List of irregularly spelt places in the United Kingdom

Colney COney Hatch

De Beauvoir BEAver Town (usu.)

Marylebone MARlyb'n (alt.)

Plaistow PLAHsto

Ruislip RYslip

Greenwich GRENidge

Southwark SU-ðərK

Vauxhall VOK-sawl

Dulwich DULLidge

Chiswick CHIZick

Isleworth Ayezəlworth

Thamesmead TEMZmead

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A map of irregularly spelled places in London

This is a sublist of List of irregularly spelled English names.

These common suffixes have the following regular pronunciations, which are historic, well established and etymologically consistent. However, they may be counterintuitive, as their pronunciation is inconsistent with the usual phonetics of English.

• -b(o)rough and -burgh – /bərə/
• -bury – /bri/
• -cester – /stər/
• -combe, -coombe, -comb and -cambe – /kəm/. When stand-alone: always /kuːm/ (including in place names such as Castle Combe and Coombe Bissett)
• -ford – /fərd/
• -gh – silent (usually as 'f' in a considerable minority of northern English place names and in Woughton, Milton Keynes)
• -ham – /əm/
• -holm(e) – /hoʊm/, /əm/
• -mouth – /məθ/
• -shire – /ʃər/, /ʃɪər/, /ʃaɪər/ (esp. in Scotland)
• -wich - /ɪtʃ/, /ɪdʒ/
• -wick – /ɪk/

Prefixes:

• Al- – /ˈɒl/, /ˈɔːl/; with very few exceptions such as Alba, Alperton.
• Saint- – /sənt/, for most speakers.

Other:

• -on- – /ˈʌn/ as first syllable is usually as in London, Coningsby or Tonbridge (see Middle English handwriting preventing 'un' and 'um'); excludes a few such as Lonsdale

See also

• List of irregularly spelled places in the United States

Further reading

• G. M. Miller, ed. (1971). BBC pronouncing dictionary of British names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-431125-2.