AMERICAN Tries to Pronounce British Place Names! *EXTREMELY HARD*

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Hey I'm JT Kelly! Im just some youtuber from a small town in Kentucky who makes reaction videos, vlogs, pranks, fun challenges and a whole lot more! The main purpose of this channel is to Spread love and happiness throughout the world! So if you want to have a good laugh and listen to my country accent everyday Subscribe and watch my weird life unfold!

[@susannefoxforcefourpickeri9358]

From someone who lives in Leicester and Loughborough here goes the right way of saying them Les-tah and Luff-brah 👍😁.

[@Jarvo147]

Spot on

[@kashootme7722]

Fr live in Leicester and go college in Loughborough 😂

[@kirstygunn9149]

Born in Leicester , brought up and still live in Loughborough

[@decb]

Loughborough is sometimes nicknames "Looga" by those of us a bit further north, because of that American who pronounced Loughborough as "Loogaborooga"

[@littlemy1773]

I do like hearing Americans saying it low burrow 🤣

[@lynette.]

You are getting better every time. It is said you could tell a German spy who spoke perfect English was German by their pronunciation of Slough🤣

[@wenglishsal]

... hee hee, your comment reminded me straight away, of the the 2 spies in Chitty Chitty Bang Band.. 'Indubitably Cuthbert...' The spy's version sounded like 'Indoobitably Cussbert' Best wishes from Wales.

[@rogerweston7450]

Although you get Slough, there's a village near where I live called Brough, which is pronounced Bruff. Good old english....

[@staticbuilds7613]

You just make them say thunder

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

The Dutch used to do the same with the town name S'Gravehage - the Germans couldn't get their tongues round the start of "shkhkravenkhaghe". FWIW I used to live in a small village called Croughton, and the people at one end of the village pronounced it differently to the people at the other end!

[@G0Lg0Th4N]

@@rogerweston7450 found the cod-head.

[@OneTrueScotsman]

The cool thing about UK town and city names is that, by looking at their spelling and general sound you can often tell who first settled there and named them. Like the Romans, the Celts, the Saxons and the Vikings, etc. My city, Aberdeen was named by Picts, one of the earliest peoples in Scotland. There's evidence of human activity in the city going back at least 9,000 years.

[@bigfrankfraser1391]

nice to meet a fellow don

[@lynette.]

My sister lives in Theydon Bois Norman's naming.

[@bw1376]

Here in Norfolk, we have a village called Happisburgh (always difficult for outsiders to pronounce but easy: Hays-Bruh). On the beach, a set of fossilized hominid footprints that date to the early Pleistocene period, over 800,000 years ago were discovered. They were found in May 2013 in a newly uncovered sediment layer of the Cromer Forest Bed, and carefully photographed in 3D before they were destroyed by the tide shortly afterwards. Results on the footprints were announced in February 2014, identifying them as the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.

[@adamcashin4021]

At a guess Aberdeen means mouth (Aber) of the Dee. I Know Chester is on the River Dee and I think that name comes from the Roman name for Chester Deva, which I think means Divine. I wouldn't expect a Roman word to be the basis of the Scottish River Dee. But Celtic and Latin are both Indo-European so perhaps the Pictish Dee also means divine, so Aberdeen means Mouth of the Devine River (Just a guess)

[@bigfrankfraser1391]

@@adamcashin4021 aye, and ive ehard 2 types of aberdonian exist, the deens and dons, since i was born nearer the river don, im a don

[@stevelknievel4183]

The symbols are IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). In theory they give you a guide to how to pronounce things. In practice the way they're used tells you how to sound like you went to a public (i.e. private) school in the 1960s. There's a linguist at UCL called Dr Geoff Lindsay who's written a book called English After RP about modern southern British accents. He also has a KZbin channel where he talks about English language accents in general.

[@jonathanshott6571]

I loved Geoff's video a few months ago on why some people say 'aks' instead of 'ask'. It was a great reminder to not be too self-assured when it comes to the 'correct' way to pronounce words. 👍

[@0utcastAussie]

Except our town was originally called Medeshampstede and looks nothing like what it's called now !

[@fuckdefed]

Lindsay’s channel is excellent, well worth subscribing to!

[@timflatus]

Geoff is brilliant

[@maciejswierczewwski2901]

I ve been studying english philology in Poland looong time ago and we called it transcription but glad to know there is a more proper way to name it .Peace!

[@richardmitchell3136]

I love it when he thinks he's pronounced it right, even when he's totally wrong 😂

[@Outnumberedbykidsandcats]

Yeah me too.

[@thefurrybastard1964]

As a rule of thumb, I think the correct way to pronounce a place name is how the people who live there pronounce it. Love your videos, JT. 👍🏻

[@KissMyFatAxe]

Yeah, seems the fairest way

[@annedavis8652]

Doesn't work for Shrewsbury - some of the inhabitants say Shrew others say Shrow

[@lynette.]

Sounds simple until you have places where the inhabitants disagree.

[@thefurrybastard1964]

@@lynette. No plan is perfect.

[@OliverQueen1974]

& residents of Godmanchester pronounce it God-Man-Chester 🤣

[@roguegargoyle914]

Surprised he didn't mention any Scottish place names. Milngavie, Strathaven, Auchtermuchty to name few.

[@konkey-dong]

If you want a way to remember how to pronounce Gloucester, there's a great little nursery rhyme: Dr Foster went to Gloucester In a shower of rain, He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle And never went there again.

[@CobraPlaysGames]

There’s plenty of other reasons to never go to Gloucester again

[@utha2665]

We learnt that nursery rhyme in Australia, although puddle and middle doesn't quite work, haha.

[@mahalallel2012]

Maybe they should try this... Farmer Foster went to Gloucester In order to buy some grain The locals were trouble, and made him pay double So he never went there again

[@Ed___1234]

Love how you keep congratulating yourself for getting it right when you clearly didn’t 😂😂😂

[@therezolute1030]

I mean he definitely nailed the long one I cant be arsed to spell...

[@nettyswobb1]

As someone from Shrewsbury, can confirm it's pronounced "shroosbury", it's predominantly people outside of Shrewsbury that pronounce it "shrowsbury". It's always prounced wrong on the news, and I think that's just propagated the wrong pronunciation

[@ricequin]

Part of the reason we find Gloucester easy is a childhood rhyme “Doctor Foster went to .Gloucester in a shower of rain. He fell in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again.”.

[@leecollison7527]

The trouble between UK place names, their spelling and pronunciation, is that they are so old. The spelling hasn't changed over time, but the way we have pronounced them (i.e. shortened them, and local dialect) has.

[@Denathorn]

Durham lad here... It's actually amazing how many people don't know County Durham, or Durham City is in England (North-East of England), I've had people say to me when they find out I'm from Durham go "So are you Irish?" :/ Or even Scottish, then I say, "It's just south of Newcastle, west of Sunderland" and they are like "Ohhhh", usually Southerners who are pretty much blind to the chod of land between Manchester and the Scottish border! :D Or if they do know there place, they will go "That's where the Pink Panther is from... Durham... Durham... DurhamDurhamDurham" And I have to stand there, pretend to laugh like I've never heard that one a THOUSAND times before! :D hehehe

[@allisonsmith5242]

Agree. Im from Durham City and i find southerners ignorant and totally snobby especially the students. Foreigners to the city are the opposite especially the yanks.

[@helenswan705]

Tru dat. I lived there 20 years. I find people think it's in Scotland. It's actually quite a long way from Scotland!

[@SteveHuntingdon]

I once had an apparently educated man, an accountant from Hertfordshire, ask me if VAT was the same rate in county Durham as in the UK.

[@MyBigMouth]

Pro-Tip: To save yourself getting tongue tied with Worcestershire Sacue, just call it Worcester Sauce, or more phonetically, Wooster Sauce. It's what everyone here in the UK calls it.

[@beeurd]

Nah, plenty of people say Worcestershire Sauce, don't encourage laziness 😛

[@MyBigMouth]

@@johnhamilton7762 I must've had Wooster Sauce on my keyboard when I typed this.

[@internet_userr]

@@johnhamilton7762 We all make mistakes (you may or may not BE a mistake).

[@franohmsford7548]

I'll never understand why people insist on using "woos" as phonetic for Worcester rather than "wuss" given it's Wuss-ter not Woo-ster!

[@MyBigMouth]

@@franohmsford7548 It's a regional thing, much like the slightly differrent pronunciations of some "oo" words like book/look/cook, either pronounced like buck/luck/cuck or boo-k/loo-k/coo-k. In this case both examples are fine, but it can depend on your audience.

[@anta3612]

Those symbols underneath each word isn't Welsh but IPA phonetic notations. IPA, The International Phonetic Alphabet, is a phonetic notation system that uses a set of symbols to represent each distinct sound that exists in human spoken language. It encompasses all languages spoken on earth.

[@RoamingSoles]

Thank you for helping me too 😂

[@anta3612]

@@RoamingSoles 👋Hello! My people are from Nottingham and I was born there.

[@AFCManUk]

Don't worry, my ex-girlfriend's mum and dad came down from near Sheffield once, to where she was living in High Wycombe (Pronounced Wick-um). They thought the place was pronounced 'WHY-COOMBE' and drove straight past it! :D

[@oliviamccormack855]

This is the first time I've ever seen Shrewsbury appear on one of these videos, and as a native of the town, I'm just very glad you got that first half right. The pronunciation debate is a nightmare, but all locals know is 'Shrooz' and not 'Shrohz'.

[@stevieandthebarbies]

Depends on which side of Offa’s Dyke you hail from!

[@robertespley248]

Sorry, I was born just outside Shrewsbury (back when shropshire was called salop) and I've always pronounced it "Shrohz"

[@arturmonteiro8541]

@@robertespley248I’ve heard two, I say it as shroosbury but i remember hearing on train announcements it being pronounced as ‘shroesbury’

[@Thomashorsman]

Ironic that you said Loughborough was “tough” when it uses the same principle as the word “tough” ahah

[@FB-no4lr]

As an American ex-pat living in the UK for 17 years now, there's often no rhyme or reason for the spelling/pronunciation of place names. For example, Gatwick Airport pronounces the w, yet the town of Flitwick doesn't (flit-ick). You often learn what they're called when you hear someone else say it, and you just make a mental note of it.

[@Xaid0nTT]

-shire pronunciation depends where you're from. He's saying like 'shuh', but I tend to say 'sheer'. -bury is usually 1 syllable, to me like 'bree' e.g. Sudbury = Sud-bree, Canterbury = Canter-bree etc.

[@helenswan705]

I agree. I used to live in Sheffield which I would describe as a city in Yorksheeer. Similarly lancasheeer. But many of the others are indeed 'shuh'. Maybe that one doesn't matter too much.

[@brianhanna3128]

Hey JT, those symbols are phonetic, as in each represents a specific sound rather than letter so they're used to indicate pronunciation. Look up IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) for more details :)

[@littlemy1773]

Sometimes I find them more harm than help, and often it’s easier to go to yt and hear a place or word be pronounced out loud 🤣

[@charlottehardy822]

I’ve spent my whole life living near Godmanchester and I have never heard it pronounced like that 😮 it’s on the radio a lot as well in traffic reports and always pronounced how it looks. Feeling a bit weirded out 😂

[@Whiteshirtloosetie]

I totally agree with you.

[@doctordeefer]

@@Whiteshirtloosetie Yep, I've never heard anyone call it Gumster!

[@Warspite1701]

spent 30 years in the fens, always been godmanchester and not gumster to me, but i HAVE heard it used that way once or twice.

[@geoffsmith1479]

The 'Gumster' pronunciation is an old fashioned way of saying it and has almost completely died out now, so I'm not sure if the guy in the video that JT watched was trolling or had been trolled.

[@OliverQueen1974]

Never heard it called “Gumster” by anybody including parish councillors, HDC councillors nor residents in excess of 100yrs old! Spent first 36 of my 49yrs in Huntingdon & never heard it call “Gumster” nor referred as such. Sounds like the guy got his info from Wikipedia & someone decided to troll people with pronunciation on there (not checked but wouldn’t surprise me). Just like Houghton, which is pronounced “How-Ton” or “Hoh-Ton” depending on their accent & where in the county they were born & bred as both as accepted. If it was called “Gumster” then it would have been way back in the 15/16th century of something like that where most places were pronounced in many ways.

[@Avaroe2025]

I'm being pedantic here, but Norwich is a city in Norfolk not a town 🤣. A part of Norwich is called Costessey... pronounced cossy. I think we pronounce things differently to the spelling so we can identify non locals 😁

[@zanecole421]

JT your face with Godmanchester cracked me up!! Excellent try. I'm British and tripped up on a few myself. Love your videos!

[@ticketyboo2456]

To properly pronounce Aberystwyth as a Welsh person would it's actually Aber-rust-wyth. Don't worry too much though as most locals say Aber.

[@derekmartin4523]

JT You have to remember these places are older than the USA and may well have been pronounced as spelt in the beginning but most of the people back then could not read so they have learnt through hearing it and as such it has changed over time, who knows in another 2000 years they nay pronounce it the way it is spelt

[@gemmabarnes]

And there's a St Ives in Cambridgeshire aswell

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

The symbols underneath are IPA (not the beer, but the International Phonetic Alphabet). Each symbol has a specific sound, so it's easy to explain words you want to pronounce if you know it. You did pretty well - and don't worry, I was born in the UK and there's still a lot of places that trip me up (I have to stop and think about how to say Billericay, Lewes, Yeading, or Keynsham - but I do know how to say the long Welsh name 🙂)

[@etiennedevignolles7538]

Try Belvoir!

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

@@etiennedevignolles7538 That one I know - like the Canadian animal!

[@etiennedevignolles7538]

@@jamesdignanmusic2765 I had to think a moment there what you meant, but YES you are 100% correct! I am impressed! 😄

[@jimbo6059]

The beer is better.

[@tomarmstrong5244]

The 'er' in Berkshire is was pronounced 'ar' in old and middle English, like 'clark' in the word clark, and the town Derby, pronounced Darby. It lingers in some dialects, or did until recently. My old Granda used to say 'shart, for shirt. The symbols below the word are a phonetic system.

[@Psym00]

Thanks, I'm now imagining somebody talking about wearing their shart

[@davidmacgregor5193]

In Scots, a shirt is a sark.

[@iamnotmydepression]

As a native English speaker, you did much better than alot of people, even we struggle to say some of these 😂

[@spareumbrella8477]

A good tip for "bury" is if it's at the end of a place name in England, like Shrewsbury, the 'bury' is pronounced 'brie' like the cheese. Looking at Warwickshire, a lot of second W's in place names are silent. So here in Warrington, there's a place called Winwick, but it's pronounced "Winnik", the second W is silent. With Derby, it's not just the place name, the Kentucky Derby for example to us, is the Kentucky 'Darby".

[@laguna3fase4]

I grew up in BERKSHIRE and went to college in Slough. I joined the RAF in Reading and when I left the RAF I lived in ShrewsBury.

[@AFCManUk]

With most English towns ending in 'Borough', it's a safe bet usually just to pronounce it 'Bruh'.

[@tomwilliams3965]

As a fluent Welsh speaker who moved to England for a couple of years (funnily enough to the town next to Welwyn), everyone I met made me pronounce llanfair-pg lmao

[@catherinehaywood7092]

I get that problem too. Moved to Worcestershire from Wales. Double Whammy there if I meet an American 😂😂😂😂

[@Klingon2468]

I wouldn't worry too much JT, I live in the UK and I have trouble pronouncing some of the place names. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@misschieflolz1301]

9:20 - LOL I'm sorry that look of dread was hilarious! Even though I don't speak welsh fluently, it's a hell of a lot easier when you've got the basic pronounciations down. Place names sound how they look, unlike a vast number of English places; I've had to learn some of them myself the hard way

[@Rosie6857]

Aberystwyth was wrong. The first "y" is a schwa but the second one is like a short "i". This is one of the few irregularities in Welsh pronunciation.

[@MichaelHill-we7vt]

dont worry JT, there's place names in the Uk I cant pronounce properly! How about this little lot.... Hawick(pronounced as HOYK) Berwick (Pronounced Berrick) Southwick(pronounced Suthick) Prestwick(pronounced Prestwick! yes, really!!) and Alnwick (pronounced Annick) Then there's Beaulieu (pronounced Bewley) Cosham, (pronounced Cosham) and Bosham(pronounced Bozzum) my particular favourite which is Towcester (and yes, it's actually pronounced Toaster!!) and then there is the place name that is officially regarded as the most mispronounced place name in the UK, which is Frome........and it's actually pronounced Froome.... see? it's easy, really.........

[@katehurstfamilyhistory]

You've just reminded me of when my parents told me about their honeymoon, which included a stop at a place I reckoned must have been spelt "Annoch". (They went to Scotland, so you can probably imagine why I thought it was spelt that way.) Took me ages to realise it was really Alnwick! The West Lancashire/Merseyside region is fun for misleading names - Ormskirk and Rufford are Ok, but then you've got Aughton (said "Orton", unlike the Aughton near Lancaster which I'm told is pronounced "Aff-ton"), Scarisbrick (pronounced "Skays-brick"), Maghull (pronounced "Muh-gull"), Kirkby ("Cur-bee"), Halsall ("Holl-soll") . . . and Skelmersdale, which is easy enough, but locally they call it "Skem"!. Near where I live, visitors often have trouble with Whalley (pronounced "wall-ee", but often misinterpreted as "wally").

[@TakenWithout]

“Can you mispronounce Frome for me?” “Portsmouth” “that’ll do”

[@MichaelHill-we7vt]

@@TakenWithout this is just brilliant! and I'm from Portsmouth( which is actually pronounced "Froome," by the way!!!!)

[@brentwoodbay]

Apparently, Godmanchester is pronounced by only a very small percentage of the older locals as 'Gumster'. The rest say it phonetically!

[@Steve14ps]

I've heard that myself, the older generation use Gumster

[@damonburn5273]

I've lived in Huntington for 17 years, the adjoining town to goddy. Everyone says phonetically.

[@franohmsford7548]

@@damonburn5273 17 years? and you spell Huntingdon wrong?

[@damonburn5273]

@@franohmsford7548 autocorrect did me dirty

[@barryroberts2196]

Be careful if you wish to visit St. Ives. There are two that I'm aware of. One in Cornwall & the other is in Cambridgeshire & they are miles apart.

[@cameronarkless]

ayyyy I'm from Durham. Great place to stop off if you visit UK. Links to Newcastle and a beautiful castle and cathedral

[@Forestgravy90]

Only old people call Godmanchester "Gumster" most people simply say it phonetically. Same with Cirencester

[@0x2A_]

I used to live near Godmanchester for about 7 or 8 years and this video is the first time I heard "Gumster" 😂 Used to get a cracking cooked sausage sandwich from a little butchers there every Saturday too :)

[@johnp8131]

Lived very close by for over forty years. Drank in pubs there, played darts against the locals and used the shops and restaurants. Never, ever heard it called "Gumpster" until very recently? I reckon it was some posh old bloke with a speech impediment or some foreigner from London couldn't understand the 'Fen boy' dialect?

[@OliverQueen1974]

Never heard it called Gumster by residents who are over 100yrs old & even they laugh when they see people like the video try to tell them how to pronounce the place they have lived for 100+ years! My mother spent first 21 years of her life in “God-Man-Chester” before moving over the bridge to Huntingdon just before I was born. Even her parents who were both over 100 when they passed away called it “God-Man-Chester” when “Gumster” would have been easier to pronounce especially if they didn’t have their false teeth in!😂

[@matthewoleary02]

​@0x2A Goddy is quite a common term for it but I've never once heard Gumster

[@vobchopper]

You're doing well JT a lot of us Brits get these wrong....try Slaithwaite.... it's in Yorkshire

[@helenswan705]

go on. tell us.

[@angrybob3594]

The English guy gives an estuary accent pronunciation, which is as strong as any other accent, we just hear it more often. Leicester is pronounced by a local as Less-sta. That is a very short 'a' sound btw

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

When I lived in Kent, some friends lived in the next town, called Meopham. Everyone I'd ever heard always called it 'Meppam', but I heard some old ladies talking one day and they kept saying 'Meffam' which makes sense if you've ever had to go to think about phonetics!

[@helenthompson5500]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video, I couldn’t stop laughing. Keep up the good work. Love to all xx

[@1949corek]

I was actually asked by Italian tourists when in Leicester if I knew the way the LuggaBarugga. I realised they meant Loughborough.

[@DjDolHaus86]

I once bumped into an Australian man at the station who asked if he was on the right platform for the train to Loogabarooga, I told him he was in the right place to catch the train to Loughborough. There is also a rather confusingly named place near where I live now called Launceston. Most people pronounce it as lawn-stun which is perfectly acceptable but locals call it lan-sun

[@terricox3559]

Loogabarooga😂 thanks for the longest laugh I've had in forever

[@moffman87]

"I'm not trying to offend anyone, I'm actually trying" 😂😂😂😂😂 story of my life. You did well though! Even if they don't admit, many people from UK would get at least one or two of these wrong.

[@Alex-zs7gw]

No no...we get it wrong. Our bad 🙋🏼‍♂️ Plus even worse - often when we get it wrong it's when were full on grown adults ...cuz it's just one of those things where it's like "...we assumed you knew..." Why?! I've never been to Bicester and their dumb-arse spelt world. I genuinely have never heard of Goodmanchester in my life.

[@damianpritchard1456]

there was a vote in Shrewsbury and even the locals came down to a 52%-48% split on how to pronounce the name

[@bbutc]

I lived in Shrewsbury for 12 years and for me the pronunciation came down to how 'posh' you thought you were. If wanted to pretend to be 'posh' then you pronounced the 'ew' as an 'O' - for everyone else it was 'Shrew', as in the animal. Now I live in Derby, pronounced 'dar'bee' lol.

[@dannyhiggins8508]

Watching you pronounce Leicester and Loughborough was brilliant, had me in stirches when you thought you were nailed on with Slough because of the Loughborough pronunciation! Great video, thoroughly enjoyed this watch JT! Keep up the great work, hope to see you over here in the UK at some point

[@judithwright9827]

That really entertained me....I think you did really well though! Definitely put a smile on my face! 😃

[@timberwolf5211]

Twydall, which is pronounced as Twiddle, is a local village, which is a part of Gillingham, which shouldn't be confused with Gillingham. As Gillingham is pronounced as in the girls name, rather than Gillingham that is pronounced as in the fish. Confused yet? 😈😉 Basically the first Gillingham is in Kent, and is pronounced Jill-ingham, and the other one, Gill-ingham is in Dorset. Apparently, whereas the other two are large towns, there is also a village in Norfolk also called Gill-ingham too.

[@nickhewitt320]

You want to have a go at certain Scottish place-names, like Milngavie and Culross! There are others.

[@Pattie444]

I was having a bad day until I watched this. You had my ribs aching laughing. Thank you lol

[@RoamingSoles]

Hey JT from Nottinghamshire here, been watching you for a long time. This channel I started the back end of last year doing walking tours of UK towns and cities, only got a couple on there so far but far more to come this year when the weather improves. Keep up the great works and thank you for inspiring me to become a creater ❤

[@Believer3_]

If a word has ham at the end, it almost always sounds like 'umm'.. so for Birmingham would be 'BirmingUMM'

[@LarkspeedNL]

The reason a lot of UK place names don't match their spelling is because most of them originate from old english, Leicester for example has been around since the first century BC and through the ages the name has been twisted. Also I used to live in South Wales, Pontarddulais to be specific, and while I was there I learned how to say Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch but that was about 25 years ago so I probably couldn't say it now.

[@Deecula]

I can say it. My gran was welsh and taught me how to say it.

[@samsoncooper1]

Aber in Welsh means the mouth of a river. So if you ever have a town name starting with Aber in Wales it will be on the coast, at the mouth of a river, in this case the river Ystwyth

[@ncross1857]

It probably comes from a language earlier than Welsh. There are similar named places in Scotland; Aberdeen, Aberfeldy and Aberdour to name some. It's a bit more confusing up here though, as you get some places inland with names starting 'Aber', which are usually situated at the mouth of a stream, where it meets another body of water.

[@richardwalklett1467]

Excellent Tbh I have not seen an American do that well with British pronunciation ever ! So well done. I actually live in the first name mention Bicester. Even brits call it Bi-chest-er when you do not know it

[@nikossolomou9507]

You did very well JT. The video was a strong 9 out of 10 for me and the English guy presenting it was very clear an accurate. I had no idea that GodManchester was pronounced that way. There are a couple more places that would have fitted well into this video: "Poughill" (a village on the outskirts of Bude, Cornwall) is pronounced "Pofful" and "Leominster" in Herefordshire is pronounced "Lemster". I'm English by the way.

[@yourjaguarlover]

You did pretty great! British place names are an absolute rabbit hole and while we are generally used to the oughs, shires and cesters there are so many town names which not even a Brit would guess right without the help of a local. Try this example - Barnoldswick -- -- -- -- Yes, it's Baa-lik, of course. Keep it up man!

[@karenashworth5743]

Or the nearby village Foulridge. ... tadah ! It's pronounced Foal rij !

[@gracerichards3920]

As someone who lives down the road from Godmanchester, that is not how it's pronounced! It is basically pronounced how it's spelt, although we tend to say God-MUN-chester rather than God-MAN-chester (and some locals will call it Goddy for short), but that's about the only difference. It's a small town in Cambridgeshire that unless you leave nearby (or are a big fan of your Roman history) you're unlikely to have heard of, so I was gobsmacked to see it turn up in this video (and with such a random pronounciaton attached!). Love the videos, you're definitely improving with your British pronunciations! The reason there are lots of unusual ways of pronouncing places names in the UK is down to the impact of different invading forces over time, and the languages they brought with them, so you have combination of Celtic, old English / Saxon, Norman, and Danish place names all scattered amongst each other, each with their own rules of pronunciation. If it helps, I've had people not know how to pronounce my hometown of St Neots, and they're British! (Psst, we say Sunt Nee-uts!)

[@littlemy1773]

Why do so many videos on yt tell us all to say it Gumster then, are they winding us all up lol?! So that way you know who’s a local 😂

[@matthewoleary02]

Yep, Goddy's a nice little place but most people will never have a reason to go there

[@alanrobinson-orr8748]

Gloucester Cathedral was also used for filming scenes from Doctor Who when we were introduced to Ruth-Doctor

[@stevebrown1974]

And also the Christmas special The Next Doctor with David Morrissey

[@wenglishsal]

Well done JT, you did really well young sir. As to 'havin' a go' at Llan Fair PG, you always make me chuckle. The Presenter didn't do a bad job either.. ;) There are some great posts on here, on how to say Llan Fair PG, and even a cheeky lil song too. Good luck young 'un. Best and heartiest wishes from WALES :D

[@stevieduggan1763]

Are you ready JT? The longest place name in New Zealand is: TAUMATAWHAKATANGIHANGAKOAUAUOTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKIMAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITANATAHU. Good luck, mate lol. 🇬🇧🇺🇸💜

[@oddpoppetesq.3467]

Even my brain fried on that name and I used to live in LlanFair PG for a while so have no issue with that one 😂 New Zealanders on to a winner there for best tongue twister of a name 😉😂

[@AndrewwarrenAndrew]

think it means " winning Scrabble score".

[@RoamingSoles]

Oh my 😂

[@seancunningham4462]

@@AndrewwarrenAndrew no it means “technology automation levels intelligent book reading materials” …. i just pressed translate 😂

[@roecatgaming]

​@@seancunningham4462 can't believe Google translate failed that bad

[@toadcoma3114]

8:16 I can't stop laughing🤣 Bro really said "reading" like the verb

[@johnhockenhull2819]

Surprised that Cholmondeley didn’t get a mention as the Marquess of Cholmondeley is the monarch’s equerry. Cholmondeley is prounounced Chumley.

[@ScottishScott2024]

Hilarious attempts JT. You need to do a Scottish version of this cos I want to hear you say Ecclefechan, Auchenshuggle, Ae Village, Hawick, Lochgilphead, Pitlochry, Drumnadrochit & Achiltibuie. Good luck with those mucker lol

[@bojo88]

You should do a video reading Irish names. I have Irish neighbours and I still can't spell the individual family members names. They generally look nothing like they are said at all! 😂

[@maitiug]

Love your content man!

[@Jamie_D]

The Godmanchester not being said like the place Manchester reminds me of your Arkansas being said totally different to Kansas.

[@johnp8131]

I don't know where that comes from? I've lived within 10 miles of Godmanchester and in 40 odd years nobody has ever said it that way?

[@Jamie_D]

@@johnp8131 Google, not my own knowledge :) Godmanchester's name comes from its later position in the Anglo-Saxon period as Godmundceaster, meaning "Godmund's town", the word ceaster being particularly associated with old Roman places

[@matthewoleary02]

​@@johnp8131 Yep, it's definitely said the way it's written

[@johnp8131]

I live 10 miles from Godmanchester and in the last 40 years absolutely no one says or said "Gumpster", must have come from some posh person with a speech impediment? The local Cambridge paper did the local pronunciation recently and it's, "God·muhn·cheh·stuh". BTW, The big St Ives in Cambridgeshire, not the little seaside one, is even closer to me. It is pronounced the same way but, more Americans would know my local one, due to the thousands of USAF personnel that have lived and worked nearby over the decades. Plenty choose to stay here in the area too.

[@brentwoodbay]

Well done JT, and also more importantly, with Aberystwyth , recognising that Welsh is almost totally phonetic! No silent letters and letters always pronounced the same way! Yes, there are some sounds that simply do not exist in English, like 'CH' and 'LL' .

[@laguna3fase4]

The word can be broken down into separate syllables. ABER means mouth of a river and ystwyth is the name of the river. So put them together means the town that is at the mouth of the river ystwyth. Other examples are Aberdaron, Aberdovey. Sometimes English names for towns are nothing like the Welsh name. Abermawe (meaning the town on the estuary of the river Mawedach in English is Barmouth. Now work that one out ?

[@brentwoodbay]

@@laguna3fase4 And the English for Abertawe is Swansea!

[@fuckdefed]

@@brentwoodbay I’ve gone to Swansea a few times as my sister’s a student there and it’s a pleasant place with the scenic Gower nearby. Isn’t ‘Aberystwyth’ technically said as ‘Abu-rust-with’ not ‘Abu-rist-with’ though? I must admit I do have a habit of mispronouncing it in the standard English manner though (like we do for ‘Aberaeron’ and ‘Bangor’).

[@brentwoodbay]

@@fuckdefed I'm a non Welsh speaking Welsh, but I have always said it as the latter? Not sure how else to say Bangor. However I recently realised that when I say Welsh place names or the 50-60 Welsh words that I know, I become 'rhotic' I pronounce all my R's , and with a slight trill!

[@fuckdefed]

@@brentwoodbay I say ‘Abu-rare-on’ and ‘Ban-guh’ rather than ‘Abu-rrrray-rrrron’ and ‘Ban-gahrrrr’. That’s how it’s always sung in the old music hall song “Didn’t we have a lovely day, the day we went to Bangor?”, though I’m sure most Welsh people would disapprove of that version!

[@johnnyW1966]

I live in Gillingham in Kent. Our town is pronounced JILL ingham, as in Jack and Jill, where as Gillingham in Dorset is pronounced GILL ingham, as in the things fish breathe through. Also, a few miles up the road from here is a village called Trottiscliffe, which is actually pronounced TROSS-LEE.

[@richardfurness7556]

On the Fairbourne Railway in Wales there was a station called Gorsafawddachaidraigodanheddogleddollonpenrhynareurdraethceredigion. It's now called Golf Halt.

[@sentineluk7]

Not bad, these are tough names if you don't know the rules around the sounds in the names. As a general rule "-cester" is generally said "-ster" (except for Cirencester, where the full word is said, "siren-sester"). The long Welsh town name is generally just known as "LlanfairPG" (the name was changed to this as a publicity stunt to get tourists - not much to the place except for the long name)

[@SteelValkyrie202]

I've read Cirencester can also be pronounced as SISiter(?)

[@sentineluk7]

@@SteelValkyrie202 depends on your accent, those with more of a "Twang" to their accent (like those in the west country or in more rural areas), would probably pronounce it closer to "Soiren-Sister" but it doesn't matter too much as long as you give it a good go and get your point across. My accent is more South East/Estuary English (think David Tennant's Doctor Who), I say "Siren-Sester", this tends to be the more dominant version as the South East has a disproportionate level of exposure in media. Really there's no "wrong" answer, just be nice about it, be polite and friendly to the locals - don't try to stress over it too much! 🙂

[@JamieAubrey]

I need to see you do this with Scottish town names, this will really mess with your head, for example: Milngavie, you might say Mil-n-gav-eh but it's Mill-guy and this is one of the easier ones

[@briantrevethick3344]

Getting better mate love the channel

[@bettinakluge4215]

Can't believe Belvoir Castle (bee·vuh kaa·sl = Beaver Castle) or Leominster (lem·stuh = Lemster) weren't on the list

[@jonathanshott6571]

If you want to try some basic Welsh, the channel 'Welsh Plus - Learn Welsh With Us' has an excellent playlist entitled 'Welsh Pronunciation - All the basics you need'. The first three videos together total 10 minutes and will teach you about the Welsh alphabet as well as how to pronounce the Welsh vowels. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Could make for a fun video! 😛

[@SarthorS]

Joke: An Australian arrived in London and got in a taxi. He asked to go to Looguh Barooguh. "Where was that mate?" the taxi driver asked? "Looguh Barooguh". The driver thought for a few seconds and said "Oh, you mean Loughborough".

[@hoppinonabronzeleg9477]

Well done JT You had a go and a laugh! 3.8K you have to learn it now JT!

[@steamedjams1633]

Welsh is a lot easier to read than English people give it credit for! It's (disclaimer: afaik) phonetic, so once you learn how ch, dd, ll, and the vowels are pronounced, you can pronounce anything!

[@Steve14ps]

Hence Breidden being pronounced Bry-then and not Bry-den

[@McCadebountyhunter]

Well done for trying! To be honest, there’s lots of places in the UK that we brits can’t even pronounce. There’s a village near me and it’s spelled Southwick. One time I was there I pronounced it exactly how you would read it. I thought the locals were going to come after me with pitchforks! Apparently it’s pronounced Suthick! Who knew!😂

[@lillybell2068]

Do u mean the one near brighton because that one is said south wick and its southwick😭

[@lillybell2068]

like even on the southern rail intercom jts southwick

[@McCadebountyhunter]

@@lillybell2068 Hi, no it’s in Northamptonshire. About 8 miles from Corby!

[@lillybell2068]

@@McCadebountyhunter ohh talking about diff southwicks , my bad! Sorry lol but thats funny thats its spelt the same but said differently lol, maybe is a northern accent vs southern accent thing lmao

[@damianmchugh7284]

Brilliant! Cheers JT

[@grahamross6397]

Absolutely nailed the long Welsh one, as always, JT.

[@emmahowells8334]

Other Welsh place names, Llanelli, Gower, Gorseinon, Powys, Pontypridd, pontardulais, so the long place name is the hardest for a lot of Welsh born people lol. Aberystwyth not bad pronunciation JT.👌🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The English alphabet has 26 letters, but the welsh alphabet has 29, plus in the Welsh alphabet we won't have Z at the end like the English one does.

[@hdg2526]

we also don't have k, x or q in the welsh alphabet 🤭

[@emmahowells8334]

@@hdg2526 Indeed we don't ☺️

[@lynjago6022]

Cool to see a couple of Cornish place names in the list! St Ives is a fabulous place to visit, very picturesque. Also I'll always remember, some years back, being asked for directions to "Tinterjell"! It took me a minute to realise that where they wanted to go was Tintagel! (north Cornwall coast with apparent associations with King Arthur) 🤣

[@vacuumssuck26]

My all time favourites have to be Rochè (like its on the French riviera and not deep in clay Country), Buggle and Buddy

[@lynjago6022]

@@vacuumssuck26 don't you mean Bugle? And Buddy? I have no idea where you are talking about! Roche I do know however.

[@littlelilly93]

You’re doing great pretty well JT!

[@deantuzzio3411]

Very good video There’s a few more Places I can think of that are tricky to pronounce Leominster - LEMSTER Marylebone- MARLIBARN Dumfries- DUMFREES Carlisle- CARLILE

[@katrinamcdonald2724]

JT you did really well, some British people have difficulties with our place names

[@alfiestewart6312]

The mouth suffix has a few exceptions. Up here in Northumberland we have Tynemouth (pronounced Tyne Mouth not Tynemuf), Alnmouth (pronounced Aln Mouth not Alnmuf) and Tweedmouth (pronounced Tweed Mouth not Tweedmuf).

[@AnneDowson-vp8lg]

My father came from the North East and it took me a long time to get him to say Pli muth not Ply mouth!

[@alfiestewart6312]

@AnneDowson-vp8lg On the weathermap after the News I used to always say Ply-mouth instead of Pli-muth

[@EportChris]

Llanfair Pg is a lovely part of Anglesey. Was there today for bank holiday Monday walking 😁

[@user-ob2oo8gx4s]

Well done JT. A good effort. I went to a car show in Detroit a few years back whilst wearing a Welsh flagged T shirt. The wife and I got talking to a nice mature group of Americans, suddenly one guy pointed at my T shirt and announced to everyone " hey, that's the flag of that place with the real long name" To which I replied "what, Wales". " no man it's got a town in Wales, with real long name, can you say it ??. Ah, you mean...... Lets just say I walked away with a good memory and a free T shirt.

[@michaelkitson8594]

this guys is not always pronouncing names correctly it’s his version

[@jamespasifull3424]

St Ives is also a small market town, a few miles west of Cambridge! Lovely river front too!

[@catherinesmalley8587]

Haha! Try this one which is a place near me - Penistone! 😂 Thankfully it's actually pronounced Pennyston but it makes me laugh whenever I think about it. 😀

[@vladimirulyanov7855]

This was fun for me to watch because I'm from Reading in Berkshire which is very close to Slough and one of my primary school teachers was from Aberystwyth - btw the pronunciation is spot on for that

[@toxicsoup_]

The town I grew up in is called Wisbech. People often pronounce it wiz-bet-ch, but it's actually wiz-beach (or wiz-bij if you're talking to a small group of residents)

[@zuzu8345]

Gloucester and Reading actually exists in mass so i already knew how to pronounce it. A lot of the town names comes from the UK so some of these weren't all that surprising in pronunciation.