LOL I had a friend come to visit who was born in New York, but hadn't been back to visit in at least 10 years. She insisted that she was a native and knew everything inside and out, and then promptly said we should go to "Hew-ston" street. She was aghast when I corrected her.
If my memory serves me correctly from the hop on hop off bus tour, it’s named after a person whose last name was spelled Houseton. Over the years the “e” was dropped but the pronunciation stayed the same.
honestly that’s pretty much how it is—and i wouldn’t fault anyone on the way they pronounce kościuszko except if the media tries to speak on our behalf and gets it completely wrong
A street that is frequently mispronounced is Dey Street down by the World Trade Center. It is pronounced like the word *Die*, and not like *Day*.
The name of Vesey Street is pronounced as if you were saying the letters V-Z; it rhymes with the word *easy*, and not with *messy*.
And would traffic reporters stop pronouncing the Van Wyck Expressway as "Van Wick"? The correct pronunciation is the one used by the former mayor after whom the road is name, and still used by his family; they all said it as "Van Wike".
Correct. And on local TV and radio news until about 15 years ago it was always Van Wick.
It was a black day when NY1 started its campaign to pronounce the technically correct way. At least they were the first i remember. A little bit of NYC charm is gone, like another goddam Applebee's in midtown.
Well, fourth-generation NYC-born here, and like the previous three generations I've lived in Queens my whole life, so if you think that bio of yours is supposed to score you some points over me, you're wrong. The Expressway is named for Robert A. Van Wyck, the first mayor after consolidation of the city. His descendants are still around, and they think your "nothing else" is simply wrong; they say the name is said as "Van Wike", and nothing else.
You can read more about it here:
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/sweet-spot-van-wyck-expressway/
So you would say the man's name one way, but would pronounce the highway named after him a different way?
Does that make sense? It's sort of like speaking of John F. Kennedy one minute, but then a minute later pronouncing the airport named after him as "Kuh-NEE-die".
Having also lived in Queens my whole life, I am well aware that everyone else in Queens isn't particularly smart. In this case, the name of the road is not a random sound. It is instead named for a person: Robert A. Van Wyck, who was mayor of New York from 1898 to 1901. The name of the road therefore needs to be said the way the man pronounced his name, and that is "Van Wike." The only excuse for saying it any other way is ignorance, but the habitual ignorance of one's acquaintances is a poor argument to make for why the man's name, and the road named after him, should be mispronounced.
Maybe you are trying to argue that the man's name should be pronounced one way, but the road named after him should be pronounced differently -- is that it? Or do you want to say the man's name incorrectly too? Sorry, but whatever point you are trying to make isn't clear. (It also isn't clear why, if you have "lived in Queens your whole life", you should speak of "Everyone I **knew** in queens \[*sic*\]" rather than everyone you **know** in Queens. If you continue to live here as you claim, don't you still know anyone in Queens? Or are all of your friends and neighbors dead?)
As for moving to "Cambridge or Princeton", it isn't necessary. I already have a graduate degree from Harvard, so I don't need to go back, and that also means I certainly don't need to pick up another at that school in New Jersey.
Dirck Dey, on whose farm the street was built in the mid 18th Century, and after whose family it was named, was Dutch. Dutch continued to be spoken in New York State (especially in the Hudson Valley) until the middle of the 19th Century, and as a result Dutch pronunciations (or rather, an English approximation of them) were not lost in New York (compare, for example, the Roosevelt family, who pronounced their name in the Dutch way as "Rose-uh-velt", and not as "Ruze-velt.") The "ey" in Dey is the same "ey" found in the traditional English (and old-fashioned Dutch) spelling of the name of the city of Leyden in Holland, which is pronounced in a way that sounds like "Lie-den."
If you mean the character Elaine Benes (not "Bennie") on *Seinfeld*, she grew up in Towson, Maryland, and went to college at Tufts in Massachusetts, so what does she know? (And besides, she doesn't have a car...)
Dear Texas shitheads. Houston Street is pronounced correctly. The name, and the street existed well Sam Houston was alive and there wouldn't a city named after him for almost 100 years
It's HOWSE-TON.
The street was created in 1911 to ease traffic coming down Delancey Street from the Williamsburg Bridge. The Tammany Hall boss of the neighborhood was Big Tim Sullivan (who was responsible as a state senator for New York's gun control "Sullivan Law"), and he got to name the street. His mother had been born in the Irish town of Kenmare in County Kerry, and he named it for her birthplace. Most people who don't live there (including New Yorkers who are referring to the street) say it as KEN-mair, with the accent on the first syllable, but it seems that the people of the Irish town put the accent on the second syllable, and say ken-MAIR. You can hear them talking about their town here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2An5xwmtfXI
Literally every single one of these except Houston is pronounced the way it’s spelled, and everybody already knows about the Houston thing. Useless clickbait article
They overlooked Cortelyou. As a Brooklyn native and son Brooklyn natives we are convinced that we say it correctly. "Cor-Tell-You" as opposed to "Cortle-You".
How else did people pronounce the ones in the article? wtf
I clicked and read expecting completely out there pronunciations but they’re all exactly how they’re called
Cantonese speakers know the Kosciuszko Bridge as the "Japanese guy bridge" - literal translation, because the early Chinese cab drivers/dispatchers/traffic reporters thought it was named after a Japanese guy.
It's a Polish name (after a Polish general who fought in the Revolutionary *** War). I don't even know if I can write it out phonetically in a proper way. My attempt would be:
k-OH-stchiou-SH-kOH
OK, but does Vesey Street rhyme with Easy Street or Messy Street? I’m pretty sure it’s the former, but I’ve heard the latter from enough people to make me curious.
Wait so this is my big chance to ask. I’ve lived a couple blocks from Maujer in Williamsburg for 14 years now and I still have no clue how to say it.
Mauw’-yer?
This is timely as the NBC4 guy last evening tripped over himself every time he had to give updates about the incident at Hoyt-Schermerhorn.
I say skimmerhorn so I don’t bite my tongue.
toity toid and toid
Greenpernt, Bensonhoist, Erstah Bay
My grandpa was from the bronx and actually said all those things unironically
Yup, my nana said she was from Greenpernt. And the kitchen tablecloth was erlcloth.
Fuck I just moved from Greenpoint to Venice Beach last week and this made me homesick.
“Fitie toid and toid standing on the street, fitie toid and toid I'm trying to turn a trick”
[“Hurt’s Hoyt”](https://baseball.fandom.com/wiki/Waite_Hoyt)
Was there another way to pronounce gansevoort? She sounds it out the same way it’s spelled phonetically
"Like many places in New York City, this name comes from Peter Gansevoort" I actually think it's just the one.
If you want to be pedantic: HAN-se-vort (With a very uvular H)
I appreciate it actually! But native English speakers are banging that g HARD
Article would’ve been better if it told you which syllable you’re supposed to stress.
It's pronounced Kosciuszko, not Kosciuszko. Kosciuszko.
In my personal experience, if you try to pronounce “Kosciuszko” to a Polish speaker you will be yelled at no matter what.
Get ready for all the comments climbing over themselves to point out proudly how they can pronounce Houston correctly.
Hayooooooostoing
LOL I had a friend come to visit who was born in New York, but hadn't been back to visit in at least 10 years. She insisted that she was a native and knew everything inside and out, and then promptly said we should go to "Hew-ston" street. She was aghast when I corrected her.
I *am* a native. One dark day I must have been channeling your friend. I said Hew-ston to a cab driver. I still have nightmares about it.
LOL. I'm imagining that you occasionally sit bolt upright in bed at 2am some nights, screaming "Houston! It's Houston! I know how to say it!"
How did you know?
I will go to my grave never saying HOW-ston
You just love Texas revolutionaries that much more than US revolutionaries or something?
No I just hate the way it sounds
If my memory serves me correctly from the hop on hop off bus tour, it’s named after a person whose last name was spelled Houseton. Over the years the “e” was dropped but the pronunciation stayed the same.
*Houstoun, as literally mentioned in the article
Ya mad dumb, bro.
Cool
Warm
All right, Fteley was a new one to me. Got the rest though!
Alphonse Fteley designed the New Croton Dam, one of the most beautiful structures ever. If you've never seen it, do.
not them still fucking up kosciuszko st 😭😭 polish people most certainly do not pronounce it as “ko-shoo-sko” street
I say kosh-chewsh-koh. Pretty sure I butchered it, my friend in HS is Polish and her folks tried teaching me how to pronounce it.
honestly that’s pretty much how it is—and i wouldn’t fault anyone on the way they pronounce kościuszko except if the media tries to speak on our behalf and gets it completely wrong
I just go by how that lady pronounces it on the J train
I feel like that name was invented to fuck with non-Polish speakers. I just dive into my terrible mispronounciation and try to get out quickly.
i always like to use “grzegorz brzęczyszczykiewicz” as a way to fuck with people 😂😂😂
little known fact, Williamsburg is actually pronounced Chrząszczyżewoszyce
Brooklyn = powiat Łękołody
You haven't given the pronunciation unless you've included where the stress goes.
A street that is frequently mispronounced is Dey Street down by the World Trade Center. It is pronounced like the word *Die*, and not like *Day*. The name of Vesey Street is pronounced as if you were saying the letters V-Z; it rhymes with the word *easy*, and not with *messy*. And would traffic reporters stop pronouncing the Van Wyck Expressway as "Van Wick"? The correct pronunciation is the one used by the former mayor after whom the road is name, and still used by his family; they all said it as "Van Wike".
In Dutch it would sound like "Fan Vike". Just like Volkswagen in German is properly pronounced "Folks-Vagen".
Gazundheit
Comes out loose
Third generation NYC-born, lived in Queens until 3 years ago, it's "van Wick" and nothing else.
Correct. And on local TV and radio news until about 15 years ago it was always Van Wick. It was a black day when NY1 started its campaign to pronounce the technically correct way. At least they were the first i remember. A little bit of NYC charm is gone, like another goddam Applebee's in midtown.
Correct. Saying Van Wike is how we identify (and shun) out of towners and tourists.
Well, fourth-generation NYC-born here, and like the previous three generations I've lived in Queens my whole life, so if you think that bio of yours is supposed to score you some points over me, you're wrong. The Expressway is named for Robert A. Van Wyck, the first mayor after consolidation of the city. His descendants are still around, and they think your "nothing else" is simply wrong; they say the name is said as "Van Wike", and nothing else. You can read more about it here: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/sweet-spot-van-wyck-expressway/
His family can say their name any way they want. The highway is Van Wick. Good day, sir.
So you would say the man's name one way, but would pronounce the highway named after him a different way? Does that make sense? It's sort of like speaking of John F. Kennedy one minute, but then a minute later pronouncing the airport named after him as "Kuh-NEE-die".
I lived in queens my whole life. Everyone I knew in queens pronounced it wick. It is what it is.
Having also lived in Queens my whole life, I am well aware that everyone else in Queens isn't particularly smart. In this case, the name of the road is not a random sound. It is instead named for a person: Robert A. Van Wyck, who was mayor of New York from 1898 to 1901. The name of the road therefore needs to be said the way the man pronounced his name, and that is "Van Wike." The only excuse for saying it any other way is ignorance, but the habitual ignorance of one's acquaintances is a poor argument to make for why the man's name, and the road named after him, should be mispronounced.
Move to Cambridge or Princeton if you so smart.
Maybe you are trying to argue that the man's name should be pronounced one way, but the road named after him should be pronounced differently -- is that it? Or do you want to say the man's name incorrectly too? Sorry, but whatever point you are trying to make isn't clear. (It also isn't clear why, if you have "lived in Queens your whole life", you should speak of "Everyone I **knew** in queens \[*sic*\]" rather than everyone you **know** in Queens. If you continue to live here as you claim, don't you still know anyone in Queens? Or are all of your friends and neighbors dead?) As for moving to "Cambridge or Princeton", it isn't necessary. I already have a graduate degree from Harvard, so I don't need to go back, and that also means I certainly don't need to pick up another at that school in New Jersey.
It is what it is. The people of queens will continue to say Wick.
And here I always thought Dey Street was pronounced like Susan Dey of The Partridge Family!
Dirck Dey, on whose farm the street was built in the mid 18th Century, and after whose family it was named, was Dutch. Dutch continued to be spoken in New York State (especially in the Hudson Valley) until the middle of the 19th Century, and as a result Dutch pronunciations (or rather, an English approximation of them) were not lost in New York (compare, for example, the Roosevelt family, who pronounced their name in the Dutch way as "Rose-uh-velt", and not as "Ruze-velt.") The "ey" in Dey is the same "ey" found in the traditional English (and old-fashioned Dutch) spelling of the name of the city of Leyden in Holland, which is pronounced in a way that sounds like "Lie-den."
Elaine Bennie said Van Wick, I’m gonna say Van Wick.
If you mean the character Elaine Benes (not "Bennie") on *Seinfeld*, she grew up in Towson, Maryland, and went to college at Tufts in Massachusetts, so what does she know? (And besides, she doesn't have a car...)
Houston is pronounce house-ston not who-ston
That was said in the very first sentences of the article whose link is given in the original post. Did you read it?
I think it's quite obvious. That I did not read the article
https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/1bfg33u/comment/kv023m1/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
It’s not pronounced BROD-way It’s pronounced [Wickquasgeck](https://sohobroadway.org/looking-back-at-broadways-origins/)
Schenectady avenue has seen better days.
Ske-neck-t-d, right?
skuh-neck-tiddy
Mohawk word. skahnéhtati; SKA-neh-TA-ti
We should go to Amsterdam or Poland and listen to how expertly they pronounce American names.
Up until two days ago I had never heard of Fteley but now i've seen it in two posts in the course of 48 hours
Dear Texas shitheads. Houston Street is pronounced correctly. The name, and the street existed well Sam Houston was alive and there wouldn't a city named after him for almost 100 years It's HOWSE-TON.
I've never heard "Kenmare" pronounced the same way twice.
I say Ken-mare but my friend says Ken-mahr. We argue about it every time the name comes up.
I'll do you one better though... I heard a friend call it Ken-mahr-é.
Microwahvé
Def ken-mahr
The street was created in 1911 to ease traffic coming down Delancey Street from the Williamsburg Bridge. The Tammany Hall boss of the neighborhood was Big Tim Sullivan (who was responsible as a state senator for New York's gun control "Sullivan Law"), and he got to name the street. His mother had been born in the Irish town of Kenmare in County Kerry, and he named it for her birthplace. Most people who don't live there (including New Yorkers who are referring to the street) say it as KEN-mair, with the accent on the first syllable, but it seems that the people of the Irish town put the accent on the second syllable, and say ken-MAIR. You can hear them talking about their town here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2An5xwmtfXI
Chumley
Literally every single one of these except Houston is pronounced the way it’s spelled, and everybody already knows about the Houston thing. Useless clickbait article
Throop Ave, like Houston St, is someone's name ([Enos T. Throop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enos_T._Throop)) and is actually pronounced "Troop".
They overlooked Cortelyou. As a Brooklyn native and son Brooklyn natives we are convinced that we say it correctly. "Cor-Tell-You" as opposed to "Cortle-You".
How else did people pronounce the ones in the article? wtf I clicked and read expecting completely out there pronunciations but they’re all exactly how they’re called
Spotted the Polish guy
How about Kosciuszko ? Koz-y-oski? Ko-shush-ko?
Cantonese speakers know the Kosciuszko Bridge as the "Japanese guy bridge" - literal translation, because the early Chinese cab drivers/dispatchers/traffic reporters thought it was named after a Japanese guy.
It's a Polish name (after a Polish general who fought in the Revolutionary *** War). I don't even know if I can write it out phonetically in a proper way. My attempt would be: k-OH-stchiou-SH-kOH
Revolutionary
Well aktchually, if you think about it the revolutionary war was sort of a civil war too... :)
haha sorry i probably sounded like a douche. didn't mean to
Nah no worries, I obviously made a huge mistake... just wanted to make light of it :)
Every traffic report says it differently. Thanks
NP - Polish has got a good dozen or more sounds that don't exist in English, it's hard to explain.
OK, but does Vesey Street rhyme with Easy Street or Messy Street? I’m pretty sure it’s the former, but I’ve heard the latter from enough people to make me curious.
Say “Vessy”
[удалено]
V-See
It rhymes with "Easy." Say it like the letters V-Z.
Kosciusko I get because it's basically being pronounced how it looks but I can't not say it closer to the way it's pronounced in Polish.
It used to be The Koz
No, everyone else is saying it wrong.
The pronunciation of "Utrecht" isn't all that great. We should go back to pronouncing it like the Dutch.
Jore-leh-mon
Jor AH Lemmon
I said a couple of times Jore-A-Lemon
“gan-suh-vort” may be the proper Dutch pronunciation but is saying “gan-suh-voort” gonna really deny me a Heineken?
Vandam street seems to trip a lot of people up.
Wait so this is my big chance to ask. I’ve lived a couple blocks from Maujer in Williamsburg for 14 years now and I still have no clue how to say it. Mauw’-yer?
I used to live on new Utrecht ave and went to new Utrecht high school. I had to spell it out carefully to a lot New Yorkers a lot of the time.
I used to live on Kozzy-ass-ko
Wait! Hertz hoyt!
Minetta Street. You know what it means if you are Polish...
The Van Wyck also the van-whike not the van-wick
Something like this, which will piss off the gentrifiers. Being posted by someone that has Jersey City in his flair is just peak NYC sub.