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Travel8 years ago
24 Place Names You’ve Probably Been Mispronouncing Your Whole Life
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When travelling, a great faux-pas to avoid if you want to get in good with the locals is mispronouncing the name of the place you’re in. Luckily, this collection of images from Thrillophilia will take some of the most commonly mispronounced place names and show us how we SHOULD have been saying them.
Most of the difficulties, of course, arise from the adaptation of a name from one language to another. Most of us will probably never be able to pronounce “Beijing” (or even “Paris”) exactly the way that a native speaker might, but it’s always nice to try. Locals will appreciate it and may go out of their way to help you more if they see that you’ve made an effort.
(h/t: thrillophilia, demilked)
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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I was wondering if Montréal would be there. Oh yes it is! Wait... They've got it wrong... It's a french word: MON(«silent N») - RÉ - AL
You can always recognize an American visitor by the way they pronounce the name of our city... they usually say "MAWN-tree-all"... LOL
Salisbury here often becomes sailsburee, amuses me no end.
Wrong. English-speakers here pronounce it MUN-tree-all. The T is not silent. As an English-speak Montréalais, I testify.
Aine: No mention is made of "language in which the name was created". T'es dans les patates, cocotte. ;-)
Ben tiens, promène-toi avec des québécois francophones en disant Mun-tree-al, tu auras l'air super, @PatrickBenoît!
if the goal is to pronounce it in the language in which the name was created, then, it'd be in French... as a French Québécoise, I testify
Does anyone think it may sound a bit, I don't know, affected, to use the French pronunciation when speaking English? so Mun-tree-al seems :)
You are absolutely right.
Aine: Le site est conçu pour des anglos. Fak ça n'a pas rapport ce que tu dis. Faut considérer l'auditoire ciblé. Dans ce cas, anglophones.
You are right. You don´t pronounce T
"mont réal" = "royal mountain" like "sang réal" = "royal blood" ?
actually, yes!
Genre: Mohn-ray-al
That's how I know it Mohn-ray-al or Mun-tree-al among anglophones. At least it's spelled correctly. Venice is Venezia. Rome - Roma etc
I suggest we don't follow these pronouciations ! (The ones on the website) many if them are wrong !!
this is soooooo wrong
I lost my interest when I've seen my country's capital city "pronounced" wrong on the "correct" side.
Which one? So I don't go around saying it incorrectly ☺
Beijing?
Nah, that's correct.
Ha
Tell us which one, please. I prefer knowledge over ignorance!
I was wondering if Montréal would be there. Oh yes it is! Wait... They've got it wrong... It's a french word: MON(«silent N») - RÉ - AL
You can always recognize an American visitor by the way they pronounce the name of our city... they usually say "MAWN-tree-all"... LOL
Salisbury here often becomes sailsburee, amuses me no end.
Wrong. English-speakers here pronounce it MUN-tree-all. The T is not silent. As an English-speak Montréalais, I testify.
Aine: No mention is made of "language in which the name was created". T'es dans les patates, cocotte. ;-)
Ben tiens, promène-toi avec des québécois francophones en disant Mun-tree-al, tu auras l'air super, @PatrickBenoît!
if the goal is to pronounce it in the language in which the name was created, then, it'd be in French... as a French Québécoise, I testify
Does anyone think it may sound a bit, I don't know, affected, to use the French pronunciation when speaking English? so Mun-tree-al seems :)
You are absolutely right.
Aine: Le site est conçu pour des anglos. Fak ça n'a pas rapport ce que tu dis. Faut considérer l'auditoire ciblé. Dans ce cas, anglophones.
You are right. You don´t pronounce T
"mont réal" = "royal mountain" like "sang réal" = "royal blood" ?
actually, yes!
Genre: Mohn-ray-al
That's how I know it Mohn-ray-al or Mun-tree-al among anglophones. At least it's spelled correctly. Venice is Venezia. Rome - Roma etc
I suggest we don't follow these pronouciations ! (The ones on the website) many if them are wrong !!
this is soooooo wrong
I lost my interest when I've seen my country's capital city "pronounced" wrong on the "correct" side.
Which one? So I don't go around saying it incorrectly ☺
Beijing?
Nah, that's correct.
Ha
Tell us which one, please. I prefer knowledge over ignorance!