Can you pronounce the names of these cities? + (Free PDF and Quiz!)

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- Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today, I have another pronunciation video for you.

I'm going to be going through all of the English place names

that are really hard to pronounce,

and I'm going to be letting you in on some secrets.

Yes, I'm going to be giving you some rules,

and if you take note, and if you learn them,

hopefully, pronouncing English place names should be

a lot easier, and to make it a little bit more fun

and to allow you guys to laugh at yourselves,

I've made it a quiz.

So you can comment below with your score.

I'm basically going to give you a little bit of time

to guess the pronunciation before I tell you what it is.

Let's see how many you get wrong.

Oh sorry, I should be more motivational,

let's see how many you get right. (giggling)

Before we get started, I would just like to thank

the sponsor of today's video.

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Right, let's get on with the lesson and the quiz.

So we're going to be focusing on England today,

but if you would like to know about Scotland,

Wales, Northern Ireland, just the rest of Britain,

let me know in the comments, and I'll see if I can find

someone from those areas to help me out.

Now, I'm going to do it area by area,

and I'd like to start with Southern England,

simply because that's where I'm based.

Sort of.

Number one, how do you pronounce this beautiful city?

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It's pronounced Gloucester.

Gloucester.

Number two, how do you pronounce this Oxfordshire town?

If you do want to go, it has a great designer outlet.

We love going there.

(clock ticking)

It's Bicester.

Bicester.

And I can assure you, before that designer outlet was built,

I was calling it Bicester, so you're not alone.

Number three, how do you pronounce this town

that's just outside of London?

(clock ticking)

It's Slough.

Slough.

Fun fact, I once had an iPhone stolen,

and it appeared in Slough.

I never got it back. (giggling)

And number four, the last one of this section,

how do you pronounce this town?

(clock ticking)

It's Reading.

Reading.

And Reading Festival was the first festival

I ever went to, potentially the last.

No, I have been to one since.

Yeah, festivals aren't for me, turns out.

Someone jumped on my tent, not great.

Okay, let's move on to places in London.

The first one.

This has a tube stop in London,

and it's where I went to university.

How do you pronounce it?

(clock ticking)

It should be Marylebone.

Marylebone.

But it's now so widely mispronounced that who knows.

I'm sure I'll have a couple of opinions on this video

about how to pronounce Marylebone.

Number two, a little town in the borough of Hillington,

how is this one pronounced?

(clock ticking)

It should be Ruislip.

Ruislip.

Number three, this is an area in central London.

It again has its own tube station.

How would you pronounce it?

(clock ticking)

It should be pronounced Holborn.

Holborn.

The next one is a borough of London.

It also has a tube station.

I used to live here, and I started off mispronouncing it.

How would you pronounce this place?

(clock ticking)

It should be Southwark.

Southwark.

The next one.

This place has a football club, a very famous football team.

How would you pronounce it?

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It should be Tottenham.

Tottenham.

Now, I used a glottal stop there.

Okay, it should be pronounced Tottenham.

Tottenham.

But, everyone I hear says Tottenham.

Tottenham Hot Spurs.

Next, we have this place.

Lovely place supposedly.

How would you pronounce it?

(clock ticking)

It should be Chiswick.

Chiswick.

With a (vocalises) sound.

Don't ask me why, it's the way it is.

Next, where my brother-in-law to be lives.

How would you pronounce this place?

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It should be Greenwich.

Greenwich.

Okay, moving on to the Midlands.

Number one.

There is a sauce named after this place.

How would you pronounce it?

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It should be Worcester.

Worcester.

Just two syllables.

This one's quite similar.

How would you pronounce this city?

(clock ticking)

(sneezes) (laughs)

It should be Leicester.

Leicester.

And the same goes for Leicester Square in London.

Okay, moving on to this one.

There is a fantastic university here.

It's always really good at sports.

How would you pronounce it?

(clock ticking)

It should be Loughborough.

Loughborough.

Again, only two syllables,

but you might hear some people saying Loughborough.

But it should be borough, borough.

And the last one, how would you pronounce this city?

(clock ticking)

It should be Derby.

Derby.

Okay, the first one, located in Yorkshire,

how would you pronounce it?

(clock ticking)

It should just be Barugh.

Barugh.

The next one, how would you pronounce this location?

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It should be pronounced Keighley.

Keighley.

And the last one, this Cumbrian town,

how would you pronounce it?

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It should be Sedbergh.

Sedbergh.

Okay, let me know in the comments below how many

you got right, and please don't worry if your score is low.

The names are ridiculous.

It's almost like a gatekeeper.

If you can't say the places, we know you're not from here.

Now, I'm going to share a couple of rules with you

about suffixes to place names.

In general, knowing these suffixes will mean

you will automatically know how to pronounce

a wide variety of place names.

Okay, first we have, borough, borough.

For example, Loughborough.

Loughborough.

Then we have bury, bury.

For example, Bibury.

Bibury.

Then we have cester, cester.

For example, Bicester, Bicester.

Then we have combe, combe.

For example, Salcombe, Salcombe.

Then we have ham, ham.

Like in Tottenham, Tottenham.

Then we have on, on.

This isn't a suffix, it's actually in the first syllable

of a word, it's on as in London and Tonbridge.

Then we have shire, or shire.

Shire or shire, it depends.

Bedfordshire, Bedfordshire.

You can choose whichever you'd like.

And the last one, we have mouth, mouth.

As in Bournemouth.

Right, that's it for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Don't forget to share your scores,

and don't forget to contribute any other really difficult

to pronounce place names.

Remember to check out italki.

The link is in the description box, and don't forget

to check out my social media.

I've got my Facebook, I've got my Instagram,

and I've got my Twitter, and I'll see you soon

for another lesson. (blows kiss)

(beeping) (bright music)

Sometimes I forget how to swallow.

Oh back to the riverder where that's where I buy

my colouring pencils from, oh my god,

how am I gonna do this one?

Okay.

(vocalising)

Eggberth. (beeping)

You might hear some people saying Loughborough,

but it should be borough, borough.

(beeping)

(sneezes)

(laughs)

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