US Cities You're Pronouncing Completely Wrong

La Jolla, CA | fon thachakul/Shutterstock.com
La Jolla, CA | fon thachakul/Shutterstock.com

Americans are quite adept at butchering the names of foreign places, but alas, these offenses are also committed everyday on American soil. Here are 20 cities in our OWN DAMN COUNTRY that you're probably mispronouncing. Please, for the good of the nation, get your shit together.

lafeyette Louisiana pronounciation
Flickr/Kent Kanouse

NOT: Lah-FEY-et

We bought Louisiana from the French, and of course proceeded to totally butcher the French pronunciation of this city. That's so us!

boise idaho
Charles Knowles/Shutterstock

NOT: BOY-zee

Just to mess with you a little more, its racetrack -- Les Bois -- is pronounced "Lay Bwah." Even weirder, Boise is a legit cool place to spend a weekend. A lot to mull over on this one.

helena montana
Sue Smith/Shutterstock

NOT: Hel-AY-na

There are a hell of a lot worse places in Montana, but none that are this easy to mispronounce.

wilkes barre Pennsylvania
Wikimedia/Jakec

NOT: Wilks-BAR

Behold, a town in Pennsylvania named after the Golden State Warriors' two best players from 1975-1977: Jamaal Wilkes and Rick Barry.

la jolla california
Dave Newman/Shutterstock

NOT: La HOLLA

Yeah, and la-holla at us if you've ever heard someone call it "La JOL-LA." Same.

kissimmee florida
William Silver/Shutterstock

NOT: KISS-a-mee

Good move with this one -- otherwise their town name would sound like Super Mario trying to get to first base.

norfolk virginia
jiawangkun/shutterstock

NOT: Nor-FOKE

But if you ask folks from Norfolk a question, do they answer "yea" or "naw"?

spokane washington
Kendall Rittenour/Shutterstock

NOT: Spo-KANE

C'mon people, you spo-can get this right!

worchester
Sean Pavone/Shutterstock

NOT: WOR-ches-ter and WOR-sess-ter

This IS New England, however, so you'll probably hear it called WUSS-tah. Or even WISS-tah.

louisville
Thomas Kelley/Shutterstock

NOT: LOUEY-vill

And it is definitely not LOU-iss-vill.

sequim
Nadia Borisevich/Shutterstock

NOT: SEE-kwim

Yes, it has a funny name, but they make up for it by being one of the best dang beach towns on the West Coast.

schenectady new york
debra millet/shutterstock

NOT: See-NEK-ta-dee

The Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Nation originally called this area "Schau-naugh-ta-da," which means "over the pine plains." Not any easier to pronounce, however.

waukesha
Wikimedia/Kenneth C. Zirkel

NOT: Wah-KESH-a

... or Wah-KE$HA for that matter, even though when you ask people why they pronounce the name of the town like that, they're all, "We R Who We R."

sault st marie michigan
Wikimedia/Michelle Hill

NOT: SALT-saynt MA-ree

Soooooo, it doesn't sound anything like it looks? Got it.

des moines iowa
Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock

NOT: DES Moyns

... or DES-money, for that matter. Although, with a poppin' job market and low cost of living, you'd be forgiven if you move there and call it that, privately.

skaneateles
Wikimedia/John Menard

NOT: Scan-EAT-ells

If you said you knew how to pronounce this place, it's probably time to eat your words. Sorry, I got nothin.'

patchogue
Wikimedia/Intelligentlove

NOT: Pat-cha-goo

Proper pronunciation of this place: yet another thing you only know if you're from Long Island.

puyallup washington
Flickr/Neil Hodges

NOT: Poo-ya-lup or Pooh-Y'all-up

The second one sounds like what Christopher Robin probably said whenever he went into the Hundred Acre Wood.

bethesda maryland
Flickr/Jennifer

NOT: Beth... um, followed by something else, presumably.

colorado pronounciation
Andrew Zarivny/Shutterstock

NOT: CALL-uh-ROD-o

OK, not a city, but for the good of America, it'd be cool if you stopped screwing this up. Colorado is pronounced Col-uh-RAD-o. Rad.

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Bradley Foster is a former Thrillist editor who lives in WAR-shing-ton... err, dammit (!) WASH-ing-ton State.