Are you confused by the pronunciation of California city names in English? Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego are fairly well known. But how do you say the others? It's no wonder there's confusion. Sometimes we pronounce these names more similar to the Spanish words they came from, sometimes more similar to English words, and more often it's a mix of both within the same word. In this video, I'll give you a few helpful tips for guessing California city names pronunciation. Since California and the southwestern part of the United States was originally part of Mexico, and was under Spanish rule, California's place names are very often derived from Spanish. The pronunciation is really a mix of some Spanish sounds and some American English sounds, so it can be a little tricky to figure out how to pronounce these names, even for native speakers who have never heard them before. If you're wondering about the pronunciation of any California place names, and you don't find them on this video, please ask. Let me know in the comments and I'll help you figure out how to pronounce them. So here are four tips for predicting the pronunciation of California cities. Number one, the letter J in Spanish is roughly equivalent to an English H, so pronounce the letter J as an H sound. For example, San Jose, El Cajón, and the city I grew up in Mission Viego. Now it's a little different with the name Juan and Joaquin. They both start with a J, but we have a little difficulty pronouncing those in English, so we ignore the J and pronounce them with a W sound, the beginning sound of the U or the O, San Juan and San Joaquin. And related to these, there's the famous city that south of the border, and by south of the border I mean south of the United States, and that's in Mexico. And that city is called Tijuana. Well, at least that's the American English pronunciation for the city that Mexicans say Tijuana. We say Tía Juana. We pronounce the J as a W like we do in the name Juan, and we also add a little extra sound in there. After the T, we add Tía, we add the A, Tía, because it's just too hard for us to make those sound combinations for native English speakers. So it's Tijuana. Tip number two, double elves in Spanish are pronounced as a Y. So some Spanish words in English maintain that pronunciation. Examples include la joya, cabrillo, tortilla, and quesadilla. Now these last two are foods rather than place names, but if you're in the United States you're likely to come across both in some parts of the US, especially if you enjoy eating Mexican food. But a word of caution, some of these double elves words have been anglicized, so you may hear the double elves in some words pronounced as an English L. For example, Vallejo, Montabello, and Villa Park. Now if the Spanish word is very close to or exactly the same as an already existing English word, you can expect the pronunciation to be more similar to the English word than to the Spanish one. Now examples include sacrameno, ilavista, and your balinda. If there is no similar word in English, we're more likely to closely retain the Spanish vowel pronunciation. So here's tip number three. There is some tendency toward pronouncing some of the vowels with a more Spanish than English pronunciation. And here's what I mean. Very often the letter E in these words may be pronounced A, as in l'amesa, Santa Fe, Monterey, La Braia, and Montana, Deoro. And the final E is sometimes also pronounced A, as in San Felipe or Santa Fe. But sometimes it's pronounced E, as in San Clomeni, Palas Verdes, Del Monte, or Santa No Free. So I's are often pronounced E, for example, Bonita, Chino, Cavina, and Sino, Escondito, and Santa Clarita. There were a few names that start with the letter Y. Pronounced them also E, just as if they were spelled with the letter I, as in Santa Enez or San Isidro. In most instances, we still tend to keep our American pronunciation of the letter A. Notice in words like Calabasis, Santa Ana, and Sacramento. Tip number four. When two vowels come together within a syllable, pronounce each one. Now this is very different from English pronunciation. Typically, those two vowels will form one single sound. In this case, we want to separate them and pronounce two sounds. Take, for example, Diego. Notice we pronounce the I, and the E separately, Diego. And also Viejo, Fiesta, Mateo, Rafael, El Camino, Real, Diablo, Pietras Blancas, Hacienda, Santiago, Lake Nasi Miento, San Leandro, Río Vista. Did you notice all the two word place names? That is most often the case with the ones of Spanish origin. El, La, Los, and Los are common first words since they all mean the. LOS is most often pronounced Los in English, like in Los Angeles. You occasionally see Del meaning of the or belonging to, as in Rancho Del Rey or Del Mar, for example. San and Santa means Saint, and there are lots of places named after saints. Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, and San Gabriel are just a few examples. Rancho means Ranch. You may see some of those too, like in Rancho Santa Margarita and Rancho Cucamanga. Now here are some other place names we haven't yet talked about that you may not be sure how to say. San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, Laguna Miguel, Boena Park, and San Bernardino. Are there any other California place names that you still can't figure out? I'm sure there are, and I can probably help. Since I grew up in California, I've heard most of them and can guess the pronunciation of those that I haven't heard. Just ask me in the comments, and I'll tell you how to pronounce them. By the way, can you correctly pronounce the names of the US states? If you're not sure, check out my three videos on US state pronunciation. The United States is full of place names based on local indigenous languages, Spanish, French, or even a mix of these with partially anglicized pronunciations. There are many place names in other states that I don't know how to say. If in doubt about place names in the United States, just ask a local native speaker to pronounce them for you, and make sure it's a local, a person who has lived in the area for a while. They will definitely know how to pronounce these words for you. Hope that helps. Don't forget to like and share my video. Thanks for watching!