Take a Look at 30 Michigan Cities That Outsiders Can’t Pronounce

Michigan is definitely home to some hard-to-pronounce cities.

Listening to people try and pronounce the names of streets and cities throughout Michigan never gets old to me. While many of them have heard these names before, seeing them in writing is sometimes a different story.

If I had a dollar for every out-of-state friend or person that I have had to correct, I would be a very rich man. The street names in Detroit alone provide hours of entertainment when people try to pronounce them. In all my 38 years on this planet, not once have I heard an outsider pronounce Schoenherr correctly.

When it comes to the cities throughout Michigan, they are no picnic either. I have heard "Charle-vox" and "Mack-in-ac" way too many times to count. The other classic that I always run into is Sault Ste. Marie. While most people have heard of it and can even pronounce it, if you put it in writing in front of them, it is a whole different story.

I'm not going to lie and say that I know how to pronounce every city and street correctly either. I've lived in Michigan almost my entire life, have Polish and Scottish heritage, and still have trouble with some of the lesser-known ones. Hell, there are a few cities on this list that I didn't even know existed until today.

Check out the list below and let me know if I missed any classics or favorites of yours. I'm so familiar with most that it doesn't always occur to me that outsiders have no idea how to say it.