How to pronounce WORCESTERSHIRE in American English? (Long video)

(There are 3 parts on how to pronounce Worcestershire correctly)

Pronounce Worcestershire — Part 1: WƱ (W + horseshoe u vowel)

Okay, so how do you actually pronounce Worcestershire in American English? The first part is the “WOR” = wʊ (w + horseshoe u vowel), like the word “wood” without the “d” at the end. It has the same vowel sound as that in cook, look, book, and so on. To make the “w” sound, make sure you round your lips and don’t bite your teeth on the bottom lip as some non-native speakers are prone to do. Then blow the air from there and roll in for the “horseshoe u / upsilon-looking” u vowel and you got the first part to this word. Many speakers do accidentally use the short u vowel instead of the horseshoe u vowel as in stuff, gum, etc, but remember it’s a vowel that is near the back of your mouth near the top of your mouth as in words like “pull, full, & good”.

Pronounce Worcestershire — Part 2: STUH (ST blend + short u vowel)

The second part to the word is the “CESTER” = STUH (ST blend + short u vowel). It is very tempting to just say “CESTER” like “SESTER”, but don’t fall for this trap! English is NOT Spanish remember? Though, through, thought, bomb, comb, should teach us enough that English is not a phonetic language! 🙁 Alright, I digress… So, quite simply, you want to make the “ST” blend with your teeth coming together to make the “S” sound and then putting your tongue behind the upper teeth gums and exploding off it to make the “T” sound and then going into a Short U sound as in “stuff, sun, sunny, gum, gun, etc.” The whole sum of all sound should work together to say “ST-UH” Go ahead and watch the previous video shared in this post to practice as much or as little as necessary to get the sound right. You can pause or slow it down to help you, which is very helpful for this word.

Pronounce Worcestershire — Part 3: SURE (SH + ER sound)

The third part to the word is the “SHIRE” = SURE (SH + ER sound). In British English, if this word is spoken on its own without any other words around it, then you can say it like it sounds, isn’t that nice? SHY-ER, like “fire” but with an “SH” instead of an “F”. Now you will be very familiar with this word because of movies like “Lord of the Rings” or the “The Hobbit“, because the ‘Hobbits’ are from the “Shire“. In fact, “Shire” just means county in England and Worcester is the actual town or city. Unfortunately the word Worcestershire — the “shire” has another word around it. If you see another word before “SHIRE” like in “Yorkshire” what you do is pronounce it “SHUH” in British English, so “Worcestershire” is actually pronounced “wʊ – stuh – shuh” to be exact in British English.

However, since this blog post is on how to correctly pronounce Worcestershire in American English, we have to change the last part “SHUH” –> “SURE” (Sh + er). In America, there is a beautiful state on the East coast that is called “New Hampshire.” Now, in American English, we don’t pronounce the last word “Shire” as in “SHY-ER”, but “SURE” like, “Can you help me? Sure, no problem.” Exactly like this. So now understanding that we turn “shire” into “sure“, we can piece all three parts together to say this infamous sauce perfectly.

Conclusion