There is no shortage of difficult-to-pronounce place names in Liverpool and Merseyside - especially if you’re from out of town. The pronunciation of many towns, villages and suburbs makes no sense to non-locals, and even to some lifelong residents.
We asked LiverpoolWorld readers for the places that they have heard newcomers struggle with the most and we whittled it down to a dozen of the most tongue-twisting place names - including Saughall Massie, Gateacre, Huyton and Meols.
To put the areas to the test, we hit the streets of Liverpool city centre and asked residents to attempt to pronounce six of the areas on the list. And some of the results were hilarious.
Watch the video above to see the residents take on the challenge and view the gallery below to see the full list of twelve.
1. Speke, Liverpool
We didn’t realise this one was tricky until a visitor referred to Speke (pronounced speak) as ‘Speccy’. | Phil Nash/Wikimedia
2. Gateacre, Liverpool
We’ve all heard someone call Gateacre ‘gate-acre’ but it’s confusingly pronounced 'gat-akker’. | Image: Google Street View
3. Kirkby
Visitors often struggle to pronounce Kirkby as the second ‘K’ is silent. So, rather than ‘kerk-bee’ it’s actually pronounced ‘ker-bee’. | Rept0n1x/Wikimedia
4. Huyton, Knowsley
We’ve heard it all for this one, including ‘hutton’ and ‘hoo-ee-ton’ but it’s actually ‘high-tun’. | Rodhullandemu/Wikimedia