Pronunciation - would you correct?

[Dipsydoodlenoodle]

I'm aware this isn't the right place to post but I wanted some advice about what you would have done.

We were out with friends a few months ago, they have a 6 year old dd. Friends are foreign. Let's call them Adam and Eve lol. I'm Friends with Adam and have met Eve on several occasions but don't know her well.

Eve says to Dd6 "what does this say"...Dd6 read it perfectly and pronounced it perfectly. Eve corrected dd6 for saying a local place wrong...(Eve pronounced it as it reads, rather than as its said). Obviously as I don't know her well I didn't want to interfere...but would you have corrected her (OK maybe not on front of dd6, but quietly to the side)?

I have several foreign friends and all are happy to get help with pronunciation or phrases...I just felt as I didn't know her very well, that it would be rude. I did consider trying to drop it into conversation, but I couldn't.

As it's written! Which is unusual for UK place names ending in 'cester'!

I was of an age to feel free to say nicely, and genuinely, to my younger nursing colleagues, who were mainly from Eastern Europe, would you like me to correct you - they all wanted to be corrected. As it was, most had first class English and pronunciation.

The ones that I always corrected were salmon and bombing, as they seem the most common. They were grateful not to be spending the next 10 years saying saLmon and bomBing!

@Somethingsnappy
So is it pronounced Sirencesster ?

I was amazed and amused that Belvoir was pronounced Beaver.

Is it Keynsham? Its pronounced "Cane Shum".

Location Location Location did a show from Keynsham and Kirsty Allsop Pronounced it "Keener-Sham" (and the graphics on screen spelled it Keynesham. There's no e in the middle).

Yes, OP-I probably would have just said at the time to the DD, ‘funnily enough, you’re right to pronounce it how it ‘reads’ -x is correct! Isn’t the English language funny?!’

I remember being fascinated by the pronunciation of Magdalen and Caius colleges as a child when watching University Challenge!

Cholmondely in Cheshire aka Chumley

That was my thought, along with Milngavie (as above) and Wemyss.

It's pronounce Mull-guy whether you're local or not.

There’s Slaithwaite in Yorkshire. Pronounced Slathwaite, but Slowit if you're local

🤣

Fittingly, this tread has a Bicester Village add popping up on it 🤣

Lie-sester-shire?

I am in the UK and I still don't know how Cirencester is pronounced.

Yes, exactly!

If it's a place name it would have been fine to correct without any embarrassment. English towns and villages have strange pronunciations. I'm a native English speaker and still get it wrong. The most recent was Towcester which my secretary had to inform me is pronounced Toaster during a meeting with a client. It's not the first time it's happened to me and it won't be the last, it wasn't embarrassing at all.

I'm a Londoner and have heard some very odd pronunciations over the years. Especially Holborn, southwark and Marylebone. And a lot of people say Convent Garden. (Which would be correct if it was 1500, but it isn't.)

Try
Ahoghill
Portglenone
Ballymena

They always cause problems for call workers 😂😂

Mousehole isn't Moosle, btw, it's Mowzul.

Loving these! :-)

There’s thousands of places that are pronounced differently. I’d have just said ‘oh it’s pronounced whatever locally’.

Hoping it was Penistone.

You pronounce Cirencester si (as in sigh) ren (as in rent) sester (like sister but with an e). Locals just call it Ciren (Siren).

Was she pronouncing Reading as Reading or the other way around?

@ilovepixie How do people struggle with Ballymena? Do they say Bal-lee instead of Bal-la?

Yes, Ballymena, how is that pronounced?