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The tricky pronunciation some of London Tube stations, places

zmodyfikowany: 5 lat temu
Leicester Square: Any native knows this is pronounced 'Less-ter', but that complex run of vowels commonly stumps visitors.

Theydon Bois: A bit of a teaser, even for locals. The consensus seems to be 'Theydon Boyce' (or Boyz), given credence by Tube stop announcements. But we've found several reports of bus drivers pronouncing it as Theydon Boy. Most definitely, it's not Theydon Bwahh.

Hainault: On the Central Line, it seems that pronouncing words the French way is passé. A few stops round from Theydon Bois, we find Hainault, which is enunciated as Hay-nolt rather than the Gallic 'ay-no.

Cadogan Square/Hall: The Cadogan name is all over the Sloane Square area, named after a Georgian noble whose family still own much of the land thereabouts. It should be pronounced as Ca-duggan, not Cad-ogan.

Holborn: A perennial puzzler, Holborn is best pronounced using as few letters as possible – o'b'n rather than Hole-born. Ho-bun is probably the commonest form among locals.

Marylebone: As with Holborn, using fewer letters gets you nearer to the local pronunciation (up to a point). Mar'l'bun is a good start. Marry-lebone seems commonplace. Mary-le-bone is the tourist's choice, and close to the historical roots in St Mary-le-Bourne church.

Homerton: The Simpsons fans might be tempted towards Homer-tun, but the correct form is more like Hommer-tun.

The Mall: Potentially confusing for North American visitors, who may be expecting a shopping centre. The 'a' is short, making the word rhyme with 'pal'. And, as it happens, the name was borrowed from the neighbouring Pall Mall.

Rotherhithe: This had never struck us as particularly tricky, until one (anonymous) Londonist contributor admitted: "This probably marks me out as a moron, but I was convinced Rotherhithe was pronounced Rotherhither when I first moved to London. If we were in Germany, I'd totally have been right."

Greenwich/Southwark/Woolwich/Chiswick: The 'silent W' is a common peril for non-natives. The phenomenon tends to crop up in names of Anglo Saxon origin. If you see a W in the middle of a place name, just ignore it (hence Gren-itch, suth-urk, Wool-itch and Chis-ick). It's only a rule of thumb, though. Don't try it with Holloway or Queensway.

Tottenham: Most Londoners probably say something like Tott-num. The name was most famously mangled by former Spurs midfielder Osvaldo 'Ossie' Ardiles, who rolled it out to 'Tottingham'

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Those are definitely great examples of confusing pronunciation in English. This is not unique to British words, though. In the U.S. there are many confusing names too. One of them seems to be really interesting and has a lot to do with the history of the country. Non-native speakers, including myself, very often mispronounce the name of the state — Arkansas. We know how to pronounce "Kansas". It's easy, right? We say /kænzəs/ and /Kanzas/ in Polish.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/kansas

Since "Arkansas" looks almost the same as "Kansas", we might think that, naturally, it sounds like /ɑrkænzəs/ or /Arkanzas/ with the stress on the second syllable. Guess what! It's totally wrong. The correct pronunciation is /ɑrkənsɑː/, almost like arkan - saw, stressed on the first syllable. The Polish equivalent would be /Arkensaa/ but, obviously, no one in Poland actually says that.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/arkansas

Both names refer to a Native American tribe called Kanza, Kansa or Kaw. Why is there a difference then? It's because the state of Arkansas was explored by French settlers. They used a French word to name the tribe. People living in Arkansas support their French heritage and stick to the original pronunciation. Kansas, on the other hand, follows standard American pronunciation, hence, we can hear the last "s".

Learn more:
https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/why-arkansas-is-never-pronounced-ar-kansas.htm
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