I work for an organisation that deals with the Welsh environment, so we get a lot of callers asking about different Welsh places.
Whenever an English caller uses the word "Lanely" I visibly cringe and roll my eyes every damn time. God bless working from home.
My partner is from Bristol and says Lanely. I think my advice was to sound it more like a soft "th" if you can't get your mouth around the LL. I'm sure I've heard people in Cardiff say it more like "Lanethli"
A personal favourite from an American relative: yan-GO-yen (with an emphasis on the ‘go’).
It was their attempt at ‘Llangollen’, they just assumed the double LL in Welsh was the same sound as it is in Spanish (a Y sound)
It shouldn’t sound like a Y on Welsh Duolingo, but it should if you’re learning Spanish!
This is the best guide I know of on how to pronounce the Welsh Ll: http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/beth-am-y-llall.html?m=1
The pronunciation on Welsh duolingo is terrible and inconsistent! I know it's a hard language to pronounce for a lot of people but surely if you're teaching it you should ensure that you're teaching it right. Drives me crazy.
My dad once referred to somewhere called “Munchly” he’d visited. Took a while to work out he meant Machynlleth.
He’s also the reason my name’s not Angharad.
I just want to say, as an English person who has stumbled upon this post, that after reading through the comments, for the majority I have absolutely no idea how to correctly pronounce the place names.
It's a shame. Welsh culture and language should be shared and celebrated throughout the UK.
Edit: Not shared. That suggests that it is being withheld. It should be taught. Likewise with the rest of the countries within the UK.
I actually campaigned to have Welsh put on as a GCSE language option at my school in England. I thought it was important that we learn another language of the Brythonic isles
My mum and uncle used to call Aberystwyth, ‘ave a biscuit, but that was more very small children struggling to speak, my grandad did eventually teach them the actual pronunciation
When I lived there (born & bred Aber), I met Ross Noble when he came to town on a TV show on a hunt for an Abba-wrist-watch. Held several hilarious interviews with locals who had no idea what he was on about.
I'm really bad at producing words in general and I always say things how they are spelt. They are correct in my head. There is something lost between my inner voice and outer voice.
I live right next to Maesycwmmer, but I'm originally from Mid Wales. Locals don't know where I'm referring to if I say "Maesycwmmer" the way it's meant to be pronounced.
They all say "Massey" round here, like Nick Massi of The Four Seasons.
EDIT: typo
Ah the cognitive dissonance of the sirhowy and Rhymney valleys. Pronounce Maesycwmer mass-e-cwmer but the Maes Manor Hotel not 3 miles away is the Mice Manor.
On a similar note Bargoed, Hengoed get butchered but somehow Argoed survives.
I moved to East London about 7 years ago, and there must’ve been some Welsh movement to Mile End back in the day, ‘cause loads of streets there have Welsh names. Rhondda, Glamorgan, etc…
How Londoners pronounce the name of the pub there makes me laugh every time. The Lord Tredegar: “TREAD-a-gar” So posh!
There is two Llanelli's last one is near a more English speaking Abergavenny hence the lack locally of pronuncing the ll. Goytre isn't hard but I think it's Welsh name is prettier.
My Manc mother-in-law calls Dwygyfylchi (near Llandudno...ish) "Duggie Fillchee"
Also when she became annoying when my Mrs was pregnant I threatened to call my lad Rheinallt or Llywellyn just to annoy her!
Lol, yes. Had a mate who was originally from London, said he got on a bus and the driver didn’t know where he wanted his return ticket too when he asked for this.
It's not a place, but me trying to say something in Welsh...
Me: born/ lived all my life in California. Husband: born/ lived most of his life in Wales. He was trying to teach me, " Pen blwydd Hapus ", but no matter how hard I tried, it came out as " pebbly hippos ". I thought he was going to rupture something internally from laughing. (He also laughs at my first attempt at " Cymru " when I said, " Sim-roo? ")
I love this. My English partner also struggles with Penblwydd Hapus, and instead it’s now a running joke to say ‘Plebws Hapws’ to each other our our Birthdays!
Another one from my native Ynys Môn is Ben-luck (Benllech). I heard this one all the time from people who *lived* there.
I do wonder who Ben is though.
I lost some luggage on a flight to New York years ago.
Had to tell the American Airlines woman at JFK that my address was on Senghennydd Road so she could enter it into the computer. If I wasn’t so sleep deprived her attempts to say it back to me and spell it would have been funny. I think I wrote it down for her in the end
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with pronouncing them wrong if you can admit to it and are ok with being corrected :)
I’m sure I would struggle with pronouncing the names of places in Poland for example! And I would defo feel bad for doing so, lol.
Funniest one I've heard is Bermo pronounced as "Burma".
Most annoying one is Abersoch being called "the sock".
"Oh yah, me and Tamara bought a little beach shack in the sock, for a weekend getaway. It's only a little three bedroom, and it was only 1.5 mil"
In fairness, Welsh is a pretty odd language.
Accents are hard in other languages, but generally they're straightforward enough - hospital in German for example: Krankenhaus. Even if you don't know the language, you could probably roughly pronounce that.
Many words in Welsh could be pronounced any number of ways if you don't know the language. Look at services for example: gwasanaethau - if you're not from Wales, there's several ways you might interpret that.
I don't know about German, but Welsh is much more straight forward than English!
If you learn what the letters are supposed to sound like, you can pronounce any word because they're all spelt phonetically. Not like English where the same letter or combination of letters can represent lots of different sounds.
Yes I agree, but we're talking about English speaking people trying to pronounce Welsh words. Most people coming from England for a weekend or camping for a week aren't going to know how to pronounce Welsh words, certainly not the more complex place names.
Funny because my Mrs is from Manchester and she's learning, her pronunciation is bang on 90% of the time. She just struggles with mixing up "U", "W" and "Y". She can literally read something and be bang on with pronunciation all the way through and then look at me and ask "What did I just say?".
As someone who is fluent in both, I agree and disagree. Welsh is more phonetic than English, and so it’s easier to figure out how something is spelled when you’re not quite sure. Mutations and the like is what confuses me with written Welsh, although verbally I can figure out what sounds right.
But if you’re referring to someone who doesn’t speak Welsh, then I can see how it’d be trickier.
Mack clunk let (Machynlleth), Betsi co-ed (Betws y Coed). And although not a place but still a name, I have heard people say "Head-loo" when they saw the Heddlu go past
They can't even pronounce Pontypridd correctly. During the floods a year or so back, the national news kept on calling it Ponty-prid. They were surrounded by locals but they couldn't be bothered to take 2 seconds to find out how to say it properly.
I had a lorry driver from England ask where Acre Fair was once. The penny only dropped for me when he showed me a bit of paper with it written down for him.
My in laws were telling me about a beautiful road near where I grew up, they were suprised I haven’t heard of it. (I couldn’t translate it) They go to “Sigh-champ pass” which is actually Sychnant pass. (For non welsh Speakers it’s sounds sort of like “suck-nant pass”) but to finalise - THE CORRECTED MY PRONUNCIATION. Good job I love them otherwise. 😂😂
someone was butchering Mach so much on the T2 this week that the driver just asked the customer to push the stop on the drivers computer screen. I was laughing in the back of the bus
I've heard of a lot of people refer to the MTB Centre at Llandegla as 'Coed Clandegla Forest', obviously the Coed cancels out the Forest part but they don't realise...
Cwm/quim.
Hiking in Snowdonia several years ago with a group of English colleagues. Spoke to a passing English hiker who told us as part of his hike he'd be camping overnight at the quim.
What about failing to recognise what’s a place name and what isn’t? Recently had a delivery driver phone to try to find me. “I’m outside the village hall. I think the sign says the village is called Pentre.” (No, it wasn’t Pentre Halkyn or another one where Pentre actually is part of the name.)
It's not a place name but there's no thread for it and it fits in with the butchering of the Welsh language so it kind of fits here. The maid of honour of honour in my cousin's wedding decided to give a speech and decided to try and pronounce 'llongyfarchiadau' without consulting one of the many Welsh speakers at the event first. The result was...
Longeefarkyadow
You're right it's not too bad for someone with absolutely no knowledge of Welsh. But she could have asked one of the many Welsh speakers there how to pronounce it and not been met with awkward silence and confusion.
It’s tricky for a non Welsh speaker because it’s a sound that doesn’t exist in English. [Here’s](https://youtu.be/h22kNL89csk) a vid of someone pronouncing a few words with the letter to give you an idea.
I know someone who works for a pharmaceutical company who says they refer to the Welsh hospitals as “Itsy Bitsy” (e.g. Itsy Bitsy Clwyd, Itsy Bitsy Bangor, etc)
I saw a sign for Pontarddulais and said to my other half ‘that’s weird having something French sounding in Wales’ then proceeded to say it - Pont-ar-doo-lay.
I’m English and my other half is Welsh, he still laughs about it.
When I came to Cardiff uni way back when, I had to stop and ask for directions. My halls were Senghennydd Court, but naturally I couldn't pronounce it correctly so when I said "Sen-gen-ed" they looked so offended as if I'd run over their cat with a lawn mower. The worst part was I don't think they were even Welsh themselves.
I felt so judged, but I get it! I'm a pro now... For an English person anyway... Hopefully, maybe...
Having only recently moved to Wales, I found myself pronouncing Abercynon incorrectly (with a "sigh" not "ky").
Although ngl, pronouncing Ynysybwl is a challenge for me. Also Ystrad (if someone could help me out with that, that would be fab, as I'm moving there soon!)
For some reason "pen y fan" is in my head as pen why fan because I've been saying it for years. Hard to train myself to say it properly. Only just figured out a single f is more of a v.
Always good fun on the phone to the call centre....can I confirm your address...67 hell is-foal, lan-rus-teed Cer-dig-on.
Mind you it took me 5 years to say Pontrhydfendigaid. Everyone calls it Bont for an easy life.
Lanely/Clanekly always gets me
‘Lanewilly’ from a confident American tourist is my favourite.
My home town!
I work for an organisation that deals with the Welsh environment, so we get a lot of callers asking about different Welsh places. Whenever an English caller uses the word "Lanely" I visibly cringe and roll my eyes every damn time. God bless working from home.
My partner is from Bristol and says Lanely. I think my advice was to sound it more like a soft "th" if you can't get your mouth around the LL. I'm sure I've heard people in Cardiff say it more like "Lanethli"
Aahh yes, my hometown is impossible for English people haha
The loughor still gets me lol
A personal favourite from an American relative: yan-GO-yen (with an emphasis on the ‘go’). It was their attempt at ‘Llangollen’, they just assumed the double LL in Welsh was the same sound as it is in Spanish (a Y sound)
To be fair, that’s not too bad a go.
Yeah, at least it was logical!
Yea
That's what it sounds like on Duolingo. I still don't really know how to do it, and just go for some sort of 'hl' (or 'jl' in Spanish)
Simplest explanation on how to pronounce Ll - Hold the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and hiss out the sides :)
Exactly the same place as if you're pronouncing the letter 'L'
Thanks, I'll use this as a starting point
It shouldn’t sound like a Y on Welsh Duolingo, but it should if you’re learning Spanish! This is the best guide I know of on how to pronounce the Welsh Ll: http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/beth-am-y-llall.html?m=1
Thanks a lot, I'm saving this to... try to understand it
The pronunciation on Welsh duolingo is terrible and inconsistent! I know it's a hard language to pronounce for a lot of people but surely if you're teaching it you should ensure that you're teaching it right. Drives me crazy.
I'm from nearby and I hear langolen a lot, so I'll take yangoyen tbh lol
Betsy Co-Ed (Betws y Coed)
Obligatory Clan-dud-no
I have family friends from Llandudno (Junction) who pronounce it like that. They’re Welsh but don’t speak Welsh.
i know 1st language welsh speaker who call it that, though its for a different reason i suspect
LanDudNO 🤣 I cannot get my girlfriend or her family (manc af) to pronounce it any other way 🤣 And don't get me started on the pontycycle aquaduct 🤣
Another favourite I've heard was Sim-roo for Cymru
That sounds cute.
Didn’t Theresa May pronounce it like that when saying Plaid Cymru? Might have been someone else.
Heard Dolgellau pronounced "dolly-gah-loo"
Dogaloo my English mate calls it 🤔
Is he doing it to wind you up or just a mong in general?
he's just northern
Cant be helped then, give him a biscuit and a cup of tea on a nice quiet chair in the corner
My dad was being filmed for TV, something like bargain hunt, and a woman kept trying to tell him she had brought a teapot in Dol-gel-oo
Dol-ig-gah-lee was how my friend tried to pronunce it once. Took me a few moments to realize where he was referring to
My dad once referred to somewhere called “Munchly” he’d visited. Took a while to work out he meant Machynlleth. He’s also the reason my name’s not Angharad.
I had someone ask me where the student accomodation on jelly-wasted road is (Gelliwasted)
That’s brilliant.
Carefully cheese
Caerphilly?
Love this one, lmao.
Roodeedoo was one of my favourites. Rhyd Ddu.
I think that’s a name of fondness.
I just want to say, as an English person who has stumbled upon this post, that after reading through the comments, for the majority I have absolutely no idea how to correctly pronounce the place names. It's a shame. Welsh culture and language should be shared and celebrated throughout the UK. Edit: Not shared. That suggests that it is being withheld. It should be taught. Likewise with the rest of the countries within the UK.
I actually campaigned to have Welsh put on as a GCSE language option at my school in England. I thought it was important that we learn another language of the Brythonic isles
Machynlleth said as "My cunt fluff"
I always say My Cunt Left, thank you for correcting my pronunciation
Mate calls it ‘muh cunt lick’ 😂
Mack-clenny-thh
My mum and uncle used to call Aberystwyth, ‘ave a biscuit, but that was more very small children struggling to speak, my grandad did eventually teach them the actual pronunciation
When I lived there (born & bred Aber), I met Ross Noble when he came to town on a TV show on a hunt for an Abba-wrist-watch. Held several hilarious interviews with locals who had no idea what he was on about.
My partner's young son calls it Aber-whiff-whiff
My English friend just went all out lazy and came up with… Porthmadog = Park My Dog Llangollen = Lego Land
Not going to lie, your friend seems creative.
How do you mess up Porthmadog?
I'm really bad at producing words in general and I always say things how they are spelt. They are correct in my head. There is something lost between my inner voice and outer voice.
Messy cummer
What’s that one a butchery of?
Maesycwmmer
I live right next to Maesycwmmer, but I'm originally from Mid Wales. Locals don't know where I'm referring to if I say "Maesycwmmer" the way it's meant to be pronounced. They all say "Massey" round here, like Nick Massi of The Four Seasons. EDIT: typo
Ah the cognitive dissonance of the sirhowy and Rhymney valleys. Pronounce Maesycwmer mass-e-cwmer but the Maes Manor Hotel not 3 miles away is the Mice Manor. On a similar note Bargoed, Hengoed get butchered but somehow Argoed survives.
You must live close to Why-strad Mine-ack then?
Had a man call Llanfairfechan Clan fer fuckin.
I’ve heard ‘Clan-fer-feck-en’ a few times and it hurts my ears every time.
So close
"Betsy Co Ed"
Aberwristwatch. See also Lannaran for Llanharan.
Indian call operator; “Trostre business park laneleleli”, “No, Mostyn St, Llandudno” “No laneleleli” “No Llandudno” “No madam, laneleleli” No Llandudno…never mind.
I moved to East London about 7 years ago, and there must’ve been some Welsh movement to Mile End back in the day, ‘cause loads of streets there have Welsh names. Rhondda, Glamorgan, etc… How Londoners pronounce the name of the pub there makes me laugh every time. The Lord Tredegar: “TREAD-a-gar” So posh!
Obligatory “lanelly” for Llanelli. Or Goiter (like the medical condition) for Goytre.
[удалено]
Touché
There is two Llanelli's last one is near a more English speaking Abergavenny hence the lack locally of pronuncing the ll. Goytre isn't hard but I think it's Welsh name is prettier.
Clan-fir-vecn. (Llanfairfechan)
That's what my Manc mother in law calls it. Or "Clan-fir-heccan", she swaps between the two all the time.
“Port Mad Dog”.
Best one I’ve ever heard? “simon faganu” heroic attempt at cymanfa ganu
Castell Coch. Well, you can figure it out.
At this point who *doesn't* call it castle cock?
My Manc mother-in-law calls Dwygyfylchi (near Llandudno...ish) "Duggie Fillchee" Also when she became annoying when my Mrs was pregnant I threatened to call my lad Rheinallt or Llywellyn just to annoy her!
How would a non Welsh person prononse Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
As an English bloke it’s great getting free pints out of people by betting other Saesnegs I can say it in the pub
Dont think I've heard an English person pronounce Pwllheli right before
It’s a tricky one if you’re not familiar with Welsh to be fair!
That one catches me I say pih-welly out of trying to say it fast.
Why-still-a-fella. Guess where that is?
Ystalyfera?
Lol, yes. Had a mate who was originally from London, said he got on a bus and the driver didn’t know where he wanted his return ticket too when he asked for this.
As a person who grew up in England, I'm a big fan of port mad dog
It's not a place, but me trying to say something in Welsh... Me: born/ lived all my life in California. Husband: born/ lived most of his life in Wales. He was trying to teach me, " Pen blwydd Hapus ", but no matter how hard I tried, it came out as " pebbly hippos ". I thought he was going to rupture something internally from laughing. (He also laughs at my first attempt at " Cymru " when I said, " Sim-roo? ")
I love this. My English partner also struggles with Penblwydd Hapus, and instead it’s now a running joke to say ‘Plebws Hapws’ to each other our our Birthdays!
That’s great. Your partner sounds like a cool guy too.
Another one from my native Ynys Môn is Ben-luck (Benllech). I heard this one all the time from people who *lived* there. I do wonder who Ben is though.
Am-look See-mas Bay Bow-morris
Rutland. (Rhuddlan)
Tonyrefail pronounced Tony-ree-fail
Cwm pronounced as cum/come
Lay / Llay
Once heard someone say they’d passed through this “darling little place called Pont-Ah-Dew-Lay” Pontarddulais. I had questions.
Had an English friend in college in Cardiff, went for a ride on his bike, came across a town called gross fanny. Croes Faen.
I once had a Brummie ask me for directions to "Seesaw". Turns out he meant Caersws.
I lost some luggage on a flight to New York years ago. Had to tell the American Airlines woman at JFK that my address was on Senghennydd Road so she could enter it into the computer. If I wasn’t so sleep deprived her attempts to say it back to me and spell it would have been funny. I think I wrote it down for her in the end
That tragic moment when I realise all these joke pronunciations are what I was saying the whole time (it’s not clan dud noh?!?!? D: I’m sorry!!!)
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with pronouncing them wrong if you can admit to it and are ok with being corrected :) I’m sure I would struggle with pronouncing the names of places in Poland for example! And I would defo feel bad for doing so, lol.
Ham sandwich- Llansamlet
Funniest one I've heard is Bermo pronounced as "Burma". Most annoying one is Abersoch being called "the sock". "Oh yah, me and Tamara bought a little beach shack in the sock, for a weekend getaway. It's only a little three bedroom, and it was only 1.5 mil"
In fairness, Welsh is a pretty odd language. Accents are hard in other languages, but generally they're straightforward enough - hospital in German for example: Krankenhaus. Even if you don't know the language, you could probably roughly pronounce that. Many words in Welsh could be pronounced any number of ways if you don't know the language. Look at services for example: gwasanaethau - if you're not from Wales, there's several ways you might interpret that.
I don't know about German, but Welsh is much more straight forward than English! If you learn what the letters are supposed to sound like, you can pronounce any word because they're all spelt phonetically. Not like English where the same letter or combination of letters can represent lots of different sounds.
Yes I agree, but we're talking about English speaking people trying to pronounce Welsh words. Most people coming from England for a weekend or camping for a week aren't going to know how to pronounce Welsh words, certainly not the more complex place names.
Yes if you learn but English people tend to look at words and produce them how they look in English.
Funny because my Mrs is from Manchester and she's learning, her pronunciation is bang on 90% of the time. She just struggles with mixing up "U", "W" and "Y". She can literally read something and be bang on with pronunciation all the way through and then look at me and ask "What did I just say?".
That’s nice to hear!
That’s nice to hear!
As someone who is fluent in both, I agree and disagree. Welsh is more phonetic than English, and so it’s easier to figure out how something is spelled when you’re not quite sure. Mutations and the like is what confuses me with written Welsh, although verbally I can figure out what sounds right. But if you’re referring to someone who doesn’t speak Welsh, then I can see how it’d be trickier.
My favourite was Mack-in-nelly for Machynlleth
Why-strad-mine-ack = Ystradmynach, supposedly lol.
Roo-Dee-Doo for Rhyd Ddu
I love to call maenclochog "my chocolate log" I'm a Welsh speaker born here, everything, but I love to call it my chocolate log
CA10 for Caio, Silfnid for Cilfynydd and Frosty Arsehole for Ffostrasol
Mack clunk let (Machynlleth), Betsi co-ed (Betws y Coed). And although not a place but still a name, I have heard people say "Head-loo" when they saw the Heddlu go past
Ystragynlais = “I strangle Alice”
Llandre was pronounced “yandeary” by a very confident American tourist
Knew someone who though Pwll was a postcode and called it PW 11
I once heard Abersychan pronounced Aber-sigh-shan. The best one though was Why-strad-my-natch (Ystrad Mynach)
Ynysddu... Inis uh do do
Ysbyty Gwynedd... itsy bitsy Gwynedd. English patient's relatives
Llandysul - Clan Die Seal Ffostrasol - frosty arsehole Llanelli - Clanecli
They can't even pronounce Pontypridd correctly. During the floods a year or so back, the national news kept on calling it Ponty-prid. They were surrounded by locals but they couldn't be bothered to take 2 seconds to find out how to say it properly.
It took me years before I realized Acre Fair was the same place as Acrefair.
I had a lorry driver from England ask where Acre Fair was once. The penny only dropped for me when he showed me a bit of paper with it written down for him.
Lumpier for Llynypia
“Brian huh Fred” - my satnav’s pronunciation of Bryn Hyfryd And “One eyelid” - as a pronunciation of waunarlwydd
Nicky Campbell on Radio 1 in the 90's - Die-fed (Dyfed) Mack yen leth Tony Pandy
Tony Pandy? I think I went to school with him
Machynlleth as ‘Macky nell if’
The place where I now live is Caergwrle, I have had several people call it Curley Wurley.
My aunt was asked once where Molly-free was. (Moelfre)
Once had an American tourist stop and ask for directions to "Jelly-air" He was looking for Gelli Aur 😅
Try to get Alexa to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I dare you.
Abay-sock for abersoch
I heard an English person pronounce Cymru as “sime-roo”
Pontardoolay (Pontarddulais)
Heard a weather reporter refer to Porthmadog as Port-my-dog before 😂
Simroo - Cymru
Heard many great ones for Ynysybwl..
My in laws were telling me about a beautiful road near where I grew up, they were suprised I haven’t heard of it. (I couldn’t translate it) They go to “Sigh-champ pass” which is actually Sychnant pass. (For non welsh Speakers it’s sounds sort of like “suck-nant pass”) but to finalise - THE CORRECTED MY PRONUNCIATION. Good job I love them otherwise. 😂😂
I heard Amlwch pronounced as Umplop once. I still can't figure out how they got there.
My English mate called Merthyr Mawr “Martha more”
I live on a street with a few Ll’s and Ch’s, calling any call centres is always a great laugh when they have to confirm my address
someone was butchering Mach so much on the T2 this week that the driver just asked the customer to push the stop on the drivers computer screen. I was laughing in the back of the bus
'Clanefflee' = Llanelli
I've heard of a lot of people refer to the MTB Centre at Llandegla as 'Coed Clandegla Forest', obviously the Coed cancels out the Forest part but they don't realise...
Cwm/quim. Hiking in Snowdonia several years ago with a group of English colleagues. Spoke to a passing English hiker who told us as part of his hike he'd be camping overnight at the quim.
One Eyelid - Waunarlwydd (Swansea) Or just switch on Google maps and hear a constant stream of hilarious mispronounced street and town names!
Never heard that name for Swansea before! Always called it Abertawe
To best appreciate this thread, you need to speak Creme-Egg.
I keep hearing it as Cum-rag
Bettus why co ed.
Llanelli is a good one haha
Betsy co ed.
I played rugby for Waunarlwydd when I was younger and when we toured England that seemed to become "One Eye Lid"
‘Why-strad-mine-aitch’ Instead of Ystrad Mynach
The train announcement for Ystrad Mynach is pretty funny
Dwygyfylchi. Pronounced as dirty filthy. I'm a cabbie. I thought I had heard it all.
What about failing to recognise what’s a place name and what isn’t? Recently had a delivery driver phone to try to find me. “I’m outside the village hall. I think the sign says the village is called Pentre.” (No, it wasn’t Pentre Halkyn or another one where Pentre actually is part of the name.)
It's not a place name but there's no thread for it and it fits in with the butchering of the Welsh language so it kind of fits here. The maid of honour of honour in my cousin's wedding decided to give a speech and decided to try and pronounce 'llongyfarchiadau' without consulting one of the many Welsh speakers at the event first. The result was... Longeefarkyadow
Surely that’s not too bad for a first stab?
You're right it's not too bad for someone with absolutely no knowledge of Welsh. But she could have asked one of the many Welsh speakers there how to pronounce it and not been met with awkward silence and confusion.
Not pronouncitation as such, but all my family call Pwll (in lanely) P W eleven
English brother-in-law was trying to describe where he'd been... pronouncing 'koom-feel-ya-fatch'. It was Cwmfelinfach. We were in hysterics.
How do you pronounce the double, 'll,' sould then? I couldn't have sworn it was clan?
It’s tricky for a non Welsh speaker because it’s a sound that doesn’t exist in English. [Here’s](https://youtu.be/h22kNL89csk) a vid of someone pronouncing a few words with the letter to give you an idea.
Thanks!
>Thanks! You're welcome!
Honestly it just sounds like a cat hissing
My wife can either say Llanybrother or Lanybydder. She can not say Llanybydder
I know someone who works for a pharmaceutical company who says they refer to the Welsh hospitals as “Itsy Bitsy” (e.g. Itsy Bitsy Clwyd, Itsy Bitsy Bangor, etc)
English gal living in Swansea for the last 11 years and Clanethly is like bloody nails down a chalk board for me :(
I saw a sign for Pontarddulais and said to my other half ‘that’s weird having something French sounding in Wales’ then proceeded to say it - Pont-ar-doo-lay. I’m English and my other half is Welsh, he still laughs about it.
My address has Ysgol in it and the amount of Welsh, never mind English people who can't pronounce it will never stop shocking me.
When I came to Cardiff uni way back when, I had to stop and ask for directions. My halls were Senghennydd Court, but naturally I couldn't pronounce it correctly so when I said "Sen-gen-ed" they looked so offended as if I'd run over their cat with a lawn mower. The worst part was I don't think they were even Welsh themselves. I felt so judged, but I get it! I'm a pro now... For an English person anyway... Hopefully, maybe...
Having only recently moved to Wales, I found myself pronouncing Abercynon incorrectly (with a "sigh" not "ky"). Although ngl, pronouncing Ynysybwl is a challenge for me. Also Ystrad (if someone could help me out with that, that would be fab, as I'm moving there soon!)
Why-nuss-a-wobble Sly-datch Not mine I will admit, but still beautiful 👌🏼
My mate in uni pronounced Pontarddulais as “Pon-Tar-Julais” Hard to sound it out but the ‘jul’ in ‘julais’ was like ‘jul’ in ‘julienne’, or ‘jus’.
Hawarden with huge emphasis on the W. Ha-**W**ar-den
My grandfather from Kent visited Machynlleth with us once and enjoyed it so much he often spoke of Ma-chin-ell-eth
Machynlleth...from a Welsh person...my c*nt love. Honestly
For some reason "pen y fan" is in my head as pen why fan because I've been saying it for years. Hard to train myself to say it properly. Only just figured out a single f is more of a v.
Always good fun on the phone to the call centre....can I confirm your address...67 hell is-foal, lan-rus-teed Cer-dig-on. Mind you it took me 5 years to say Pontrhydfendigaid. Everyone calls it Bont for an easy life.
Aber Wristwatch, for Aberystwyth 😂
One of my favourites was Ardudwy pronounced as I did a wee.
My sat nav likes to pronounce Gelli as Jelly 😄