Top 10 Mispronounced Places

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Nothing can make a traveler feel more like a clueless tourist than mispronouncing the name of a local destination, but those who master The World's Top 10 Most Mispronounced Places from website VirtualTourist.com can sound like a native son. "As confounding as IKEA product names," says general manager, Giampiero Ambrosi, “these gems consistently trip up even the most intrepid globetrotters. Learn them now and impress your friends for years to come.”

This is definitely not a good one to learn the hard way and to make it even more difficult, advice on the correct way to pronounce it can vary. To avoid scowls, general disdain, and possibly worse, we recommend going with “Pu-get.”

While Mooball may seem like some kind of cute term of bovine endearment, it’s not quite as charming that. It’s actually pronounced “Moo-bull” so if you were thinking of calling someone your “sweet little Moo-ball,” you’re out of luck.

What does the sport of boxing have in common with beautiful La Jolla, California? Well, probably not much, except that to get this one right, you need to make sure you’re rhyming it with the boxer, Oscar de la Hoya.

For non-Spanish speakers, the chances of mangling this one are pretty high. To avoid at least two of the most common mispronunciations, just remember that there’s no “hoax” in Oaxaca and that Osaka is in Japan. The correct way to say it is “Wah-ha-ca.”

Considering that the correct pronunciation of the town is “You,” we see the potential for a very confusing situation here:
“Where are you going this weekend?”
“Hjo.”
“No, not me. You.”
“Hjo.”
“No, where are you going this weekend?”
We’ll let you imagine the rest. Just make sure you pronounce it “You.”

If you want to give the locals a good laugh (or cry), be sure to refer to this as “War-choppy.” Most people do, not knowing that the real pronunciation is actually “War-hope.”

Proving that sometimes the simplest of names can be the most deceptive, getting the sound of Cobh right can prove unexpectedly challenging. Keep in mind that it’s on an island, not in a cornfield, so pronounce it “Cove,” not “Cob.”

When trying to pronounce Coxsackie, don’t think of Courteney Cox, think of what her character on Friends did for a living: cook. Maybe when she cooked, she even cooked with sake. So when you’re in this part of the world, just think “Cook-sock-ee!”

Although it looks much like the word “sequin,” Sequim is pronounced much differently than its flashier counterpart. “Sqwim” is actually the correct pronunciation for the town known as the “Lavender Capital of North America.”

The residents of Ptuj must be so torn. While they live in a stunning, bucolic town, they must get tired of hearing the name of it get butchered over and over again. When pronounced correctly, it sounds like a dainty sneeze: “P-too-ee.”