Californians Try To Pronounce Washington Cities

How do you say Steilacoom, Sequim, and Puyallup correctly? These Washington cities and towns can be hard to pronounce, especially if you're not from the Pacific Northwest, but it's funny to watch people try. Watch as these Californians try, and fail, to pronounce some of our best Washington city names.

[@mariafox9226]

This is how us Washingtonians know who is and who isn’t native to this state. A lot of our cities and counties are named after Native American tribes. Spokane is another example. People say, “Spoke Cane” when it’s pronounced as, “Spoke Can.”

[@EvanChantland]

California also has a lot of cities named after Native American tribes or words. Cahuenga, Yucaipa, Port Hueneme, Tehachapi, Ojai, and Tujunga being some of the more interesting ones.

[@arieanusvids]

I say it as spo-can

[@bernadettedurbin1396]

I went to college in Spokane. There's a documentary play, God's Country, that has several scenes set in and around that area. I saw a production once in my hometown of Sacramento and they said the department store of Bon Marche as "bonn march." (I did give them a break as they were high school students.)

[@AEIpwnYOU]

Wa state native here, where I'm at we call Spokane 1 of 2 names, Spokangeles or Spokompton

[@SandyBrown]

The “a” in Wenatchee is actually like the “a” in “at,” not like the “a” in “autumn.” So it’s pronounced wen-AT-chee.

[@BenGarrott]

This is because most cities in Washington have Native American names. Seattle (Chief Sealth), Tacoma (Mount Tahoma) and Spokane (name of a tribe), the 3 largest cities in Washington, all have Native Origins.

[@TechTravelGastro]

They should have Issaquah on here as well.

[@maryelmaguire3161]

Puyallup is actually pronounced Pew al up. Not awl. Al.. That’s how the locals really pronounce it

[@michaelhail2009]

Cane here to say the same lol

[@Jaxical]

As a Puyallup local, I say Pew-all-up.

[@stevenwagner983]

Easy!! But im a WA native

[@tonjaraye]

I’ve lived in Washington my entire life but I had no idea that Pend Oreille was pronounced like that.

[@BenGarrott]

It's French

[@nyxnoctis1623]

There was a song that I wish I could remember, that we learned in school (Bonney Lake in the 1990's) that taught us the proper pronunciation and where I learned what a geoduck was.

[@bernadettedurbin1396]

The Gooey Duck Song? "Dig a duck, dig a duck, dig a geoduck, dig a duck, dig a geoduck, dig a duck a day!"

[@arieanusvids]

When I first moved to Western Washington from the east side, I was pronouncing Enumclaw wrong. I was saying eh-noom-claw instead of ee-num-claw. Now I live in Puyallup so thats fun to tell my family in CA. I moved over from Kennewick which isn't too difficult to say. Some of these cities i have never heard of.

[@merileeburden2012]

In AK, my husband hired a guy who was from Nebraska who pronounced Washington like Wersh in tonn.we laughed and gave him a hard time. He was a good sport then went to go do his wersh . Lol!

[@brittanybooth9012]

You should do Alaska villages next- Southeast villages too.

[@Emm_er]

My personal favorite: Chuckanut.

[@jessicahoward507]

Surprised they did not include Snoqualmie or or Yakima. People are always pronouncing Yakima wrong and it gets on my nerves so much. People pronounce it Yak-i-muh when it is infact pronounced Yak-i-ma

[@chibiprussia5574]

I say Sequim as Se-kwee-um

[@rws91942]

California has a similar thing. Except a lot of streets and towns in Southern California particularly have Spanish names. When I used to drive buses down there I would get a passenger asking me how to get to El-Ca-John. Then I would ask do you mean El Cajon? Then after telling them I would ask where are they from ? ..lol

[@BenGarrott]

Wahkiakum, Pend Oreille and Skamania are counties. Snohomish and Kittitas are both

[@GingerMom123]

Should try Kalaloch (Klay-Lock)

[@SarahWilson-yy5bf]

Washougal W😢ashington... We call it.... Weshouldgo. Lol

[@Elizayates]

This is awesome 🤣🤣🤣

[@davidrutiezer5239]

Wuh-KYE-uh-cuhm. Not Wuh-KEE-uh-cuhm.

[@WereKittyOG]

So many people will argue that you're not say some of the city names right. Or counties. Skagit. Don't argue. It's name comes from the native language. Not our fault the English spelling is "wrong."

[@debbysouthworth5606]

ROFLMFAO!!🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@zenobiaw831]

...Pend Oreille is a county in NE Washington and a lake in Idaho in the same area. It's not a city.

[@Kenziegh]

How is it possible the first word they're discussing is Aeneas!? The actual road and valley I come from!? I grew up on this word. It's comes from a native chief. Telemarketers always had a hard time with the word and "anus" was always the alternative pronunciation

[@technicoloryaya549]

Yeah... transplanted into Washington, here. They don't pronounce simple words like the rest of the US, either. Naches (English = knocks) (Washington = naaa cheese). Touche (A French word = two shay) (Washington = two chee). Just a couple of examples. 🤣🤣🤣

[@Jesusisyhwh]

That's not how you pronounce Puyallup.

[@markriffey8899]

No one iknows wtf you guys are talking about. For clarity "Washington" means Washington D.C. for 99.9 % of the world . Use *Washington State* always.

[@Super_Mario_Esq]

Try this: quillayute. I thought it was KWI-ya-yute, but turned out to be KWI-le-yute. So, if you don't want people read two LLs as ye as in spanish, then why put two LLs there?

[@mernany]

Its call it not being a Spanish word… and so it shouldn’t be pronounced like one..