind, there former capital is an exellentelly hard one, Machynlleth.

[tacobella]

Having grown up in Massachusetts, I'm surprised there are a lot of similar names to towns and cities in my state on this list! I mean, it makes sense, with the colonies and all but it's still cool. Pronounced the British way too!

[InstaSim]

Being Welsh, I can say that you both mis-pronounced Powys as the "o" is not pronounced as "a". Pontypridd is also slightly mis-pronouncced as the "i" is pronounced more as the letter "e". You also missed the perfect opportunity to include :P

[izzyrl]

I live in derby, finally we get some recognition for our strangeish name!

[RobOrtiz]

I hope the guest isn't from Massachusetts because we pronounce Worcester the exact same way

[gracearnold]

It's "Scot-land" not "skat-laynd"