How to say the names of places in the UK

Mousehole?! There's a place called Mousehole? Yes, there is, but how do you pronounce it? The UK has some unusual city names, perhaps the most notorious of all being "Worcestershire". Learn how to pronounce it and many more UK town names in this short pronunciation lesson. I will teach you how to pronounce names such as Kirkcudbright, Edinburgh, Durham, and more. You will find that it is simpler than you think because many of these names have endings in common, such as -shire and -bright. After watching this lesson, you will be able to pronounce the name of any UK city or town with confidence. It will surely come in handy during social conversations and even in your IELTS Speaking Task. Even if you're an English speaker from another country, you will want to watch this video before taking a trip to the UK, so that you don't get any of these completely wrong and make a fool of yourself :)

Next, watch some more of my videos about life, language, and culture in the UK:

1. The RP Accent:    • The RP English Accent – What is it, how do...  

2. How to say the names of the top 10 British cities:    • Pronunciation: Learn how to say the top 10...  

3.    • Weird foods of the United Kingdom 🍗  

TRANSCRIPT

Hi there, and welcome back to engVid. In this video you are going to learn how to pronounce some of the harder-to-pronounce places in the U.K. So, useful if you're planning a trip here, or if you're doing an IELTS speaking test and would like to refer to places in the U.K. Let's have a look at some guidelines, and then a little bit later we're going to look at some of the places that don't quite fit the rules.

So, with a place ending with: "borough" or "burgh", you would expect it to sound: "borough" or "burgh", but that's not what happens. It's normally shortened to something like: "bra". For example: "Edinburgh", "Edinbra", "Edinbra", "Edinbra", got it? Okay? Not: "Edinborough", okay?

Second one, with a place ending in "cester", you shorten it to "sta". For example, it's not: "Bicester", it's: "Bicesta", "Bicesta". There is an exception, here, with: "Cirencester", which is a lovely place out in the west of England. "Cirencester", not "Cirensta". Okay? "Cirencester", that's an exception, there.

Next, on to counties. So, a county where... The U.K. is divided up into different region called counties. Lots of these end with "shire", the shire, the countryside, but we pronounce it actually: "shur". For example: "Devonshire", "Devonsha", not: "Devonshire".

This one is particularly tricky to pronounce: "Worcestershire", "Wosteshur". So, basically what we're doing is we're going: "Wost", and then we're abbreviating that: "Woste", "Wosteshur", and then we're putting a "u" in here. "Worcestershire". You still with me? Good stuff, keep the concentration.

Now, "wich" often goes to "ich", so we're just going to be taking out that "w" there. "Wich" goes to "ich". "Norwich", "Norich", it's not: "Nor-wich", okay? "Norich". It's a lovely place in the east of England, beautiful cathedral, and my uncle is an estate agent, so go and say: "Hi."

On to places ending in "mouth". Obviously going to be places by the sea. For example... Can you spot my little mistake, here? Shouldn't be an "f", it should be a "th". A subtle difference, but important to get right. So it's: "Teignmuth" not "Teignmouth". Okay? "Teignmuth", it's a shorter vowel sound; we're not doing the sort of the "o", it's a "Teignmuth". So that's down in Devon, very scenic place in the southwest of the U.K.

"Ham" goes to "um". For example, it's not: "Durham", it's: "Duram", so you're effectively losing that "h". "Durham", beautiful place in the northeast of England, very strong university in Durham. Right.

"Wick" goes to "ick". For example, if I put the whole spelling of: "Berwick-upon Tweed", you can see that we are missing this "w" out, so it becomes: "Berick-upon Tweed". Nice coastal town, again, near the border with Scotland in the northeast of the U.K. Okay? Let's have a look at a few more anomalies and some exceptions to the rules.

I'm also going to be pointing out, with these exceptions, some excellent places to visit in the U.K. There's so many different exceptions, but the places listed here are worth checking out if you're coming to the U.K.

"Tor", you would expect it to say: "quay", something like that, but it's actually: "Torkey", "Torkey", and the same would apply for "Newquay".

This place in Norfolk, you might expect it to be: "Hunstanton", but actually you miss out the "tan" and it becomes: "Hunston".

This is a place I went on honeymoon down in Cornwall. What do you think it says? "Mousehole"? It's not, it's: "Mousol", a lovely fishing village down in Cornwall.

Again in Cornwall, what do you think: "Fowey"? "Foey", okay? Maybe it's helpful to think of there being no "w".