words that have non-intuitive pronunciation

[brimfull]

like magdalene...who decided to pronounce it modlin or whatever it is.

There are loads of these words in UK.

Someone should make a board game of it.

Any good ones near you?

my friend lives in

Kibworth Beauchamps

she takes great delight in people saying it the french way,as I did.

They pronounce it beecham

Leominster (pronounced Lemster)
Hawick (pronounced Hoyk a posh sounding word for yank???)

Oh yes, pronounciating English names can be positively HAZARDOUS if you are a foreigner.

Sean - I mean, who has heard of Seen Connery?

Durham - Doram (or dure ham, as I would....)

Leiceister Square - Lester, not lei chester....

Loughborough - friend of mine took great delight telling some American tourists it was pronounced "Loogybaroogy". And Leicester - "Lyesester".

tis a minefield

flying into bournemouth the stewardess pronounced it bourneeeemouth.

ooh, I like this. My fave is hyperbole (Hy -per - boll - ee)

I was asked for direction to 'Glowww sester Road toooooob station' by an American.

I was unable to help, as I died laughing.

ah but I think tis rude to laugh at somebody visiting and getting the pronunciation wrong.

I used to be laughed at when I first came here in 1983 .

Smug english bastards

LOL at Loughborough. I once worked in a call centre with a girl from New Zeland and nearly fell off my chair laughing when I heard her on the phone to someone pronouncing it 'Loo-gah-ba-roo-gah'

Oh TwoFraus, your story reminds me that my grandmother used to teach a boy named "Gooey". It was spelt Guy - but his parents had no idea of the correct pronounciation .

Sorry, must be pedantic, here - Siobhan/Niamh etc are NOT examples of this sort of word. They are IRISH - a completely different language - and so are pronounced in the correct way for Irish Gaelic (smug pedant emoticon ).

In have two examples that annoy me, though...

Menzies (as in Campbell) being pronounced 'Ming'. Um...why?Is it Scots gaelic? I have never understood this.

Also, people who say 'Mah-li-bon' fpr Marylebone amd 'Ho-burn' for Holborn. I always say Maril-eh-bone' and 'HoLborn'. Am I wrong?

Ewell, pronounced Yule

scooz typos

Never understood the Menzies one

didn't there used to be a newsagent chain called menzies,was that pronounced ming as well then?

Hermione = Her-my-oh-knee

Lots of weird ones around notts where I live... best is obviously...

Gotham .... pronounced goat-um round here, not like in the Batman films etc.

Also Southwell, pronounced suth'all if u are a stranger and south-well if u live there...

The surname Featherstonehaugh is not pronounced anything like it sounds either... not sure how to pronounce it....

my real name's Oonagh by the way.... pronounce that if you dare!!

una?

is it ooo-na

dh used to work with an

aoidh

Correct ggirl...

NOT Yoona btw... there is no such name.... someone tell Una Stubbs please...

also correct Lyra, i think you'll find.....

yup,, depending on how u pronounce it....

is aiodh the same as eve?

it's just

a

as in ay

bay
pay