@RPGQueen87 I had no idea that was part of the city’s history! I also didn’t know it was pronounced like that either. Never been there, but I do enjoy the sign for the city on my way to Vegas!
As a native Coloradan, Buena Vista usually goes 50-50% between the way you guessed and the way the internet told you to pronounce it. I choose to pronounce it the way you guessed, and there are many other Coloradans who agree! Whatever you burn down... please don't do it in the forest! We've had a few too many of those.
Thanks for mentioning Tooele, Utah. As a Utahan I was laughing so hard at the dark humor. Here’s a few more cities “Stantaquin, Hurricane, and Layton” hint for the first and last, many Utahan don’t pronounce their T’s.
I was so entertained & impressed, I actually paused it right there to text it to my teenage daughter😄. She unfortunately laughed OUT LOUD during class!🫣🤭
@@transbiologistthetransesto7956 Look at your channel name, of course your entire family would say it all the time. Btw, I'm not dissing ya. I like your channel name, you probably got a fun family too
The more I watch you, the more I am convinced you are the funniest kid I have ever seen. I am 63 and through the years I have watched many, many comedians - but you literally make me laugh out loud with every video! I hope you have a long, and extremely successful career.
I’m literally giggling the whole time. I would loooove to see you try to pronounce half the city/town/village names in Alaska. Especially Utqiagvik, AK
Exactly this!!! I live in Alaska and have all my life and struggle to pronounce certain names of towns/villages still. A lot of em are spelled very weird
As soon as the video started, I hoped you’d try Tooele, Utah. We’re all aware of how stupid the pronunciation is for that name 🙂 (loved the “hiding from Missouri” joke 😂)
For the Saulte Ste Marie- I’m glad you did that one, because it popped up in my ancestry that I had ancestors who were born and died there, and I was perplexed about the pronunciation. I was way off on Saulte 😂
As a Masshole, whoever gave you Worcester was going easy on you - if they were being really mean, they'd have given you Cochituate, Leominster, Haverhill, or Billerica.
right!? I loved watching out of state news anchors struggle to pronounce local towns correctly. There's soooo many that trip people up- though I do have to admit; Miami OK is definitely one of the top 'everyone says it wrong' city names in Oklahoma. So I'm not disappointed that this one was up here (was kind of hoping to see it actually xD)
Same!!! I love people trying to say "Schuylkill". Im in Lancaster County and I just want him to try pronouncing Intercourse, Blue Ball & Lititz just to hear his comments. Pennsylvania IS drunk.
I'm impressed with your pronunciation of Puyallup. Not perfect, but pretty good for not having heard it before! It's an indigenous based name so different pronunciation than English
I got that one correct, but that's only because I grew up in Massachusetts and there's a town in MA and VT called Barre, and they're both pronounced the same way
Even funnier when you realize we normally don’t pronounce the i in wilkes as an i but rather a u. Or at least that’s how I pronounced it growing up there.
Michigan has so many uhhhh “fun” town names haha like Charlevoix, Ypsilanti, Hamtramck, Bois Blanc, Sebawaing, Dowagiac, Okemos, Charlotte, Onandaga, it goes on and on and on. Learning to spell as a child in Michigan was not fun😅 I couldn’t spell the street I grew up on until I was like 12
My favorite is Ocqueoc, only because my mispronounciation while driving by late one night is legendary. But also, how old timers pronounce Port Huron. Or some locals call TC Travis City. Um... ok.
My guy looks like he just lost the lottery by one number. “And calling 7, 14, 33, 98, and 68” Ben’s numbers: 7, 14, 33, 98, 69 *take any single shot of him in this vid*
Yeah..... Growing up in Western Washington REALLY messed with the "Hooked on Phonics" education of learning words. 🤣🤣🤣 I just figured things are NEVER pronounced how they look.
To those from outside Washington, most of our city names are based off Native American tribes. Fun fact, Mt. Rainier was named Mt. Tahoma, and later changed, the Natives are trying to get it changed back because the name held meaning to them (I support them, don't change their stuff). Anyways, yeah, Puyallup has the Puyallup tribe, though I'm not entirely sure where they are.
It's a city by that name, Puyallup's just a bit outside Tacoma and yep, it's the name of the tribe from the same area. (That's been protesting the new LNG plant that was built on their land and has been in legal battles ever since, although I haven't looked at news about it in a while because everything is just wild in general)
@@klus864 Agreed, I lived in/near Staunton, VA for many years and when I first moved there pronounced it wrong for quite a while so was yelling at my screen also. I blame GTA 3 for teaching me the wrong pronunciation :P
...As someone who has lived in the Puget Sound area all my life, almost always within an hour's drive of Puyallup, WA...I'mma let you have that point. Just remember that the A in Puyallup is like the start of FL's and LA's "WAAAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWW" sound!
Bellefontaine is written in french, here. Belle is pronounced the french way, but fontaine is pronounced in english, for whatever reason. And Gross tete is totally french for Big head. But they dropped the E at the end of Grosse PS:Hello from Belgium, I don't always understand the references but your videos are always hillarious anyway
Fontaine isn't English lol Belle is French though. I grew up 30 min from there and my dads idiot (idiot for other reasons) gf REALLY jacked it up. She's from California and made it worse adding more letters thinking she was smart. "You idiot it's simply Bell-fown-tin."
A lot of the seemingly "weird" ones are based on anglicized Native American names, like Natchitoches, LA, and Ontonagon, MI, so of course how we might pronounce things based on stuff like where we might put the stress on syllables and the like will be different. I loved the "You've cat to be kitten me right meow," line. That was adorable.
Utah has a few that are ridiculous. First being Tooele (loved his anger of it because same), next Hurricane, Oquirrh, and Timpanogos. I would enjoy Ben getting pissed off at these names.
I just commented about Hurricane! XD But for some reason, I don't know why you added Timpanogos to the list... Granted, I went to Timpanogos Elementary (home of the Dreamcatchers, so it's obviously Native American lol), so the spelling makes sense to me XD
I'm going through a tough time rn so I'm binging all of these videos and I can say with confidence that Ben's Floridian self shines through the more he loses his head trying to pronounce the name of these places lol
Hey I know it's been a year since you wrote this, but I hope you're doing okay! If ya ever need me I'm just one message away! Stay safe and know that you are loved!
You have to realize that many of these names are in foreign languages such as various Native American Nations, Dutch, French, German, Spainish, et cetera.
Buwawahahahahaha i instantly thought of Puyallup and was so happy to see you try! We have a ton of native American names in wa. Like Sequim, humptulips and Chehalis. You did great!
Many names with questionable pronunciations aren’t actually English names, and won’t follow English language conventions. Some have also been anglicized in unique ways, whether attempting to spell the original pronunciation, or else becoming some combination of trying to pronounce how it’s spelled and replicating the original.
Okay so I have Aussie friends and the city names I have heard I’ve heard Aussies say. Like Canberra. So that’s how I hear it in my head. When I say it I say Can- burr-uh. I was watching the news here in the US one day and the American reporter goes Can-Bear-Uh. And it was so weird to hear it like that.
As someone who grew up in PA and NJ, I simply require a part two with more of our obnoxious names. Cause Schuylkill and Wilkes Barre were slow balls...
I'm glad I live in Hawai'i where everything looks like how it's supposed to be pronounced and they have marks on how to pronounce in the name (Ka'ahumanu). As long as you have a bare bones grasp of Hawaiian you can get pretty far
Don’t forget Des Moines, Iowa. It’s French, so it’s pronounced “Deh Moin.” But if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone pronounce it “Dez Moin-ez,” I’d be able to afford college.
Look up 1838 Mormon war. Most of our early history in the US is based on differences in Religious beliefs. I took early history in college and found that interesting. There were also other things too but I found that part interesting since we were based on freedom of religion.
Alright, here is how I understand what happend (vastly simplified) because the other two comments didn't explain much of anything. Basically in the 1830's Missouri had a huge population of people part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the native Missourians didn't like that for a variety of reasons. Which led to multiple outbreaks of violence. Until the governor at the time got sick of it and sent the state militia after church members with an extermination order, forcing them to flee to Illinois. This became know as The Mormon War.
"I'm never going to Pennsylvania" Rather you'll probably never go to Wilkes-Barre or Schuylkill. (Also as someone who grew up in South-Central PA, I don't think I ever learned how to pronounce Schuylkill either ^^; )
I'd be surprised if Reading wasn't mentioned at least once. And while you might think you know how to pronounce Lancaster, Lebanon, and Bethlehem, you really don't.
I'm a native SoCal girl and I know how to say both words and I've never been farther east than Louisville, KY. But yeah Washington has some good names, or the longest town name in Wales.
@@Tabaxi89 ???? I've never heard ANYONE from Virginia, much less Staunton pronounce the U. Maybe the T sometimes but it's so quick you never hear it. This is weird to me but cool! I might be wrong
@@kkbluebyrd Nah, wrong pronunciation is just a pet peeve of mine. Down here in Halifax County, we have an area named Sinai. Like the mountain in the Bible. But people around here pronounce it, Sinai. Really annoying.
@@Tabaxi89 what part of VA are you from. I went to school in Staunton and they very proud that the "u" isn't pronounced and they only added it to throw the Union soldiers off, since it was a confederate strong hold. Not sure why they're so proud of it, but
Fun fact from a Houston County resident: our 'Houston' is in homage to the Georgia Constitutional delegate John Houstoun, which the family later commonly spelled Houston, while the Houston family of Texas descended from an 11th century knight Sir Hugh and took their name from his holdings - Hugh's Town, eventually also spelling it Houston. Totally different families.
2 things: 1) buena vista: B-when-na Vista (I’ve lived in Colorado since I was 6 - im currently 23. I’ve never heard anyone say it any other way) 2) Gross Tete: grow tet, it is French & translates to “Big Head”
When I moved to Minnesota, I found out that how I pronounce things was apparently incorrect! Milaca, Faribault, New Prague, and Shakopee all sound different than you’d expect.
Boy, if I had a dollar for every single time I've heard Worcester mispronounced in my life, I'd be living in a much nicer apartment than I currently live in. At least you knew that one XD
Yeah .... as someone who lives in Seguin, I enjoyed it .... you'd be surprised how many miss Seguin ... heck, people even miss New Braunfels (I can't understand how)
My sister, who is native Texan, gave me the Gibbs slap from hell when I mispronounced “Bexar”. Then she broke down the most mispronounced cities and counties, and told me how to correctly say them.
@@emberandfriendsanimations2454 I wouldn't say stolen, but more "toke the best parts of German, Danish, and Celtic, and Franco-phoned it by mixing in Norman. Now a days at least where I live we have various degrees of Spain-glish.
@@raquelmyers9159 I grew up closer to Denver. And what about Pueblo? Las Animas? La Junta, Aguilar, San Luis, Alamosa, Durango! Before it was Colorado, it was a part of the Mexican Territory. Even the name of the state itself is based off of *gasp* Spanish! It's just one of those things that really grinds my gears, when something in a different language is mispronounced and no one bothers to find out the proper way.
Just on the island of Oahu, HI : Waimanalo, Kapolei, Waipahu, Waianae, Haleiwa, Waimea, Makaha, Maile, Ewa Beach, Kailua, Kaneohe, Wahiawa, Kalihi….that’s all I can think of right now….just on one island! Have fun with those.
Saulte Ste. Marie, Michigan (not to be confused with Saulte Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, ) is named for Saint Mary, in French. It is home to the famous Soo Locks
Those are so easy to pronounce and I'm from Iowa. Maybe it's because I play too much MLB the show and have seen the Biloxi Shuckers too many times 😂😂😂😂
@@madc2004 then tell me why no tv show that is not from the south has always said them wrong. And any northern public speaker that we have. Like your right nether are hard to say just so many people do mispronounce them.
@@minitodd Biloxi is straight forward or at least should be. Mobile is one that nobody talks about often and it just needs to be given a refresher on how to say it now and again. I guarantee a lot of people will say Mobile correctly until reading it
I go to college in Natchitoches so I enjoyed that 😂 It got its name from two native american brothers Natchitoches and Nacogdoches which is in TX and they are directly next to each other.
Sault Ste. Marie, Mi is one of the oldest cities in America. It is French. The Ste. is short for Sainte, like St. is for street. So it is technically Sault Sainte Marie, but the shortened it. Also, bravo for knowing how to pronounce Mackinac. I had a teacher in grade school that tried to tell me it was Mack-in-ACK. Don't know how a teacher in a central Michigan school didn't know that it was pronounced Mack-in-AW.
I kind of love when the state characters come out for a second every once in a while when he's doing a normal video. I'd swear I heard Florida at least a couple times in this one.
In Illinois (a state that is often mispronounced), we have cities like Athens (pronounced AY-thens) and Cairo (pronounced CAY-ro) because why not I guess.
I love how he gets mad at everybody in the state for there city names when they didn’t get to pick it- it’s so funny to watch him rage at Pennsylvania-
When it comes to any city in the Hill Country in Texas, it's claimed that the odd pronunciations are "Texas German." I can't find a German speaking person that understands either. But you should see what they do to the street names. Huebner and Manchaca are a couple of good examples.
To be fair, I feel a lot of the trouble with native names is because of the people who first tried to translate them to our alphabet. They didn't really much attention to the original pronunciations at all.
It's like watching Ben slowly losing his mind. 😂 I see where the character of Florida comes from now. This is hilarious.
I mean he's from Florida so it makes sense
@@Aria-cf7yp
Yeah, that’s why he assumed Buena Vista used the Spanish pronounciation, and not the correct German one.
Ben, I need you to do a mispronouncing city names for Hawaii and then have the girl that usually plays Hawaii just roast you in it.
YES!
Yes.
yes please, I had this same thought watching this. Also do the same with street names
Yes, but she could also help roast the names
Omg, that could be fatal
Apparently Zzyzx used to be known as Soda Springs, then a Doctor petitioned to change the name and chose that as part of a joke.
Don't you mean radiator springs?
Radiator don't have springs btw
@RPGQueen87 I had no idea that was part of the city’s history! I also didn’t know it was pronounced like that either. Never been there, but I do enjoy the sign for the city on my way to Vegas!
Was he trying to be last in the Yellow Pages?
As a native Coloradan, Buena Vista usually goes 50-50% between the way you guessed and the way the internet told you to pronounce it. I choose to pronounce it the way you guessed, and there are many other Coloradans who agree!
Whatever you burn down... please don't do it in the forest! We've had a few too many of those.
Buena is also a German word, and it was settled by German immigrants.
Thanks for mentioning Tooele, Utah. As a Utahan I was laughing so hard at the dark humor. Here’s a few more cities “Stantaquin, Hurricane, and Layton” hint for the first and last, many Utahan don’t pronounce their T’s.
As another utahn I genuinely didn't know about the first t in stantaquin
“You’ve cat to be kitten me right meow”
that, sir, was a legendary one-liner. i could not stop laughing 🤣
I was so entertained & impressed, I actually paused it right there to text it to my teenage daughter😄. She unfortunately laughed OUT LOUD during class!🫣🤭
For some reason I never thought that someone wouldn't have heard it before lol. My family says it all the time
@@transbiologistthetransesto7956 Look at your channel name, of course your entire family would say it all the time. Btw, I'm not dissing ya. I like your channel name, you probably got a fun family too
As a Michigander, our city names have a Native American, French or Western European tie to them. But here's a fun one for you to try: Dowagiac, MI
Dowagiac bam I did it
We just mispronounce European words:
Milan
Armada
Charlotte
Ravenna
LOL, that is my go to for people to figure out
Dowagiac is a cute little town.
@@hurlaky43 I live not too far from 'Loughborough', that gets some fun attempts. Best yet is 'Loogabarooga'.
"I'm gonna burn something down"
Spoken like a true florida man
10:57 "Who are you hiding from Utah, Missouri?"
ROTFLMAO! 🤣 Oh man Ben that is *DARK!* 👍
The more I watch you, the more I am convinced you are the funniest kid I have ever seen. I am 63 and through the years I have watched many, many comedians - but you literally make me laugh out loud with every video! I hope you have a long, and extremely successful career.
"You put the letters there, but then you don't mean them when you do." I felt that.
We don't pronounce out T's in Utah of course we chose to pronounce Tooele differently
I feel like this might have some french influence to it
@@who_gave_me_a_pen9463 Shoshone dialects
Wait until he learns French
Yeah
Ben rambaling about adding sounds to letters that aren't even there... Yeah, welcome what Spanish speakers feel like.
You really gonna say that when English has through, thorough, throw, dough, bough, bow, draught, draft, drought, and trough?
@@Commy01 We're fucked up ok? lmfao
What about when we remove sounds from letters that are there?
@@buddermonger2000 Ben would loose his mind.
@@Commy01 Atleast that makes somewhat sense. French and Spanish are just high.
I’m literally giggling the whole time. I would loooove to see you try to pronounce half the city/town/village names in Alaska. Especially Utqiagvik, AK
Totally was LOL!!!!!
Exactly this!!! I live in Alaska and have all my life and struggle to pronounce certain names of towns/villages still. A lot of em are spelled very weird
*blinks in Floridian* a do what now??
Exactly...but to be fair people mispronounce the easier names too.
Or naknek, akutan,
As soon as the video started, I hoped you’d try Tooele, Utah. We’re all aware of how stupid the pronunciation is for that name 🙂
(loved the “hiding from Missouri” joke 😂)
For the Saulte Ste Marie- I’m glad you did that one, because it popped up in my ancestry that I had ancestors who were born and died there, and I was perplexed about the pronunciation. I was way off on Saulte 😂
Hooray for French?
@@suzannepottsshorts I am a french Canadian and I can tell only the second and third word are pronounced in French. Saulte is just plain wrong.
As a native of Louisiana I must say, valiant effort with Natchitoches.
I was thinking the same thing. Honestly there could be a whole episode of this for just Louisiana. 😂
@@katiebethcripps7553 yup
@@katiebethcripps7553 you know it. Coming from a fellow Louisiana
Indeed. I’ve lived here since 2007 and still find names that trip me up.
Fucking spelling this trips me up every time, hooked on Phonics did NOT work for Louisiana
As a Masshole, whoever gave you Worcester was going easy on you - if they were being really mean, they'd have given you Cochituate, Leominster, Haverhill, or Billerica.
Leminstah, hav-rill, idk the other two 😅
If youre gonna do one of the -cester ones (which like you shouldn't cause everyone knows those now) you should do gloucester
Also Concord could be added to the list cause everyone puts the emphasis at the end
@@nataliemccarthy9140 Berlin is the same way. It's BER-lin, not like the one in Germany.
or even most of the towns on Cape cod. like eastham or hyannis
What I have learned from this is that Ben is just all of the states and DC in a trench coat.
Florida came out hard core 😂
Oklahoma has a LOT of weirdly pronounced names because they are Indian words. Also shout out to Ben for knowing the history behind Miami Oklahoma.
As a native Oklahoman, it was always hilarious listening to how the names were pronounced in some of the late night advertisements!
right!? I loved watching out of state news anchors struggle to pronounce local towns correctly.
There's soooo many that trip people up- though I do have to admit; Miami OK is definitely one of the top 'everyone says it wrong' city names in Oklahoma. So I'm not disappointed that this one was up here (was kind of hoping to see it actually xD)
10 minutes of Ben telling us we're wrong and can't spell. I love it.
Absolutely loved when you pronounced the Pennsylvania cities. I lost it when you said "Go home Pennsylvania, you're drunk." 😂
Drunk? With our alcholol laws.
Not even possible.
Same!!! I love people trying to say "Schuylkill". Im in Lancaster County and I just want him to try pronouncing Intercourse, Blue Ball & Lititz just to hear his comments. Pennsylvania IS drunk.
Ohhhh littits😂😂😂😂
Agreed
@@Trumpetman12345 my sons dad is in Lititz lol
I'm impressed with your pronunciation of Puyallup. Not perfect, but pretty good for not having heard it before! It's an indigenous based name so different pronunciation than English
And the spelling is just weird, but there are a lot of local words that got weird-ass English spellings (Sequim, Seattle, Dosewallips, etc).
I love when people mispronounce Tulalip or even something as simple as Spokane.
I’d love to see him try to pronounce some of the other Washington cities like Sequim, Skamokawa, Wenatchee, and Pend Oreille 😂
@@ollie_exists Or Steilacoom, Skokomish, Wahkiakum
@@wyattsunkel1048 okanogan as well
As a Pennsylvania native, hearing you trying to pronounce Wilkes-Barre was hilarious!
I got that one correct, but that's only because I grew up in Massachusetts and there's a town in MA and VT called Barre, and they're both pronounced the same way
also as a native pennsylvanian who grew up outside of scranton, pennsylvanians fight over how its pronounced
Even funnier when you realize we normally don’t pronounce the i in wilkes as an i but rather a u. Or at least that’s how I pronounced it growing up there.
As someone who has been to Staunton, VA, I can tell you the locals pronounce it Stan-ton. Even though literally everyone else calls it Stawn-ton.
Hurricane, UT sees Tooele, UT and laughs. (And points for the dark, but funny Missouri joke.)
We have a Hurricane in WV too. But it sounds more like Hurr-a-kin.
Laughs in Utah
Two votes
*Laughs in Timpanogos (even though it's a mountain not a city)*
I grew up 17 years old my life in Tooele, UT. I have heard and laughed at all the mispronouncation of there...lol
Michigan has so many uhhhh “fun” town names haha like Charlevoix, Ypsilanti, Hamtramck, Bois Blanc, Sebawaing, Dowagiac, Okemos, Charlotte, Onandaga, it goes on and on and on. Learning to spell as a child in Michigan was not fun😅 I couldn’t spell the street I grew up on until I was like 12
If Bois Blanc is not pronounced exactly as it is in French... i will be upset but not surprised
There are two. one is French-ish "bwa blahnk". the other is "bob lo".
Hamtramck will alway be called Ham Track to me because my car was built there
Pompeii.
My favorite is Ocqueoc, only because my mispronounciation while driving by late one night is legendary.
But also, how old timers pronounce Port Huron. Or some locals call TC Travis City. Um... ok.
My guy looks like he just lost the lottery by one number.
“And calling 7, 14, 33, 98, and 68”
Ben’s numbers: 7, 14, 33, 98, 69
*take any single shot of him in this vid*
Yeah..... Growing up in Western Washington REALLY messed with the "Hooked on Phonics" education of learning words. 🤣🤣🤣 I just figured things are NEVER pronounced how they look.
To those from outside Washington, most of our city names are based off Native American tribes. Fun fact, Mt. Rainier was named Mt. Tahoma, and later changed, the Natives are trying to get it changed back because the name held meaning to them (I support them, don't change their stuff). Anyways, yeah, Puyallup has the Puyallup tribe, though I'm not entirely sure where they are.
It's a city by that name, Puyallup's just a bit outside Tacoma and yep, it's the name of the tribe from the same area. (That's been protesting the new LNG plant that was built on their land and has been in legal battles ever since, although I haven't looked at news about it in a while because everything is just wild in general)
Staunton VA is ACTUALLY pronounced “Stan-Ton” sincerely, a native from Virginia
I was yelling “Stan-ton” at the video
@@klus864 Agreed, I lived in/near Staunton, VA for many years and when I first moved there pronounced it wrong for quite a while so was yelling at my screen also. I blame GTA 3 for teaching me the wrong pronunciation :P
Yep! Even most Virginians get that one wrong!
stan-un
sincerely, an appalachian virginian
Thank you, I was looking for this comment!
I need a part 2 that was so fun 😂
...As someone who has lived in the Puget Sound area all my life, almost always within an hour's drive of Puyallup, WA...I'mma let you have that point. Just remember that the A in Puyallup is like the start of FL's and LA's "WAAAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWW" sound!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
As a Utahn I was waiting for Tooele. Also Hurricane is another one that's different for no reason lol
English: exists
All the states: and I took that personally
The amount of anger I have at how some of y'all pronounce clearly French words is unspeakable 😂
At least you don't live in the state where the capital is pronounced peer but spelled Pierre. It's not French but it should be.
@@anactualhumanbeing9493 where are these people getting all these extra sounds?!???
@@Vaudrin that's not an extra sound, that's a loss of sound
Bellefontaine is written in french, here. Belle is pronounced the french way, but fontaine is pronounced in english, for whatever reason.
And Gross tete is totally french for Big head. But they dropped the E at the end of Grosse
PS:Hello from Belgium, I don't always understand the references but your videos are always hillarious anyway
Wikipedia has it as Grosse Tête
Fontaine isn't English lol Belle is French though. I grew up 30 min from there and my dads idiot (idiot for other reasons) gf REALLY jacked it up. She's from California and made it worse adding more letters thinking she was smart. "You idiot it's simply Bell-fown-tin."
"I am going to burn something."
Ben, I think your FL is showing. Lol!
Too late! We’ve already burned!
A lot of the seemingly "weird" ones are based on anglicized Native American names, like Natchitoches, LA, and Ontonagon, MI, so of course how we might pronounce things based on stuff like where we might put the stress on syllables and the like will be different. I loved the "You've cat to be kitten me right meow," line. That was adorable.
Not Anglicization but French-aphide. Like the original spelling of Wisconsin was Ouisconsin, because of the French.
I remember I had to go down to Louisiana for camp recently, and Natchitoches had me struggling. My mom went to school there.
8:57 his inner Floridian with fire comes out
"I know this one, but it doesn't make me any happier"
Yep, Ben's brain has made a run for it.
Utah has a few that are ridiculous. First being Tooele (loved his anger of it because same), next Hurricane, Oquirrh, and Timpanogos. I would enjoy Ben getting pissed off at these names.
There is no way that Oquirrh should be pronounced Oaker. No way.
Hurricane?
@@Lostflightwarriorcats it's pronounced hurri-kin in Utah
I just commented about Hurricane! XD But for some reason, I don't know why you added Timpanogos to the list... Granted, I went to Timpanogos Elementary (home of the Dreamcatchers, so it's obviously Native American lol), so the spelling makes sense to me XD
You missed Mantua and Panguitch. I think maybe I'm desensitized to the idiocy as a native.
I'm going through a tough time rn so I'm binging all of these videos and I can say with confidence that Ben's Floridian self shines through the more he loses his head trying to pronounce the name of these places lol
Hey I know it's been a year since you wrote this, but I hope you're doing okay! If ya ever need me I'm just one message away! Stay safe and know that you are loved!
You have to realize that many of these names are in foreign languages such as various Native American Nations, Dutch, French, German, Spainish, et cetera.
As a Michigander, in your into I went "he better have Sault Ste. Marie". First one
Buwawahahahahaha i instantly thought of Puyallup and was so happy to see you try! We have a ton of native American names in wa.
Like Sequim, humptulips and Chehalis.
You did great!
Many names with questionable pronunciations aren’t actually English names, and won’t follow English language conventions. Some have also been anglicized in unique ways, whether attempting to spell the original pronunciation, or else becoming some combination of trying to pronounce how it’s spelled and replicating the original.
Try doing Australian city’s
Anyone who’s not Australian gets it wrong
He had a great shirt on didn't he.... even a lot of Aussies get their city names wrong sometimes which is why they change them to nicknames.
Okay so I have Aussie friends and the city names I have heard I’ve heard Aussies say. Like Canberra. So that’s how I hear it in my head. When I say it I say Can- burr-uh. I was watching the news here in the US one day and the American reporter goes Can-Bear-Uh. And it was so weird to hear it like that.
As someone who grew up in PA and NJ, I simply require a part two with more of our obnoxious names. Cause Schuylkill and Wilkes Barre were slow balls...
Bala Cynwyd, no one expects Welsh spelling conventions
He should have done Tunkhannock (just north of Wilkes Barre) and hey both are on the schuylkill river so we’re good.
@Jacqueline Kost those are easy ones.
I've NEVER heard an outsider pronounce Schuylkill right. So thats a fun one to keep.
Virginian here, it's "Stan-in" with the vague idea of a 't' where the hypen is.
Edit: We also have a buena vista in virginia!
8:00
As someone who lives in the state, and has even been to the state fair there a few times. I'm fairly certain a few drinks were involved.
It's actually the name of the Puyallup Tribe as someone who lives in Puyallup.
@@Jaxical nice to know.
I'm glad I live in Hawai'i where everything looks like how it's supposed to be pronounced and they have marks on how to pronounce in the name (Ka'ahumanu). As long as you have a bare bones grasp of Hawaiian you can get pretty far
As a Washingtonian, I never realized that Puyallup was ever pronounced wrong but oh dear-
I grew up out on the peninsula so it really tripped me up the first time I heard someone mispronounce Sequim.
@@Left-TurnOnly I wish he tried that one ahaha. We have a ferry to Seattle called puyallup.
i didn't realize how often people mispronounced Washington cities until i moved to Florida lol
We got some fun city names in Washington state, Snoqualmie would have been fun imo
I kind of wish he had done County names Pend Oreille county is just terrible in it's pronunciation.
Don’t forget Des Moines, Iowa. It’s French, so it’s pronounced “Deh Moin.” But if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone pronounce it “Dez Moin-ez,” I’d be able to afford college.
Even people in Iowa say Deh Moines. Emphasis on the last s.
It's like everyone pronouncing Illi-noiz
@@healinggrounds19 Ooh! That boils my insides, lol!
I live in New Orleans. We're used to French names, so I pronounce it correctly.
Omg that makes me want to hurt people. Lol. I lived there for 11 years and every time someone from out of state says it they f--k it up.
The English Great Vowel Shift accounts for most of the vowel sound that aren't standard.
Connecticut has some interesting ones! A lot are Native American, but there are a few hilarious mispronunciations of European names.
Well now I want a vid on the dark history between Missouri and Utah.
They tried to kill us before Utah was a thing, basically. That particular law was on the books until the 70s!
Look up 1838 Mormon war. Most of our early history in the US is based on differences in Religious beliefs. I took early history in college and found that interesting. There were also other things too but I found that part interesting since we were based on freedom of religion.
Alright, here is how I understand what happend (vastly simplified) because the other two comments didn't explain much of anything. Basically in the 1830's Missouri had a huge population of people part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the native Missourians didn't like that for a variety of reasons. Which led to multiple outbreaks of violence. Until the governor at the time got sick of it and sent the state militia after church members with an extermination order, forcing them to flee to Illinois. This became know as The Mormon War.
@@abigailblackmon1144 that's exactly what happened, yep! Thanks for explaining, I was far too tired earlier
@@abigailblackmon1144 Thanks for the explanation!!
Someone should get Ben to try some Aussie town names. Would make him feel better about these ones 😆
"I'm never going to Pennsylvania"
Rather you'll probably never go to Wilkes-Barre or Schuylkill. (Also as someone who grew up in South-Central PA, I don't think I ever learned how to pronounce Schuylkill either ^^; )
Wilkes-Barre is on the way to virginia & FL for me from CT... I go 84 to 81.
I got the "Barre" right because of the last name of the author of Peter Pan.
Other half - a Philly native originally - says "That's ok, if you're talking about the expressway, its pronounced Slow Kill"
@@OkieRhio I thought it was (or it used to be) the Sure Kill Expressway. 😆
I'd be surprised if Reading wasn't mentioned at least once. And while you might think you know how to pronounce Lancaster, Lebanon, and Bethlehem, you really don't.
"When you live near Schuylkill"
Him getting mad over the pronunciation is hilarious. Keep doing what you love Brian
Ben: struggles with mantua, oh.
Me: “laughs in Long Island”. Now try something like massapequa or wantaugh 😂
Ive been in long island for a month, I could not match the pronunciation of a city someone's from to the spelling of it for my life
There's a Mantua in Utah pronounced "Manna-way"
Islip, Aquebogue, Shinnecock Hills, Haupaugue
I'm a native SoCal girl and I know how to say both words and I've never been farther east than Louisville, KY. But yeah Washington has some good names, or the longest town name in Wales.
No one in Virginia pronounces the U or the T. It's Stan-en. Whoever says it is wrong
I'm from VA, and I DO use the U and T.
@@Tabaxi89 ???? I've never heard ANYONE from Virginia, much less Staunton pronounce the U. Maybe the T sometimes but it's so quick you never hear it. This is weird to me but cool! I might be wrong
@@kkbluebyrd Nah, wrong pronunciation is just a pet peeve of mine. Down here in Halifax County, we have an area named Sinai. Like the mountain in the Bible. But people around here pronounce it, Sinai. Really annoying.
@@Tabaxi89 This doesn't really illustrate the differences in pronunciation.
@@Tabaxi89 what part of VA are you from. I went to school in Staunton and they very proud that the "u" isn't pronounced and they only added it to throw the Union soldiers off, since it was a confederate strong hold. Not sure why they're so proud of it, but
In Macon, Ga, people pronounce it: House-tan, instead of Hugh-ston. I've asked is it was House-tan, Texas?)
yeah that's always been an issue with people that aren't from middle GA
There is a street in NYC that is pronounced House-ton.
Fun fact from a Houston County resident: our 'Houston' is in homage to the Georgia Constitutional delegate John Houstoun, which the family later commonly spelled Houston, while the Houston family of Texas descended from an 11th century knight Sir Hugh and took their name from his holdings - Hugh's Town, eventually also spelling it Houston. Totally different families.
Or here in Augusta, we have an area named Martinez. Named after a dude from Cuba, so you'd guess Mar-TEEN-ez right? Nope. MARTIN-EZ.
2 things:
1) buena vista: B-when-na Vista (I’ve lived in Colorado since I was 6 - im currently 23. I’ve never heard anyone say it any other way)
2) Gross Tete: grow tet, it is French & translates to “Big Head”
When I moved to Minnesota, I found out that how I pronounce things was apparently incorrect! Milaca, Faribault, New Prague, and Shakopee all sound different than you’d expect.
Boy, if I had a dollar for every single time I've heard Worcester mispronounced in my life, I'd be living in a much nicer apartment than I currently live in.
At least you knew that one XD
And to be fair, I like my apartment, but it's not exactly a New York penthouse, y'know?
I thought it was pronounced War chester
And I live in MA
Counterpoint, everybody mispronounces it. I like the old pronunciation better
@@Alistair__ lol, it's the second biggest city
You get a gold star for knowing Miami, OK! ⭐️ I didn’t even know it for the longest time and I’ve lived here my entire life.
From Oklahoma, too, guess I live close enough to get the name on snow days.
I'm pretty sure he knew it because we kept commenting that we wanted Florida to lose his mind when he found out how we pronounce it here.
I woulda given him Checotah.
Same, so confusing.
You need to do more of these.
Paola, KS
Paola, KS
Natchez, MS
Tongaxoxie, KS
Atchison, KS
Platte City, MO
As a former resident of KS, these are easy.
@@McKavian same. I'm from Missouri and just cringe when I hear people say these cities.
@@janetcampbell8854 I'm in Alaska now. We have a heady mix of English, Russian, and Native names. One place is so fowl, we just call it Chicken.
what about Olathe, KS
@@moehatfield348 yeah, that's another one that gets mispronounced alot
I live in Worcester, England so I was very happy you could pronounce it lol.
1:57, I'm from PA and I don't know, but I enjoy that no one else does either
Literally in Boerne, and recognized it from "Born". LMAO!!
Woulda been even funnier if you did Gruene right after.
Yeah .... as someone who lives in Seguin, I enjoyed it .... you'd be surprised how many miss Seguin ... heck, people even miss New Braunfels (I can't understand how)
My grandpa always put the "s" in the middle, instead of the end...
And around here, we've got Manchaca...
My sister, who is native Texan, gave me the Gibbs slap from hell when I mispronounced “Bexar”. Then she broke down the most mispronounced cities and counties, and told me how to correctly say them.
Try Ypsilanti, mi (just don’t ask what names were cooking up over here)
Thank you Ben for pronouncing Worcester Massachusetts correctly! I used to live there!😁👍
This is basically how non-English speakers look at more than half of all English words 🤣
Ben is just slowly dissolving into madness with each name
Half of the English language is imaginary and the other half is stuff we invented on the fly.
Or stole from other languages
@@emberandfriendsanimations2454 I wouldn't say stolen, but more "toke the best parts of German, Danish, and Celtic, and Franco-phoned it by mixing in Norman. Now a days at least where I live we have various degrees of Spain-glish.
@@dagamerking still, we have a lot from other languages
I know that Buena VIsta feel, bro. We have one in VA people pronounce the same way.
We have three ways to spell Sawatch, the i in Salida is a long i. And there’s a few other CO oddballs that make me giggle
Yep
I've never heard it pronounce "byoona" and I'm born and raised Coloradoan
@@CassandraMiyuki I have, but only people from Buena Vista call it that, no one else does.
@@raquelmyers9159 I grew up closer to Denver. And what about Pueblo? Las Animas? La Junta, Aguilar, San Luis, Alamosa, Durango! Before it was Colorado, it was a part of the Mexican Territory. Even the name of the state itself is based off of *gasp* Spanish!
It's just one of those things that really grinds my gears, when something in a different language is mispronounced and no one bothers to find out the proper way.
Just on the island of Oahu, HI : Waimanalo, Kapolei, Waipahu, Waianae, Haleiwa, Waimea, Makaha, Maile, Ewa Beach, Kailua, Kaneohe, Wahiawa, Kalihi….that’s all I can think of right now….just on one island! Have fun with those.
Saulte Ste. Marie, Michigan (not to be confused with Saulte Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, ) is named for Saint Mary, in French. It is home to the famous Soo Locks
Man I was hoping you do the two biggest miss pronounced cities in the South. Biloxi, Mississippi and Mobile Alabama.
Those are so easy to pronounce and I'm from Iowa. Maybe it's because I play too much MLB the show and have seen the Biloxi Shuckers too many times 😂😂😂😂
@@madc2004 then tell me why no tv show that is not from the south has always said them wrong. And any northern public speaker that we have. Like your right nether are hard to say just so many people do mispronounce them.
Here in Alabama we have a lot of stupid sounding towns
@@minitodd Biloxi is straight forward or at least should be. Mobile is one that nobody talks about often and it just needs to be given a refresher on how to say it now and again. I guarantee a lot of people will say Mobile correctly until reading it
When I moved to Alabama, I struggled with Eutaw, AL. I’m from Idaho, we spell that word Utah, not that way!!!
I go to college in Natchitoches so I enjoyed that 😂
It got its name from two native american brothers Natchitoches and Nacogdoches which is in TX and they are directly next to each other.
You don't say "u" in Staunton . It's pronounced Stanton .
This is the one I came looking for. I've had so many pissed off at that one.
Also Buena Vista. Oh! He got a Colorado one pronounced the same!
Came here to say this being from there!
I know! So upset that the “official” way they pronounced it was wrong.
I was looking for this one. As a native Marylander, now Virginian I have been told that Staunton is "how we pick out the northerners." It's Stanton...
Sault Ste. Marie, Mi is one of the oldest cities in America. It is French. The Ste. is short for Sainte, like St. is for street. So it is technically Sault Sainte Marie, but the shortened it.
Also, bravo for knowing how to pronounce Mackinac. I had a teacher in grade school that tried to tell me it was Mack-in-ACK. Don't know how a teacher in a central Michigan school didn't know that it was pronounced Mack-in-AW.
I so wanted to hear him try Belews creek, nc just to see that vein in his forehead do a little dance
Here's some from iowa, Ely, Nevada, and Maquoketa. Have fun
My family was born in Ely :D
Just showed this to the fam, Ben. It brought the house down! So funny!!! 😂😂😂
“You’ve cat to be kitting me right meow!” 😂
*cat to be kitten.
I kind of love when the state characters come out for a second every once in a while when he's doing a normal video. I'd swear I heard Florida at least a couple times in this one.
In Illinois (a state that is often mispronounced), we have cities like Athens (pronounced AY-thens) and Cairo (pronounced CAY-ro) because why not I guess.
How about some Oregon ones: Yachats, Champoeg, Lebanon, Clatskanie, The Dallas
I mean, people in half the country can't even pronounce Oregon, so...
@@RhosynGoodfellow True
Yeah the Washington ones are just as hard as the Oregon ones lol. We are a little off
I'm DEAD! Ben went full on Karen over names!!! lmao
They joy of being able to pronounce the Pennsylvania names (PA native myself) and watching people struggle to comprehend them, is amazing
I love how he gets mad at everybody in the state for there city names when they didn’t get to pick it- it’s so funny to watch him rage at Pennsylvania-
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Go home Pa, you're drunk
Indeed
But seriously one of my friends grew up in PA and she says it’s really likely that the person who named those cities probably was drunk
9:25 Florida makes a brief appearance
Living in TX, just gonna say, most Texans barely understand their own logic, they just refuse to believe they're wrong
Yeah
Everything’s bigger in TX including the stupidity levels 😂
When it comes to any city in the Hill Country in Texas, it's claimed that the odd pronunciations are "Texas German." I can't find a German speaking person that understands either.
But you should see what they do to the street names. Huebner and Manchaca are a couple of good examples.
Lol
To be fair, I feel a lot of the trouble with native names is because of the people who first tried to translate them to our alphabet. They didn't really much attention to the original pronunciations at all.
I've visited Buena Vista, CO. And how they say it more like Boona Vista for whatever reason and it still makes no sense
Could be like my university and the town around it, there are two correct pronunciations and there is merchandise for both saying it is the right way.
Well, the pronunciation of Wilkes-Barre depends on who you ask. Some say Wilkes Bar, some say Wilkes Bear, and some say Wilkes Barry